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Networking events can be a bit overwhelming, and if you don’t know what you're doing, they can feel like a waste of time. Follow these 5 tips in order to get the best return on investment at a networking event.
Be Prepared
Look over the list of attendees if possible. If a name strikes your eye, Cydcor recommends checking out their LinkedIn profile, or other social media or website and find out a little more about him or her. It’s easier to strike up a conversation with someone you’ve never met if you come prepared and can ask them specific questions about their time working at Apple or if they enjoy being a sales manager.
Make sure you have several business cards on you to hand out when you meet people that you’d like to chat with again. You can even go higher-tech and use apps like Bump to share contact information. Also remember to bring pens and a small notebook or tablet; they can be helpful if you need to take notes or jot down a piece of advice.
Come Prepared with Goals
What are you hoping to get out of the event and learn from the people you meet? Whatever it is, make sure you figure this out before you attend the event – that way you’ll know what to bring up and the type of people to talk to. Since some networking events cost money, only attend the ones that will help you reach your goal.
Show Up On Time
Unless the event is a “come as you please” event, don’t be the one that shows up late. Chances are that if you are going to an event at a place you have never been before, it is going to take longer than Google Maps estimates. Look at the route beforehand, and give yourself an extra 10-15 minutes to find the place—and parking.
Check out our job openings on Cydcor's LinkedIn for more information on joining our company.
Don’t Throw Yourself at Everyone
No one likes the person who talks with everyone in the room for two minutes, gives them their contact information, and heads to the next person. Networking is about making real connections; it’s not a contest to see who can pass out the most business cards. If you don’t think someone will be a good connection, you don’t have to give him or her your card. On the other hand, take your time talking and getting to know people that could become valuable connections. You don’t need to spend a half hour chatting with someone, but learn a little more about the people you talk to than just his or her job title.
Follow Up
This is by far the most important tip for networking. Who cares if you dressed well and came prepared – if you don’t follow up, that relationship means nothing. Connect on LinkedIn or send a quick coffee invite. Relationships take time to cultivate so make the most out of what you started.
Motivation, despite our best intentions, is never a constant state. Everyone wants to achieve something in their life, but sometimes one can struggle with the desire to stay committed or to make the changes they know they need. Cydcor is a firm believer that getting your motivation back is key to achieving any goal. Here are five tips to help you whenever you feel stuck:
Inspiration. Find the source of your drive. Figure out what gets you fired up and in tune with yourself. It can be family, friends, music, exercise or even inspiring stories of others who have achieved a similar goal. Once you identify your source of inspiration, you can be assured in times of doubt that you know what can get you going again.
Realistic goals. One of the biggest reasons people find themselves setting up goals and not achieving them is that they set the bar too high. Don’t sabotage yourself by not being realistic. Set your major objective and have smaller steps along the way that can help you get there. Breaking it down into smaller, more manageable goals will help motivate you. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of being able check off a goal from your list and track the progress you’ve made.
Anticipate. When setting your objective, anticipate potential pitfalls that might occur and create solutions before the problem arises. A study done in 2009 regarding goals found that those who were taught to foresee obstacles were able to quickly find workarounds by having a back up plan already in place. By knowing in advance of potential hurdles, those who anticipated were then mentally committed to following their backup plan instead of becoming discouraged and giving up.
Step Back. While you move forward with your goal, sometimes stepping back can help you. You can gain clarity by stopping to re-evaluating your goals and remembering why you set them. This can help motivate you to move forward, and you’ll make better progress.
Find encouragement. Make a commitment to those around you by letting them in on what you’re trying to achieve. Telling others can get them excited for you and keep you accountable. Friends and family are excellent sources of motivation because they generate enthusiasm for your project. Most people are better at keeping promises and commitments to others than they are to themselves. Committing to others can make it more likely that you will reach your goals even when faced with challenges along the way.
Here is Cydcor's review of The Personal MBA: Master the Art of Business by Josh Kaufman.
About The Personal MBA: This is a pocket version of what you would learn in business school. Getting an MBA is a big commitment of both time and money. One book can’t replace an education, but The Personal MBA provides tools and resources to get you in the right direction to become a successful business leader. Josh Kaufman founded PersonalMBA.com as an alternative to the business school boondoggle. His blog has introduced hundreds of thousands of readers to the best business books and most powerful business concepts of all time. Now, he shares the essentials of entrepreneurship, marketing, sales, negotiation, operations, productivity, systems design, and much more, in one comprehensive volume. The book argues that true leadership comes from self-driven individuals and not from school.
