Last week after my teleclass “How to turn your business card into a cash machine“, I received numbers of emails and questions from people asking me to help them use their business cards as marketing tools. The design and use of business cards seams to be a challenge for many solo-entrepreneurs.Schedule Your One-on-One Session NOW

In response to this need, I created a special ‘7-Day Action Plan’ to boost your business with your business card. In just one 2-hour individual phone consultation, I will help you to redesign your card and show you everything you can do to attract more clients with your business card. You will show you how to customize your business card to your specialty and your target market.

Your one-on-one session with The Connection Queen will be recorded so you can play it back as needed. Plus, you will receive your 7 Day Action Plan step-by-step workbook with assignments which will ensure you won’t miss a step.

Get the results you want with your new business card!

I’ve been a member of Biba’s program “TeamUp4Success Mastermind“ for over a year. When I started with Biba, I didn’t have a web site and was learning how to market my services and network effectively. Through working with Biba, there have been a lot of positive changes in the way I network and how to reach my target market. Also, I now have a web site for my business. Thank you. Jay Bennett

Jay Bennett Interiors
Interior Decorator
www.jbennettinteriors.com

“My focus as an interior decorator is to enhance any space in your home/office while saving my clients time and money on any size project. Jay Bennett can also help you avoid costly mistakes by coordinating ALL the different elements and by making sure that they all flow together.” Where Talent and Service Meet.

It happened again… I attended two networking events this week in Miami, and I met many people who did not have business cards. Having organized and attended networking events for the last six years, I am still surprised and amazed to see how many solo-entrepreneurs and small business owners don’t have professional business cards.

Your business card is your first marketing tool. But are you using it in the most effective way?

What Does Your Business Card Say About You?

Take a look at your card now. Does it include the key elements to give a professional image to your business?
-Does your card stand out from the crowd?
-Does your card give you the results you are expecting?
-Does your card say what you want it to say?
-Does your design work with your company image and the rest of your marketing materials?

If you answered no to one or more of these questions, join me for my free teleclass on August 19th at 8.00PM EDT “How to Turn Your Business Card into Cash by Attracting More Clients”

You will learn:-The 10 indispensable keys which MUST appear on your business card.
-How to design a memorable business card.
-How to maximize your #1 marketing tool.
-How to turn your business card into a referral program.
-How to make money and attract more clients.

Reserve Your Seat NOW

 As a small business owner, we have various marketing options to promote our business: advertising, telemarketing, direct mail. But my favorite is definitely networking. First, it is the most low cost marketing tool and second it is a way to build long-term relationships with people. If advertising can give you a great result in one shot, networking will bring you more in the long run.

Since 2003, when I started Biba4Network, I organized many business networking events, which were a great opportunity for me to meet a tremendous amount of people, make deals, get clients, make friends and learn from others entrepreneurs.

During those events I also noticed that a significant number of people had great products or services but just didn’t know how to present them. And as a result were not able to attract the clients they were looking for.

One of the keys to networking is to be able to introduce yourself and your business in 30 to 60 seconds or less, in one or two sentences, in a very concise way. In other words, you need to have a very efficient elevator pitch. You should be ready to deliver your elevator pitch in the blink of an eye at a moment’s notice.

But what is an elevator pitch?

An elevator pitch is a short presentation that introduces you and your business’s mission and makes you memorable. It focuses on the benefits you provide- and can be delivered in 30-60 seconds or less, even in an elevator, hence the name.If you are passionate, excited and eager to create and manage your own business, then you should be able to describe, in one or two brief and concise sentences, exactly what you do, why your offering is the best in the marketplace, and in effect, why the person should buy from you.

The best way to develop your elevator pitch is to summarize or list the most enticing, exciting and valuable benefits that your customers will get when they use your products and services.How can your products and services solve problems or meet needs?

An effective elevator pitch makes a lasting impression, demonstrates your professionalism and allows you to position yourself with your target customers.
Remember that your clients’s main concern is: “What benefits will I receive when I buy your product or service?” So when you prepare your elevator pitch always make sure that your audience need to answer this question “What’s In It for Me?”.

People are always more interested in how you can help them than in what you do or how they can help you.

Consider these points when you develop your elevator pitch:

1/ Write down the “deliverables”- the products, services and features that you provide. Then, analyze your offering and put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What good things will they get or what good things will happen to them when they make a purchase?

