If you make $50,00 a year and you live to your means and spend $50,000, you have no room for error. In other words, when those inevitable breakdowns happen, you get stressed and have to scramble for the extra money. Life gets a little bit tougher. Don’t the dishwasher and car transmission fail at the worst possible times? Typically, as we make more money, we spend more money because isn’t that the reason we strived to make more money in the first place? We’re vulnerable to the consumer mindset, and the advertising mavens know this: they prey upon our weakness.

Networking on the margin is as stressful and detrimental as living on the financial margin. You go out to events, shake hands, pass out cards, chitchat and move on to the next event. Once you go to one mixer, sure enough you’ll be invited to others and as you gain momentum, you’ll see your weekdays and nights filling up with events.

At first you feel great: Most of us are social animals who like to be included in groups because it strengthens our sense of belonging and self esteem. Soon, however, you’re likely to find yourself with no down time to follow up and strengthen those valuable relationships that you’d made so much effort to initiate in the first place.

The margin allows for those spontaneous meetings that often come up because someone wants to review an idea or project with you. How can you have time for those unplanned events when you’re rushing around from one group meeting to the next? If you try to squeeze everything in, you end up shortchanging your business and family because you won’t have enough energy to juggle everything. Networking and allowing yourself time to follow up, make calls and spontaneously set up meetings with key contacts is only possible when you have allotted scheduled gaps of time to be free.

The margin in your life, whether it’s financial, networking, relationships or whatever you invest your energy into is that gap of resources that you don’t allocate, that you leave open and free to allow for the unplanned events which happen in life.

My feeling is that special things happen in the “margin” because since circumstances and our energies are always shifting, it allows you to accommodate for those events in a stress-free fashion.

Living below your means, only keeping a handful of close relationships near you, networking within your capacity to follow up and build strong relationships makes life much more manageable and productive.

Lester M. Salvatierra has 15 years experience as a licensed Finance Specialist with First U.S. Finance (http://www.FirstUSFinance.com). He helps small to mid-size companies lease or finance a wide variety of equipment and special projects nationwide. He is passionate about referral marketing and is a business networking coach in Ventura County, California. Sign up now to follow his business networking blog at: http://theRogueNetworker.com

Your word-of-mouth networking strategy may not be enough to help you reach your business goals.

There, I’ve said it.

For you super-ambitious business people out there who aren’t seeing the results you’d anticipated after running around from chamber meeting to mixer to ribbon-cutting to your networking group meetings, it’s time to stop and reevaluate your overall strategy.

I am the number-one advocate for marketing by referral and word-of-mouth. I truly believe that for your business to be successful, word-of-mouth must be a component of your marketing strategy. But it can’t be the only part of your strategy unless you plan to retire soon.

As part of an informal study, I spoke to my local chiropractor recently and learned that he gets a steady stream of business from his networking group — the only form of marketing he does consistently. He gets excellent results, but he’s the exception. Why? Because when I researched a little deeper, I found that my chiropractor happens to belong to a networking group that consists of seasoned business professionals who are all very active with their marketing and community involvement. The chiropractor benefits because his “team” has a multitude of marketing channels other than network marketing that bring many opportunities to his plate. But what if? What if this weren’t the case? His results could be completely different.

My second study was a massage therapist who was in a group less dynamic than the one to which the chiropractor belongs.  Although she gets a few referrals a month, and is involved in many aspects of her chapter, her business was stagnant. Yet she has continued plodding along: going to more mixers, events and networking meetings because it had been drilled into her that networking is all that she needs for her to be as successful as she envisions herself to be. She doesn’t advertise online or in print or any other way, and she has been adamant in continuing to do what she’s been doing. Her networking was not working and after some long discussions with her, she realized that she needed to get her brand out in the community on a wider, more intense scale.

