Networking – What is networking and is it important? How is the Networking scene changing? Does physical Networking still have a place in a digital world?
Hello again and welcome back to the Marketing Buzzword Podcast!
This is the podcast which helps you to understand what all of these business and marketing buzzwords actually mean, and how they can helpful going forward, and today’s buzzword is “Networking”
I’m your host Ben M Roberts and in this show I am the marketing bee in charge making sure I can get the right guests and ask the right questions to make these words and phrases make sense.
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So, how does this show work?
Simply, you, the marketing bees let me know what buzzwords you’ve been hearing, and bring them into the marketing beehive. I then bring on an expert buzzword bee from the field, who helps us identify what these buzzwords actually mean, and whether they are useful or not. Essentially, I want to de-bunk or de-mystify these words and phrases to make the marketing jargon a little easier to understand.
I’m always keen to hear about the buzzwords you are loving or hating right now so please drop me a tweet to @roberts_ben_m or simply use #marketingbuzzword on Twitter & Instagram or if you’d rather you can go on the marketingbuzzword.com website and let me know through there, and take a look at the show notes from previous guests.
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Right that’s more than enough about me. It’s time to introduce this weeks guest! This episode’s expert buzzword bee is the stunning Tracey Smolinski!
Tracey Smolinski is the founder and managing director of Wales’ leading independent business network, Introbiz.
Since the company’s birth back in 2009, Tracey has become a highly successful businesswoman. Today, the network boasts over 300 members from a wide range of industries and sectors, while hosting 60 networking events a year in various 4 and 5 star locations throughout South Wales and host events internationally.
She started networking in the correct way, by building relationships and trust and went on to sell £100,000 worth of advertising revenue over the next 6 months. She saw firsthand how powerful and profitable networking could be for business. Tracey spotted a gap in
the market and decided to start her own networking company, and so Introbiz was born!
Tracey has shared the stage with Hilary Devey CBE, Baroness Michelle Mone, John Lee, Jamie Baulch, Marie Diamond, The Apprentice winners Mark Wright and Alana Spencer and Sharon Lechter
She also has a book. Master Networking: 10 Steps to Building Business Relationships for Profit and Success, explores her tried and tested methods for effective networking.
Enough small talk . . . let’s talk “Networking”
Networking Interview between Tracey Smolinski and Ben M Roberts
Ben:
Hi Tracy, and welcome to the podcast.
Tracy:
Well, thank you very much for inviting me on, Ben.
Ben:
Brilliant, so what you’re going to talk to me about today.
Tracy:
Well I’m going to talk to you a little bit about that word called networking. Which a lot of people are very scared of. Or they’re very daunted by and I’ll tell you a little bit of a story of how I first started and got networking and completely wrong.
Ben:
Yeah, go on. Hit me with the story straight away. I’m really intrigued, sort of to share this story with all the listeners.
Tracy:
Sure, no problem. Well, I was primarily a salesperson, ok. I came from the advertising background. I used to work for Media Wales, many years ago, which was the Western Mail and Echo, selling newspaper advertising. And my last job, I was working for a small local company, and I was always given sales targets, obviously being in advertising and sales was hard to achieve your targets and you were pressured into, right. You’ve got to hit your monthly targets and if you don’t your gone. So my last boss, before I set up the business, was working for a local business man. And he said, “I want you to go out networking”. “Networking? what’s all that about”. He said, “you go to these events, you swap your business cards and you do business”. So I said, “fine, yeah, I can do that. No problem at all. “. So off I went to my first event. And when I was at the event, I was primarily as I say, the salesperson. So I would go up to people and nobody had actually taught me how to network effectively. I didn’t really understand the concept of it because he said, just get out there, sell yourself and swap your business cards and do business. So I would go up to people and I would say, “Hi, I’m Tracy from Pear media. Who I was working for at the time. And I’d say, “well I sell advertising. Is that something that you’d be interested in?”. And people were starting to look at me a bit funny and I didn’t really click. And that’s how I was talking to people and said, “what is it that you do and, you know, I sell advertising, you know, are you interested in that?”. And people were backing away from me and I thought this is a bit odd. And first three months, I didn’t get any business, surprisingly. At the end of the day I thought, well, what am I, doing something wrong? So luckily I’d started to get to know a few people and there were a couple of people that liked me as a person.