2/ Be specific. Use numbers and statistics when you can. For example, double your revenue in less than 12 months, achieve a 30% increase over last year, lose 20 pounds in 10 weeks, triple your number of subscribers in 5 days or less. People are driven by numbers because they add a sense of credibility to a claim. Numbers also generate curiosity and anxiety, another useful tool that motivates people to make a purchase.

3/ Never reveal your entire story in your elevator pitch. Highlight the main benefits your products and/or services provide, which will encourage people to ask questions and start the conversation.

4/ Create a tagline that will grab your listener’s attention and force him/her to stop what he/she is doing and listen to you. The most effective openers leave the audience seeking additional information. Compare your elevator pitch to the cover of your favorite magazine. Most likely, you’ll find the titles of the key stories in that issue. If the titles don’t grab your attention and raise your curiosity quickly, then you probably won’t buy that issue.

5/ Practice your elevator pitch to the point where you can recite the language with perfect ease, great confidence and clarity and total poise immediately. It is extremely important that you feel totally comfortable whenever you deliver your elevator pitch. Learn it; practice it; master it; but never read it. Your delivery must be very smooth and totally fluid.

Continually practice your elevator pitch in front of the mirror and before your friends until your Pitch becomes part of you.

So do you have a better idea? Are you ready to write your elevator pitch? Try this the next time you describe what you do. Choose your words. Hook your listener. Make them ask questions. Make them want to meet with you and buy your products and services.

Still having trouble writing your elevator pitch? You’re definitely not the only one. The good news is-I’ve developed a 7 Step Program that will help you to not only create your effective elevator pitch- but also redesign your business card so that it will be unique and memorable. Choose the best networking group for your business, create a follow-up system and create strategic alliances to maximize your networking results and boost your business.

To learn more about Powerofnetworkingsecrets.com Click here

If you read my newsletters and articles you know how important networking is for me and that I’m always giving tips to grow your business using networking effectively. When I start with a new client or if you get my program “Power of Networking Secrets”  the first 2 sessions are : 1. How to Choose Your Niche and Target Market, I talk about it on the newsletter last week and 2. How to Design a Memorable Business Card to Stand Out From the Crowd. Because your business card is your first marketing tool you want it to make the right impression. So I always mention ” Never leave the house without your business cards” because you can have THE best business card if you don’t have it with you it is useless. Since I do what I preach, of course I always carry my business cards with me.

Years ago, before teaching networking, I had the problem of going out without my business cards some time to time, especially when I was using a new hand bag. So today, I find the solution. I have about 30 handbags (I know, women we can be obsess with fashion sometimes) and carry 3 things in each of them: 1. A pen because you often need to take notes, well I do 2. Pills for my migraines, that can happen anytime, and 3. Business cards, then I just have to transfer my wallet from one bag to another depending on which one I use. Since I never leave the house without a hang bag I am always sure to have business cards with me and always ready to network.

Well almost, there is ONLY one place where I don’t take a handbag. When I go to the pool in my building! I didn’t think I would need one… until last weekend. As always on Saturday I went to the pool to spend the afternoon, one of my neighbors introduce me to one of his friends who was visiting for few days, his friend was from Switzerland so speaks French too. We started speaking about the weather, his vacation, and some bla bla until the question “And what do you do?” So I explained my consulting services for Europeans who come to start their business in the US or want to invest in real estate in Miami, mentioning how I build various networks and work with people like lawyers, bankers, CPA, real estate agents, mortgage brokers and other consultants.

He was suddenly very interested in since he was considering buying a condo in Miami, by the end of the year. So I happened to do a consultation while we were swimming, which was a first for me, but you never know when and where you will meet your next client. After two hours in the pool he had to leave, so of course he asked for my contact information and phone number. Guess what! I didn’t have my business cards with me and no pen and nothing to put my information down. That is when I realized that from now on, I will have my business cards with me EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME, even at the pool. Well lucky for me he was still there on Sunday, so I gave him my card the next day, still at the pool, but what would happened if I didn’t get the chance to see him again? I would lose a potential client.

Three days later, back in Switzerland he called me to start the process to help him to select and buy a condo.

So the lesson learned! NEVER EVER leave the house without your business cards. You definitely never know when and where you will meet your next client. Always be ready, to do business any time, in any circumstance. If others don’t have their business cards with them, you will be sure that you can give your contact information. People who need your product or service will be able to reach you, and more important you will never lose the opportunity to make a sale.

Need help with networking strategies? Check out my program, “Power of Networking Secrets” where I reveal my proven 7-Step Follow-Up system.

(c) 2008 Biba F. Pédron