A Multi-Pronged Approach

Finally, I spoke with an attorney who’s been in his networking group for several years. His chapter averages about 25 members. This attorney is always upbeat, energetic and seemingly very busy. I discussed with him how he achieved his level of success, and he detailed his well thought-out marketing strategy, which included email campaigns, social media that include regular blogging and article-writing, and marketing his website with search-engine optimization. He also engages in direct print-mail advertising and is a regular guest expert for his local radio station. This attorney has basically blitzed the local market with his message from a variety of angles and it has worked quite well for him. Though his networking group got him some of his best accounts, his other media marketing also brought him considerable business. His marketing mix never left him vulnerable; when one channel slowed down, the others were still producing new sales leads for him.

We cannot rely on one medium or channel to build up and promote our businesses for the long term. If you put all your chips on network marketing, then you may not reach the level of success you aspire to reach. I see my networking peers year-in and year-out doing the same thing, attending their same networking events yet not really making any progress and quietly complaining about it behind closed doors. Some have gotten into the habit of doing what they do that they hardly even try to make solid connections anymore. Why? Because telling people about your business and how great your service is and how experienced you are demands using several marketing channels to be truly effective. Take a step back and evaluate your product or service

How broad of a potential customer base are you trying to reach and how many outlets of marketing are you using to reach that segment? It you are only using one or two avenues, then it may be time to expand and explore more strategies to reach your goals.

Lester M. Salvatierra is an experienced and licensed Finance Specialist with First U.S. Finance (http://www.FirstUSFinance.com). He helps small to mid-size companies lease or finance a wide variety of equipment and special projects nationwide. He is passionate about referral marketing and is a business networking coach and Area Director Consultant for Business Network Int’l in Ventura County, California. Sign up now to follow his business networking blog at: http://theRogueNetworker.com

To work in the finance services industry, whether it be financial or estate planning or business financing, requires that individuals establish trust with their clients. A great deal of trust. The kind of trust that permits a person to disclose the nature of his or her worldly possessions to someone else, to follow that person’s advice and be guided by that person in making key personal and business decisions. Such decisions can resonate throughout one’s life.

Successful financial professionals traditionally have been required to invest years and years in establishing themselves and their brand, and in building trust. In the past, you didn’t get into the financial industry unless you were prepared to devote a good portion of your life to it. Eventually, if you were around for 20 years or so, people (and clients) probably figured that you’d been doing something right to last that long.

Networking

Becoming successful in financial services requires that you learn, understand and follow the core values of networking. Every business, even specialized ones such as equipment financing, can truly benefit from building a strong network based on competence, connections and accountability. But since trust is so keenly vital to financial services, it’s particularly relevant here.

Professional networking organizations such as Business Networking International (BNI) are based on the concept of “givers gain”: I give you business and you will reciprocate. At the heart of that is trust. Each person must trust the other to do the right thing, both with their intentions and capabilities. Business networking can accelerate the development of trust among our peers and networks because by following a system such as BNI’s, you will learn to develop targeted skills in the pursuit of new business opportunities. Skills that guide you in how to act, dress, what to say and to do the key things that will elevate the trust factor and your reputation much more quickly than if you waited for it to happen on its own.

A financial planner told me once he didn’t need to network because he had regular business referred to him by his old friends. I asked him how long did it take to develop his business and contacts and he replied, “Thirty years.” Who has that much time to build a network, let alone a business? Why not build the same devoted network on a much faster pace with highly predictable results?

A finance specialist or broker or any person in the financial industry can build his or her name and reputation with a consistent dedicated effort in few short years as opposed to the decades it use to take. This is a key consideration for any profession that requires a high trust factor to be successful.

Build a diversified network, develop trust within it follow-up with contacts and colleagues and connections on a regular basis and you can establish a foundation for long-term success. Business networking and financial services such as equipment financing are on the same side of success.