Cydcor recommends this book to future leaders because: It explains the big concepts of navigating both the corporate world and the path of entrepreneurship. These concepts include The Iron Law of The Market (being limited to the size of your market and how to identify large, unsaturated ones), The 12 Forms of Value (many ways to create value for customers), The Pricing Uncertainty Principle (knowing how to support charging more), and 4 Methods to Increase Revenue (the ways in which you can earn more money for your business). The book covers the nuts and bolts of running a company, large or small.
Our favorite part: Kaufman provides a long list of examples of people who did not need an MBA to succeed in business. Quotes from prominent businessmen to motivate you is also a great help, and when you want more information, the book also contains a list of the “99 Best Business Books” for further learning.
Cydcor is the global leader in outsourced sales. Follow Cydcor today for more information on careers, sales and other business information.
This week Cydcor wanted to post a round-up of our favorite content on Cydcor Reviews, our book review site. Recommended for team members by team members.
Linchpin was written by marketing expert Seth Godin, who believes that finding career success today depends on learning how to market one’s self. Linchpins are an upcoming role in the world of tech, start-ups and the age of entrepreneurship. The linchpins are those that come up with new solutions, break the mold, and foster creativity in companies. Linchpin is about learning how to break out of the systemic roles traditionally in the workplace and implement new ideas where you work. Often, the linchpins are the indispensable people in the background, empowering others, but staying out of the spotlight. They often have a less specific role in the company, but rather focus on specific needs as the work scape morphs and changes. Godin believes everyone has something brilliant to offer, and being able to harness that brilliance and bring it to the workplace can equal success and happiness.
The Tipping Point by Malcom Gladwell is an in depth look at how ideas get made into wildly popular companies, books or trends. Everything from television shows to teen smoking, popularity of ideas is modeled like an epidemic. There are carriers, those that evangelize the idea and get people excited about it. Malcolm Gladwell explains that there are three types of people involved in spreading an idea: connectors, mavens and salespeople. Connectors are people with a wide social network that are good at creating communities to rally for the concept. Mavens are knowledgeable experts that enjoy educating the public on their area of expertise. Salespeople are gifted at drumming up excitement for new things.
Lincoln by David Herbert covers the life of Abraham Lincoln, the 16th president of the United States. Lincoln was raised in rural Indiana in a poor household. The book follows Lincoln’s perspective as he picked himself up through poverty and through political savvy made his way into prominence quickly. The book examines his character, his key advisors, and reveals his human flaws as well as his greatness. Biographies and autobiographies are excellent sources of inspiration for anyone looking to achieve professional goals. Lincoln is an especially beloved figure for Americans because he was raised in poverty and came from a disadvantage to well educated men raised in wealthy homes in cities.
Competitive Advantage is a model for creating and managing an enterprise successfully. Porter offers tools for analysis that are taught in MBA programs around the country. Michael Porter is a professor at Harvard Business School, and lectures and writes prolifically on managing a business. Tactics such as the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis teaches critical thinking that is crucial to successfully leading a company. Porter also discusses strategy at length, and helps businesses to either produce a scale economy or define a niche that will keep them profitable.
Onward is the story of how Starbucks Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz turned Starbucks around after a downturn in financial performance. Schultz explains that while the recession definitely had an impact in the loss in profits for the massive international coffee and specialty company, the biggest factor was a shift in company culture. Onward explains Shultz’ decision to return to the CEO position after a departure to implement a hands on strategy to bring his company to its most profitable year ever. Between 2008 and 2011, Starbucks was able to find its way again and Schultz continues to lead it to record profits every year.
Want to learn more about Cydcor? Check us out on the Cydcor LinkedIn page for our career advice, job news and more.
In a sales-driven environment like Cydcor, meetings are powerful tools. Bringing people together to share energy and announcements is a good team. Since our business focuses so much on building personal relationships, our team members benefit from face to face communication whenever time allows. Sales meetings are the best vehicles to unite and energize your team, and make sure that important information is conveyed.
So how do you conduct effective sales meetings for your business? You must start by defining the purpose and structure of the meeting. Time is an investment from your team, so it is important to make an effort to make the meeting worthwhile. A solid agenda and time budget will keep meetings productive and focused. Sales meetings should not last more than an hour in order to make sure all information is retained and your team has time to get back to serving clients. Always make sure to start the meeting on time instead of waiting for stragglers. If everyone knows the meetings always start promptly as scheduled, they will make sure to hustle. This will also reward punctual team members with respect instead of making them wait.
