You Got My Attention. You Won't Get My Business
"Hi Jon!", the email began.
Ok, it's pretty easy to forget an 'h'. A typo, perhaps.
"I'm not sure you're still in the mortgage industry", she continued.
"OH COME ON, IT'S ALL RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU, ARE YOU THAT 
LAZY!?!?", I thought.
This was how a message I recently received through LinkedIn started off. It then went on to tell me how when I referred clients to this service provider, they'd do an amazing job for them. They're in a field that requires pretty extensive attention to detail. I laughed.
I'm not one of those 'invisible' people on LinkedIn that created a profile and hasn't visited the site in the past decade. I have my profile up to date, I share status updates fairly regularly, and am constantly growing my network. It's not difficult, with about 4 seconds worth of research, to determine that I'm still in the mortgage industry. The sad part is this is someone that I used to be friends with, and have sent business to in the past.
So what's my point, aside from throwing her under the proverbial bus, putting it in reverse, and running her over again? Simply to share one of the worst marketing mistakes any of us can make. A mistake I made often early in my career.
We want to reach out to people and tell them all about us. We want to show them we're worthy of their referrals. We want them to know us. But we don't take the time to focus on them. We don't know them, or their business, who they know, or how they do things. Sometimes (the dummy above) we don't even know if they spell their name "John" or "Jon", nor which industry they're in. When it comes to effective networking (effective being the key word), we need to realize it's not about us. It's about them.
Research is a game changer when it comes to networking. Like with a job interview, the more you know about your prospective employer, the more impressive and better prepared you'll be in your interview. Likewise, with marketing, the more you know about your "target", the better off you'll be and the easier that relationship will be to build. The good news is this - in the past it was difficult to research someone - you had to rely on mutual contacts, newspapers, press releases, etc. Today, all it takes is a quick google search. Or a perusal through a LinkedIn profile. It's not that difficult.
I've made countless connections (and before I learned this lesson, probably lost out on a bunch, too) because I took the time to learn about people. I have no desire to do business with everyone, and you shouldn't, either. Instead, research prospective partners, learn about them, and decide if it's someone you'd want to work with. Then focus on them - what are their interests? Strengths? Weaknesses? When you know these things, it becomes so easy to find what value you can offer. People always refer to real estate as a sales industry. It's not. It's a people industry.
But if you can't take the time to spell someone's name correctly (when it's RIGHT.IN.FRONT.OF.YOU.), then don't even bother, I can tell you from experience, it's not worth the effort. You can get anyone's attention, but it takes a little more effort to get business.
...! I agree with you...I receive so many contacts from all over and they know nothing about me but know they can help me.
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