Lester M. Salvatierra is an experienced and licensed Finance Specialist with First U.S. Finance (http://www.FirstUSFinance.com). He helps small to mid-size companies lease or finance a wide variety of equipment and special projects nationwide. He is passionate about referral marketing and is a business networking coach and Area Director Consultant for Business Network Int’l in Ventura County, California. Sign up now to follow his business networking blog at: http://theRogueNetworker.com

Some businesspeople seem to have all the luck. The right people just seem to put themselves in the path of these lucky folks, ready to introduce them to those who will give them all the business they could ever desire. Do you know any people like this? Then you should also know that it’s likely more than just luck that brings a deluge of referrals their way. These people likely have built strong Power Teams for themselves.

A Power Team is a group people of “complementary” professions. They work with the same clients, but do not take business away from each other. Great examples of these are easily found in the real estate and wedding industries. A realtor, mortgage broker, building inspector, title agency and real estate attorney all service clients looking to purchase property. A wedding planner, photographer and florist are among the many professions that cater to the bride-to-be. If these professions form a Power Team, when one person in the team gets business, he or she can refer the client to every other member in the Team.

Selecting and Cultivating

So it’s more than just luck. Successful business people have the ability to select and cultivate mutually beneficial relationships with high-quality people in strategically important business categories, and this ability is a core competency for maximum success in networking.

So how do you cultivate such relationships? It’s vital that you find out as much as possible about your Power Partners so that you can send the right kind of business their way. You need to learn what makes your Power Team partner special as a person, as well as how to recognize your partner’s best prospects.

As a result, you can be an effective “Bragging Buddy” for your partners. As a Bragging Buddy, your job is to help prospects like, trust and want to do business with your Power Team…while they are doing the same thing for you!

Here are the 10 important questions you should ask your Power Team partner, as well as some tips for helping you take full advantage of the information you gain:

1. How did you get started in your business?

This is a great icebreaker question. Sometimes knowing what motivated your networking partner to get into his or her particular business enables you to give stronger testimonials about him or her.

2. What do you enjoy most about what you do?

Telling a prospect that your networking partner loves what he or she does and why, with details and stories, is very important in helping the prospect “like” your Power Team partner.

3. What separates you or your company from the competition?

Try to use “bullet points” to illustrate to a prospect quickly and easily why you can be trusted to do a good job.

4. What advice would you give someone starting out in your business?

Asking someone for advice shows respect and is essential for building credibility with your networking partner on the road to profitability.

5. What are the coming trends in your business or industry?

If your Power Team partner has detailed information and strategies on how to profit from upcoming trends, you might learn something of value. Conversely, if your networking partner is too preoccupied with daily business to have any input here, it is an opportunity for you to help him or her with any trends you see that might affect the business. Build rapport by taking an active interest in your Power Team partner’s business.

6. What strategies have you found to be the most effective in promoting your business?

This question leads to brainstorming for each other’s business and stimulates the exchange of marketing and promotion ideas, as well as business-building in general.

7. If there were anything about your business or industry you could change, what would that be?

This question, in addition to building rapport, allows your Power Team partner to discuss business freely and provides you with the opportunity to suggest solutions or at least gain a better understanding of the challenges he or she faces.

8. What is the next big event coming up for you?

This question almost always results in referral opportunities if you follow up correctly.

9. What is your biggest challenge at the moment?

The answer will provide insight into your networking partner’s business and life to help you understand him or her more as a person, as well as possibly uncovering money on the table with referral opportunities for the Power Team.

10) What type of customers are you looking for?  How will I recognize a good prospect for you? What are some specific situations are your targeted prospects experiencing?

Okay, this is really three questions. In essence, the more vivid picture your networking partner paints of who and what he or she is looking for, the greater the probability that you will recognize the targeted prospects, give a compelling testimonial and create a money-making referral.

Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization. His newest book, Networking Like a Pro, can be viewed at www.IvanMisner.com. Dr. Misner is also the Senior Partner of the Referral Institute, an international referral training company.