Ben:
Always helps.
Tracy:
Yeah, but obviously I did say to them, listen, “I’m doing something wrong, I’m sure because I’m not getting any business”. And I said, “can you give me some honest feedback?”. Because I think, in business, you have to get honest feedback to obviously improve. And they said, “yeah, can we tell you what you’re doing wrong?”. I said, “yes, please”. And they said, “well, you’re too much in people’s faces, you’ve given it the hard sell and network and isn’t about that”. I said, “really?”, and I was horrified. They said “no, networking is all about building relationships and trust. If you start to just get to know people and ask them about them and see what they do and, and obviously they ask about you. The business will eventually follow”. So I thought, OK, well let’s give it a go and see what happens. So over the next month or so then I just started to ask people questions about them and see how I could help them. And say “what is it you’re trying to achieve?”, “Who your typical clients?”, “where do you get your business from” “Is there anything I can help you with?”, “Would you like some introductions?”, Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah, Dah, you know, that sort of thing. So after that month, I started to get some business in because people were saying, oh, you know, that Tracy, she’s really helpful and you should start talking to her. So I started to help more people and the more I started to help people, the more people than were attracted to me and people were introducing me to other people because they knew I was quite influential. And then I was very helpful. So I went on after that first three months of getting zero business. I went on to sell £95,000 worth of business just from networking. And I thought to myself, wow, this is powerful stuff. Really powerful stuff. Gone with the days where, you know, I used to go around like an area. I go down a wealthier road in Cardiff with my briefcase and literally walk into the shops and, and ask for the business owners or their marketing managers to speak to them to try and sell them advertising. That all went out the window because having gone networking, your there in an environment where people want to do business. They are engaged in a lot of the decision makers. They’re not all at the time obviously because they do send their stuff along. But when you’re in an environment where you can talk 20, 30 people, it’s far easier because those barriers are broken down because you’re all there for the same reason. Rather than you go in cold into a business where they’re busy in the shop. The last person they want to speak to Tracy with a briefcase but when you actually go to a networking event. You’re are all there, so you are all like-minded, there for the same reason. So, that broke down the barriers and realised just how powerful it was, you know. And I absolutely fell in love with networking and then, you know, obviously getting it wrong and then getting it right.
Ben:
I think that’s as you say a rags to riches story. Where you sort of, look at where you were. Where you’ve gone to and sort of some of the trials and tribulations you’ve been along the way. And how it sort of molded you, to make you more effective at what you’re doing now. But one of the questions that, then I have then about sort of networking is. If everyone’s there wanting to do the same thing and do business, are you not finding it’s the same people every single event pretty much? Who are doing the same spiel over and over again, and then people seem to almost get turned off from networking. Because they go in there and think it’s not the old men’s club anymore sort of thing. But it’s like you still go in there, whether it’s men, women, or children, whatever it, whoever’s at these networking events. Is it the same people every time? So how do people almost get that out of their mind? Actually, it’s not just the same people. Every conversation is unique, perhaps. Is that how it works from that perspective?
Tracy:
Yeah, I mean absolutely. And I’m probably one of the biggest tips, I can give anybody, is for those people that are going out network. And then just find they’ll go up to somebody and they’ll start saying, you know, I’m this and I’m that. Don’t go to those people,because you really want to talk to people, you know that you can help. So the biggest tip that I can give anyone is to say to people. I introduced myself, “Hi, I’m Tracy from Introbiz”. Tell me about you. What is it that you do it? Because always remember one of the things, your business is about two things. It’s about solving a problem or serving a need. Now, if you go in just trying to sell your products and services and that’s not going to get you anywhere. So you have to go in and ask these questions. To say, tell me about you. What are your challenges? What are your wins? What are you good things? What do you need help with? Who you connected to? Who you want to be connected to? These types of questions you want to ask them so that you can help them because it’s not about me. Whenever I go to an event, a lot of people will come up to me and say, “Oh yeah, let me introduce you to such and such, or you know, you need to speak to Tracy because she’s got a great network and she can introduce you to a lot of people. And so people will say to me or tell me about Interbiz and I’ll go, I just run a network, but tell me about you. What is it that you do that I can help with? And if you start to focused on that and you just start to get to know people and ask about them. They realised that you care more about. And I genuinely care about helping people in business, you know, I want to help people because it’s not about interface is not, you know, but it’s what about Interabiz could do for you. But it’s always serving others and helping others because you’re not there just to sell. And obviously I got that completely wrong and poor my husband always says, one thing he says is two types of people in life: Givers, takers, don’t be a taker but a giver. And if you give to people one day you will get back and don’t always think of giving to somebody that you’re going to get something back straight away because that’s just premeditated. You know, for the reasons you get business. If you just genuinely help people, it’s amazing. What will it, what will you to attract, you know, we’ll just be good vibes.