Start the meeting with a high energy, encouraging talk. Be sure to thank your team for being there, and incorporate positive reasons why the meeting works. This will wake people up and make them feel appreciated. Express gratitude for the stand out performers. Let your team know how your vision is being executed and celebrate the things that are good. Do not focus on the challenges during sales meetings, rather focus on the purpose of the meeting, which is to motivate the team.
Move down the agenda in a timely manner and then reserve 5-10 minutes for questions or appreciations.
What’s the best meeting you’ve been to? What did you like about it?
Follow Cydcor on LinkedIn for more tips and inspiration.
The Cydcor team decided to review Permission Marketing by Seth Godin
Description of this book: Permission Marketing refers to what is now termed as “inbound marketing”, which is a way to build a business where customers are coming to you based on your presence, reputation and word of mouth. Sellers use permission marketing to get the right message to the right people in a way that is desirable to them, rather than blasting a ton of generic content to a mass market. Sometimes, making a sale is not about insistence, but rather respecting that customers choose to give sellers and marketers their precious attention, and understanding that their attention is a valuable thing not to be wasted. The way to permission marketing is making promises for the customer and then establishing trust by following through on those promises.
Cydcor encourages team members to take this message to heart- customers are to be respected and their needs met.Cydcor recommends this book to marketers and business people because: The best message of the book is humility and patience. Permission marketing means sellers need to craft a message that is valuable to consumers and worthy of their attention. This message has to be a genuine offer, and when that agreement is settled, it is important the seller not ask for more without also offering more. Seth Godin writes in an easy to understand, no-nonsense manner that makes his message simply make sense.Our favorite part: “A Permission Marketer goes on a date. If it goes well, the two of them go on another date. And then another. Until, after ten or twelve dates, both sides can really communicate with each other about their needs and desires. After twenty dates they meet each other's families. Finally, after three or four months of dating, the Permission Marketer proposes marriage.”
Cydcor is a leading sales company that specializes in face-to-face relationships and professional development. Follow Cydcor on LinkedIn or Twitter for more professional development advice. Want to work for Cydcor? Find our openings on the Cydcor Careerbuilder page today.
Everyone has friends that say, “Oh I just watch the Super Bowl for the commercials.” Indeed, big game advertising is easily the largest ad-spending day of the year, up 70% in the last ten years. Between production cost and airtime, one ad can cost a company $10 million to air. As a sales company, the team at Cydcor is fascinated by the tactics companies take to build their brands, and the commercials are informative as they are fun. Here are our takeaways from Cydcor:
Social Media is huge. Brands and Twitter users live-tweeted the game, commenting immediately on the commercials, sending companies real-time feedback. Many were hoping to strike lightening and garner new followers and make headlines the way Oreo did last year.
Generation Y loves nostalgia and sarcasm. From the hilarious “commercial that never was” online campaign from Newcastle to seeing the men of Full House on a Chobani ad, the marketing this year was clearly targeted to children of the 90’s.
People will engage with your brand for a chance to win. Esurance led the biggest post-game trend by announcing it was giving away $1.5 million to a tweeter using the hashtag #EsuranceSave30.
Puppies are still a viable tactic. Even one of the most masculine brands could not resist using puppies as a ploy. The adorable story of a puppy that is best “buds” with the iconic Clydesdale horse was enough to make anyone swoon. Sometimes just being cute pays off.
The bigger the purchase, the bigger the ad. Car commercials were the biggest production, featuring Jaguar comparing their product to the cunning and precision of British villains and James Franco being dramatically awesome for Ford. It makes sense that companies asking consumers to make such a large purchase would have the most memorable ads. It’s a good reminder that larger sales prospects require more effort.
What did you learn about sales and advertising this weekend? Did you have a favorite commercial? Let Cydcor know on Twitter!
Description of this book: Cydcor knows Michael Porter has long been considered a top business expert and leader, and this book is his signature piece of work. Competitive Advantage is a model for creating and managing an enterprise successfully. Porter offers tools for analysis that are taught in MBA programs around the country. Michael Porter is a professor at Harvard Business School, and lectures and writes prolifically on managing a business.
Cydcor recommends this book to leaders because: Tactics such as the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats analysis teaches critical thinking that is crucial to successfully leading a company. Porter also discusses strategy at length, and helps businesses to either produce a scale economy or define a niche that will keep them profitable. The danger for companies is to get stuck in the middle- trying to hard to please everybody, not sticking to the chosen strategy one hundred percent can lead to high costs and low or no profits. The book is filled with many real life examples of businesses either failing or executing a strong strategy based on “market signals”, which indicate the way an industry is moving and allows good executives to anticipate opportunities.