A business college professor drilled into us that we should always “narrow our focus and stick to it.” Like many such business guidelines it made sense, but recently it really hit home.

I have friends in various businesses — health insurance, financial planning, mortgage lending, business consulting and a host of other professions — and in speaking to them over the last year, I’ve realized that each of us has approached, or been presented with, the opportunity to participate in projects or service requests that fall outside of our normal specialty. When business is less-than-full capacity, the first inclination is to take any business you can get your hands on. Why not? If you have spare time to do it then why shouldn’t you go after other similar types of business?

The issue is that when you do something outside of your core service, you’ve usually got a learning curve, which involves time. You can’t simply hang a new product on your shingle. You have to know and learn about it at some level to sell it with any competence. If you get enough of this same type of business, which initially did not fall in your main lineup of products, then you can perhaps consider making it one of your regular service offerings and you have automatically broadened your product business scope. Instead of just selling widgets A, B and C, now you have A, B, C, D and E to sell. If all of them are aimed at the same market group and they naturally blend in together you have a good mix. Nevertheless, you need to be aware that you now have five products instead of three. This will increase your marketing expense.

A friend of mine who’s a printer is a successful example of a good mix: He started with standard paper printing products and now offers specialty imprinted items, banners and even car wraps. The blend of related products has been profitable for him.

Pulled in Different Directions

A problem arises when you get requests from different directions that don’t speak to your core service or product or specialty. In the effort to get more business and satisfy more customers, you gradually become the jack of all trades and the master of none. Viewed from the outside, the perception will be that you cannot survive focused on one main thing so you have to do many and your integrity and reputation suffers.

One gentleman I’ve known for years offered financing for various projects, then he added merchant card services and a few months later he included home mortgage financing. Just recently in speaking with him, he justified his strategy by saying that if he offered enough services, then he wouldn’t have to say no to anyone. After that, he added immigration services in helping immigrants get properly documented. He was like the fisherman with 20 poles in the water. The problem was that each pole was in a different lake!

Here are 3 guidelines to avoid falling into the “I can do it all” category:

1. Identify your core services and products. What do you really want to do and what do you excel in? Identify your experiences and strengths and market only what you do best. If you are good at analyzing financial documents and think logically, then don’t try selling prepaid legal services or including them in what you do. Solidifying an “elevator pitch” will help you narrow your focus because if you can’t state your core business in a couple of sentences, then you either don’t know what your focus is or you’re spread too thin. Become the specialist and avoid becoming the generalist.

2. Learn to say “no.” If you spend enough time networking, you’re going to be approached to add some service or market some product or perhaps add a new feature to your core business. Be firm in letting people know you are only focusing on your core expertise. Even attending an information seminar on something that doesn’t fit within your business model or area of service is a waste of time. Discipline yourself to stay on track.

3. If you feel inclined to add a new service, then always test-market it, and add no more than one new service at a time. By adding only one element, you keep your test phase manageable and, more importantly, you do not appear to be flaky and jumping around from service to service to your clients. Your goal is to always add another service that will help your clientele and improve what you already do for them. The test phase will also help you evaluate if there is a sustainable market for your new product or if it will appeal only to a few additional clients.

In the interest of efficiency, you don’t want to pursue a tiny market with little growth potential. In a sluggish economy, people scramble to make ends meet and tend to accumulate more “add-ons” to their standard product line. On the surface, this seems fine, but it will distract and take away time and effort from your core strengths.

During slower periods, it makes better sense to re-focus on and improve your main business. What can you do to boost your main services and what new markets can you penetrate? Can you partner with an adjunct business to pool a marketing strategy? These are all questions you should be asking yourself to keep your core business intact and on target.

