For various reasons (urgent client work and then being away on holidays) I’ve missed the last two meetings of the GKIC London Chapter. So, it was good to be able to attend the October meeting at our current home “The Happenstance” on Ludgate Hill.
As always, there was a full, informative and inspiring agenda.
The meeting kicked off with a very welcome return visit from Nigel Risner. Nigel is the author of a number of highly-regarded books including “The IMPACT Code”.
Here’s a taste of what Nigel is all about…
The biggest takeaway from his all-too brief presentation was that…
…your competition in business today is not just the obvious direct competitors. In fact, it’s anyone your potential customers (even, more frighteningly, your current customers) can spend money with. Let me elaborate a little.
In the “New Economy”, consumers have a vast choice of who to do business with. While they are prepared to spend, they are not prepared to spend indiscriminately. So, if they have a great experience doing business with a company, that raises the bar on their expectations with everyone else.
Nigel’s example…a great experience at the “Cheesecake Factory” means that he is (even less) likely to put up with poor service elsewhere (for example at a major electronics retailer who shall remain nameless).
More about Nigel and how he turns limited people limitless at NigelRisner.com.
David White followed with a presentation of…
“10 Tips To Monetise Leads”.
Tip #1…make sure you capture the contact details of potential customers! Yes, this is very much “Direct Response Marketing 101” but…
- It’s surprising how many people don’t do this; and
- There is room for improvement for those people that actually do make an effort (“mea culpa”!)
Lots of great tips, techniques and strategies to both collect more leads and make more of them.
The BIG takeaway…
…most sales come from an organised process of effective follow up.
In the third (and final) section of the afternoon, James Knight presented further examples of the practical application of the iMA typology system.
For example, paying someone a sincere compliment can be a great way to attract favourable attention and make a good impression…provided you make the right compliment. You see, what you think of as being commendable may be something quite unimportant (even worse, perhaps offensive) to somebody else.
More about the iMA approach at imastrategies.com OR ima-strategies.com.
Another well attended meeting with the opportunity to chat and swap notes with like-minded business folk.
Next meeting (and most likely the final formal meeting for 2015) will be on Tuesday, November 17. All the details at GKIC London.