Our favorite part: Porter stresses over and over that businesses need to focus on goals and strategy in order to be successful. Business does not have to follow every trend of what is popular. Shoe makers do not have expand into technology. Strong business strategy and profits is not always about having the biggest or best idea, but rather identifying its place in a market and doing things different from the competition.
Cydcor is a leading sales company that specializes in face-to-face relationships and professional development. Follow Cydcor on LinkedIn or Twitter for more professional development advice.
According to Oracle, sales people spent 78% of their time looking for leads. That leaves very little time for actual selling, especially when relationship building is so crucial to making the sale. So how can one manage leads and spend more time selling? Here are some tips from Cydcor Sales Blog.
Start by organizing your leads into categories of likelihood. One for people who have bought from you before. Two for people who have expressed interest. Three for people you think would really benefit from your product or service. And four for completely cold leads. Categories one and two should take up most of your time, building relationship.
Think of the 80/20, which says that eighty percent of sales come form twenty percent of our clients. Many sales people and entrepreneurs alike are happier and more profitable when they make the most time for happy, enduring customers. That is why it is crucial to structure and evolve your business in a way that will bring in streams of income from your best customers. Whether that is a continued service, multiple services or new products, one must keep core clients happy and interested.
When generating new leads, stay within your network. You may need to cold call sometimes, but be smarter about it. Instead of spending time making calls to a list of a thousand, do research on a hundred and know why they need your business before you call. You will come off as more diligent, certain and provide your lead with information more relevant to them than a script. It also gives you time to ask questions.
If you need new perspective on what your customers are looking for, take a few past customers or customers of your competition out to lunch. Ask them what they like about their experience as a customer. Focus on the traits you hear in positive feedback and make them your main selling points. Take the time to build strategy around who your customers are and what they really need.
Cydcor is the leading expert in outsourced sales. To learn more about Cydcor, click here.
The Heavy Hitter Sales Blog recently reported on the seven types of sales managers. We wanted to review the types and then ask you what type you may fall under and which manager you prefer to have. So here they are!
For more detail, read Steve W. Martin's post on the seven types of sales managers over at the Heavy Hitters blog.
Cydcor announced that the company has been selected as one of the “Best Places to Work in the San Fernando Valley” by the San Fernando Valley Business Journal for the second year in a row.
Cydcor was one of 30 employers selected out of 75 registered to participate in this year’s competition and was judged based on employee satisfaction, benefits, internal working conditions, and the quality of local management.
“We’re excited and honored that Cydcor was chosen for this prestigious recognition,” said Gary Polson, chief executive officer of Cydcor. “We strive to provide an atmosphere where our team members feel totally engaged, energized, and have the ability to unleash their passion and brainpower. They are the backbone of our business and we are beyond appreciative for the hard work, ideas, and results they produce daily.”
Cydcor has been in operation since 1994 and provides top-tier programs and services to its team members. These include:
Special emphasis on volunteerism. The company offers every team member a paid “volunteer day,” giving them the opportunity to volunteer at the organization of their choice.
Yearly participation in the Ventura County Corporate games. In early 2009, the company participated in the Harbor Wetlands Restoration Project, where they were one of the first to assist in the creation of the Ventura Harbor Ecological Reserve.
An opportunity to have lunch with the CEO. Team members, chosen at random, are selected to have lunch with the CEO and a select few colleagues every month.
Online learning opportunities and training. All team members have access to a variety of online learning opportunities and training, available at any time from the convenience of their PCs.
Focus on professional development. Franklin Covey time management system training is provided to all new hires as well as all-team training in a variety of individual and management development methodologies, working with companies such as the Ken Blanchard Companies and Covey.
Competitive health care benefits. This includes the option to select from several HMO and PPO plans. An employee assistance program, competitive 401K, and paid flex day are also available to all team members.
A dynamic and employee-focused atmosphere. Monthly staff meetings are held to update all team members on the status of the company.
Cydcor, along with the other winning companies, will be recognized at an award reception on August 19 at the Sheraton Universal Hotel in Universal City. At the reception, the rankings of the 30 companies, grouped by totally number of employees, will be unveiled. Cydcor will also be included in the August 2009 special edition of the San Fernando Valley Business Journal, which will profile the companies selected.