Lester M. Salvatierra is an experienced and licensed Finance Specialist with First U.S. Finance. He helps small to mid-size companies lease or finance a wide variety of equipment and special projects nationwide. He is passionate about referral marketing and is a business networking coach and Area Director for Business Network Int’l in Ventura County, California. Sign up now to follow his business networking blog at: http://theRogueNetworker.com

BNI Area Director

Have you ever sat through a group meeting and thought to yourself, “I could really run this meeting more effectively,” or “If I were in charge, I wouldn’t do it that way…?”

We’ve probably all had thoughts like this because it’s easier to be a sideline coach than to be the person actively engaged in an activity and responsible for its outcome. Many groups are made up of critics rather than doers. I’m not surprised when, walking out of a networking or business meeting, I hear someone remark how great the meeting would have been if only so and so had done it this way. My knee-jerk reaction is to suggest to the person go ahead and take charge instead of complaining and see if it’s as simple as they think.

A leadership role in any type of group, whether it’s your business networking group, religious organization or hobby-related club, places you in a position to balance the needs and wants of many people while striving to accomplish a main goal.

Pulled in different directions while trying to stay on course is challenging but this is where the personal growth happens and the longer you stay at it, the more social maturity and wisdom is derived from it. Being the focal point of attention, gaining the respect of others, learning people-skills while being in charge is what many people in business strive for but few will actually take the leap into becoming a president, vice-president, team leader or moderator. Why?

Building Character

During a presentation, I asked 25 colleagues in a networking group to raise their hands if they were interested in building character and quickly improving their people skills. The whole room did. Then I explained that the fastest way to build these attributes and skills was to take on a leadership role, and would anyone still be interested? Only a few hands stayed up.

Why don’t we have more leaders? The answer is a threefold resistance. Responsibility is the first area of resistance to taking on leadership.

It’s the responsibility of the leader for organizing the group, getting the job done and working to ensure that things turn out well. You are the person that people will turn to for answers when things don’t turn out as expected. Leaders put themselves and their integrity on the line. This can be a heavy burden.

Work is the second area of resistance in leadership. The work involved is always way more than expected; I’ve never heard someone say it was less work than he or she anticipated.

The third and most significant part of the answer is fear; fear of failing, not doing a good job or not doing as good a job as the previous leader. Fear that we don’t measure up, that we will appear foolish or inadequate; it’s a type of stage fright that theatre people deal with regularly. It’s also something that speaks to uncertainty about one’s own skills. And this uncertainty is often unfounded.

Encountering the Childish

People contemplating a leadership role should understand that in managing a group of adults you will encounter the childish whiners, critics, supporters, spectators, those who engage and those who may undermine your efforts.

Once you understand roles that people play, it becomes easier to manage and work with them because you begin to understand their priorities. Aren’t these the same “characters” you meet in life, in a business deal or on vacation?

As a leader, you learn to compromise, adjust your agenda, and drive toward a specific target in mind. Incredible judgment can be developed as a leader and worth taking on the role at least once in your life. You may not be as effective as you thought but you will have learned a tremendous amount about yourself, other people and group dynamics.

Lester M. Salvatierra is an experienced and licensed Finance Specialist with First U.S. Finance. He helps small to mid-size companies lease or finance a wide variety of equipment and special projects nationwide. He is passionate about referral marketing and is a business networking coach and Area Director for Business Network Int’l in Ventura County, California. Sign up now to follow his business networking blog at: http://theRogueNetworker.com

I’d like to offer some perspective on business networking between men and women on the eve of the publication of Dr. Ivan Misner’s new book, “Business Networking and Sex.” Well, it’s not really quite the eve of the debut of his new book, since it won’t be out until 2012, but it’s a hot topic that I’ve often heard various networking groups discuss, and now is as good a time as any.

The core of networking — and really the heart of referral marketing — consists of the one-on-one personal meetings that BNI defines as “dance cards.” It’s not the furious passing out of business cards at your local mixer or chamber event that creates credibility for you and your business: It’s the actual personal sit-down, face-to-face interaction you have with your potential referral partner. This is where you create rapport and you learn what drives and motivates the other person.

A Los Angeles Times article (Social networking ‘success’ doesn’t extend to offline relationships) noted that your social and business online relationships do not establish the intimacy and credibility that your personal meetings do. It’s much more powerful and meaningful to sit with someone for an hour and discuss each other’s businesses, and articulate key concerns and goals, than it is to click “like” on someone’s profile. The face-to-face meeting is not about to be replaced any time soon.

How about networking with the opposite sex? What are the key considerations when networking with the other gender? Is it the same when networking with your same-gender counterpart? A married person and a single person have to measure the obvious potential dangers of networking together. Without careful consideration, you could easily find yourself in an awkward situation that could potentially affect both your credibility and integrity.

Here are four great guidelines to keep you on a productive course yet safe from the potential pitfalls when networking with the opposite sex.

1) Keep your meeting times early, either breakfast or lunch. Don’t schedule after-hours connections or a quick glass of wine with the opposite sex. After-hours meetings take on a more relaxed tone and can easily drag on longer than intended and you could be sending mixed signals to your potential business partner. All this can be avoided by scheduling yourself earlier in the day and avoiding happy hour.

2) Set your initial meetings for exactly 45 minutes to an hour. No matter how well it’s going, the initial discovery contact should not extend beyond your set time. Let your partner know you have a schedule. This will help keep your business meeting focused on the details of the goals for each person. Allowing unlimited time may open the door for your conversation to drift into non-business related topics. Plus, you will not appear to be a busy, dynamic professional. Let your partner know your schedule and stick to it.

3) Watch your filter. Single people: Don’t let your personal chitchat drift into describing the wild party you attended the previous weekend or how many people you’re dating. In other words, do not become a distraction or temptation to your partner. Married people: Certainly mention your wife or husband and kids, but leave out the monotony of your life and complaints about your spouse. Save such shoulder-crying for your buddies and don’t open yourself up to being consoled. Your business persona mixed with some of your personal details make you human. Share hobbies and interests, but do not go beyond that; this will help maintain that emotional boundary and keep you in safe waters.

4) Set the tone. Show how serious you take the other person by doing some background research on him or her and his or her company. Have some specific questions ready. This is standard protocol for anyone with whom you network, but it’s particularly important when networking with the opposite sex. Compliment the other person on his or her capabilities and achievements and avoid the “I love your dress” or “You look so young” type of remarks that move you quickly off your business agenda. An associate of mine likes to print out the person’s webpage or LinkedIn profile and use that as a reference to keep his meetings on track and lets the other person know you are a serious networker.

Networking with the opposite sex requires sensitivity and a clear awareness that even though you are both business professionals, being opposite genders poses some potential risks you should avoid. I’ve heard stories from both sides on how devastating it can be when one person gives out mixed signals or takes the agenda in the wrong direction. Steer clear of the pitfalls and gain the other person’s trust and quickly build up your reputation in your local networking community by following to a few simple guidelines.

Lester Salvatierra is an experienced Finance Specialist with First U.S. Finance (http://www.FirstUSFinance.com). He helps small to mid-size companies lease or finance a wide variety of equipment and special projects for upgrades and expansions. He is also a networking pro and BNI Area Director in Ventura County, CA. Lester@FirstUSFinance.com Ph: 805-217-9896

Be selfish with your business and grow faster than you ever thought possible.

Business selfishness is good, positive, and helps you build your client base quickly. Personal selfishness is not positive and many of us know the negative repercussions of living a lifestyle of not giving back to others. So what is being selfish in business all about? How will it help me grow? Here are a few tips.

§  Be selfish with your time. Focus part of each day and week to personal growth. How can you service your clients and offer the best products if you’re not up to date with current skills and knowledge in your industry? Keep learning and growing by attending workshops, seminars, conventions, and reading updated journals and engaging in tutorials. Only by being selfish with your time and scheduling segments of your week to improve as a professional can you stay sharp and remain competitive in the marketplace.

§  Be selfish with your product line or services. Never let your products go “stale”: Constantly try to improve them, make them more efficient and effective while keeping the cost fair and competitive. A product or service that looks the same as it did two years ago most likely is not current nor the best you can give your customers. Keep up with the evolving demand, it keeps on morphing because we, as consumers, are conditioned to seeing improvements and enhancements with everything we use and spend money on. Obsolescence is at the highest rate it has ever been and the trend is unlikely to change.

§  Be selfish with your clients. Protect your customers by keeping their contact information private and confidential. Spoil them with each “touch” by giving them the best service possible, always going beyond what you promise to deliver. Treating them like family, which is distinctly different than how you treat your prospects. This keeps your retention rate high and profitable for the long run. As you may know, it takes many more resources to get new clients than it does in keeping the ones you already have. Offer value by updating them on important industry changes or trends, package special programs for them, and give them “insider” discounts for their loyalty. Let them know they are special and they will stick with you even when the economy takes a dip.

Being selfish with your business obviously doesn’t mean not sharing; it means focusing on the key elements that are crucial to your long-term success. Set aside the secondary priorities to make sure that what you offer, who you are, and how your clients perceive you is as a genuine and caring professional.

Business selfishness will lead to success by always improving who you are and what you offer.

Lester Salvatierra is an experienced Finance Specialist with First U.S. Finance (http://www.FirstUSFinance.com). He helps small to mid-size companies lease or finance a wide variety of equipment and special projects for upgrades and expansions. He is also a networking pro and BNI Area Director in Ventura County, CA. Lester@FirstUSFinance.com Ph: 805-217-9896

It’s going to take an investment of at least two to three years to build a good diversified contact database.

It takes time, but it’s worth it. To build your contacts, you’ll have to attend an average of five to seven networking events per month. Your event mix should include chamber, civic, professional group, referral networking group, and even spiritual and social events. Attending a variety of mixers will assure that you meet a good blend of professionals in your region. Remember, the farther you network from your office or home, the farther you’ll have to commute to make those valuable follow-up appointments. Keep that in mind when scheduling your activities.

Once you’ve completed your third year of serious network marketing, you should have compiled somewhere from 500 to 2,000 contacts for your database. You should have met with at least 10-20% of those contacts for a coffee meeting, depending on your type of business. There’s a good chance you’ll bump into some of your contacts, if they’re on the same networking circuit as yourself, at other similar events so you can continue to build ongoing rapport with them as well.

But what about the other 75% — or those 300 to 500 people you don’t have time to meet personally? What about those who are worth keeping in touch with, but who may not be your top priority?

Develop a plan, not only to follow up with, but to maintain constant contact with all those people in whom you invested your time and energy meeting. What’s the sense of doing all the work with early-morning meetings, after-hour mixers, or daylong conventions if you’re basically going to ignore your contacts?

Let me outline a plan that has continued to bring me referrals long after my first meetings.

1.      Subdivide your contacts into Tier 1, 2, and 3 connections. Tier 1 will be high interest: potential referral partners and direct clients. Tier 2 will be individuals who target similar clients as you or they could be potential clients (on a smaller scale than Tier 1), for your products or services. Tier 3 will be loose affiliations with whom you network in a variety of areas and who could potentially be good allies for your business. Take the time to break down your database so you know where to focus your energy.

2.      Get on the phone! The personal call is still your best bet for building strong connections and maintaining them. Rotate your calls, but make sure that your best clients and Tier 1 connections get at least 1-2 calls per month and more if business between you is building. I speak to one of my lender/referral partners almost daily.

3.      Develop an email newsletter or contact system so everyone in your database gets touched at a minimum of at least once per month. Up to twice a month is acceptable, but any more than that is annoying. I have some advisors who send out something almost every day and I have had to politely “opt out” of their program. Your entire database should receive your email communication (Tier 1, 2, & 3). This keeps you top of mind and your brand going in the right direction. Make sure any system you use allows the receiver to cancel (opt-out) of your emails.

4.      Send them paper mail! Mail that you send directly to your contact still works beautifully. Sending a postcard, greeting card, or letter is imperative in this day of impersonal contact technology. I plan one mailing per quarter. Basically, I try to send out three to four mailings per year, and more when budget allows. Send simple messages, such as reminders of things to come or to express your gratitude for their loyalty. I find postcards to be the least expensive means of doing this, and they still get the message across. Holiday greetings for any holiday still make a personal impact and are highly recommended.

My contact recommendations are simple, but how many people follow them? Based on my unofficial polls, most business people will employ one or two of these techniques, but not consistently. Make a commitment to yourself – make a point to follow through on all four of these action items for 12 months. Don’t skip anything: Make the calls, send the emails, send the cards. After one year without missing a beat, you’ll see your sales volume grow by at least 20%.

Make your customers and network contacts feel valuable, appreciated, and remembered, and they will honor you with business for years to come.

Lester Salvatierra is an experienced Finance Specialist with First U.S. Finance (http://www.FirstUSFinance.com). He helps small to mid-size companies lease or finance a wide variety of equipment and special projects for upgrades and expansions. He is also a networking pro and BNI Area Director in Ventura County, CA. Lester@FirstUSFinance.com Ph: 805-217-9896

A bank rejection — for that matter, any rejection — is painful, but particularly if your company is under a time crunch to complete a new equipment purchase or finish a project.

Many businesses leave the financing stage as the final item on their agenda. This may not allow time for a contingency plan in case things don’t go smoothly. Many personal bankers are my favorite people but, like many of us, they operate within certain parameters and guidelines. More than ever, they need to adhere strictly to those guidelines. Understanding what such guidelines and limits are will encourage you to stop jumping from bank to bank, expecting a different outcome for your same financing request.

So, what do you do if your loan or finance request is rejected?

Step 1 – Don’t grab your paperwork, withdraw your funds and go running down the street. Instead, request a short meeting with your banker and take the time to fully understand specifically why you were rejected. Take notes. You may not have enough time in business, have credit below the bank’s standard, generate insufficient cash flow, or are carrying too much debt. Many of these lending standards are the same for banks across the board so dumping your lender will usually not be helpful. Keep in mind that a long-term relationship with one institution is best for your business in the long run.

Step 2 – Ask your lender what it would take to get approved with their facility or in general. Here is where the value of a seasoned personal banker will be useful. Perhaps moving assets from one area to another will get the job done, or bringing on a partner with good finances or credit will help. Sometimes changing your business entity will do the trick. Ask which issues are complete roadblocks; these will be the red flags which all lenders will have to overcome. For instance, 3 months in business for most lenders is a complete dead end. Understand what the show-stoppers are and again, take more notes.

Step 3 – Talk to a finance specialist or finance broker. An experienced broker will work with a variety of wholesale lenders and private equity groups. These types of lenders have more flexibility and operate under different guidelines and regulations than commercial banks. The deal-stoppers are much less frequent since they are structured to work with a wider variety of customer profiles. The best advice: provide your notes based on your past rejections so your broker will know exactly where you stand and what type of lender is most likely to approve you. Knowing your specific issues ahead of time is helpful in positioning and accentuating your strengths and finding the lender most likely to stamp your application with an “APPROVAL”.

A high “A” credit client will get top rates from a finance broker or a local bank, while riskier businesses will pay more, but at least they will have an avenue in which to get their financing approved.

Lester Salvatierra is an experienced Finance Specialist with First U.S. Finance (http://www.FirstUSFinance.com). He helps small to mid-size companies lease or finance a wide variety of equipment and special projects for upgrades and expansions. He is also a networking pro and BNI Area Director in Ventura County, CA. Lester@FirstUSFinance.com Ph: 805-217-9896