Ben:
It’s surrounding yourself with the right people, the right attitude, the right same goals, desire, drive is surround yourself with good people and good things eventually happen. It’s all about the Good Samaritan sort of thing where actually like if you, if you give enough, eventually the world will start giving back to you. It usually does it in mysterious ways and when you least expect it.
Tracy:
Yeah, of course. So,one thing I will say that when people come to an Introbiz event. They, you know, a lot of people say, oh my gosh, what a great room full of people you have. You haven’t just got a room full of sellers. Because a lot of events you go to, everyone’s just trying to sell. This is what we always say to people every week of the event. As part of our process and our methodology is, it’s all about saying to people, don’t come in the room giving it the hard sale. Just get to know people. You get to know them, get them to like you to trust you and vice versa and build that connection. And it’s amazing what will follow after, you know and Interbiz will initially connect people. But it’s really what you do outside of the event is that’s when you start to build your relationships. You’re not going to just build it from a networking event. You have to look outside of an event and look at arranging one to ones with people. That you can engage with. That you resonate with. You know, because, let’s be honest, we’re not going to engage with everybody. Not everybody likes Tracy Smolinski. Not Everybody likes Paul Smolinski, you know. But we’re all liked or disliked by different people and we don’t necessarily connect with everybody. But don’t worry about that because I want to say that, that’s just the nature of the beast. We’re all very, very different personalities and different people and we will connect with different people as well. So yeah, definitely.
Ben:
One of the thoughts that I had sort of spinning off, from what you said earlier. Is that obviously you said that everyone shouldn’t be there to give it the hard sell and you shouldn’t necessarily selling unless it’s helping solve a problem for people. Then when do they know, when to actually close a deal? Because I know I’d been to networking events before and I’ve met people 2x, 3x, 4x, 5x, 6x up to 20x. I’ve been out for coffee and then you’ve actually never ended up doing business with people. So where do you draw that line between offering a solution and actually maybe even talking business? Or is it something that you say is, you don’t ever try and force that close? Because you lose your way, where do you find all that balance? Where does, where does that line?
Tracy:
But I think, you know, you’ve got it. You’ve always got to close because if you don’t close, you just going to be fluffy and you’re just going to meet for coffee and time is money at the end of the day. But everybody’s there for a reason. But, you know, the best question you can ask somebody when you meet up with them, how can we help each other? Because again, remember what I said a few minutes ago. It’s not about me, it’s about how I can help others, but obviously you can help people and help people and that’s fine. But there’s, there’s a limit where, especially for new start-up or new business. Where they want to try and get some business in straightaway so they just survive, you know. So if you ask that question so that you’re not involved with the taker because if it was somebody in a room that just wanted to try and sell to you. And they don’t want to give anything back well and they just keep trying and try and try and all the time to sell. That’s obviously not good. But if you rephrase the question is by saying, let’s see how would you think we can help each other? Is that a way that we can both work together? We can help each other grow each other’s businesses. And what happens with an Introbiz is, we don’t just find clients or people we find referral partners. So, a lot of people in the network are all doing business with each other and referring business to each other and helping each other. Not everyone with everyone. There’s little networks within the bigger network of the Introbiz family because again. As I said, you’re not gonna connect with everybody, but there’s certain people that resonate with each other. And they’re helping each other grow each other’s businesses by referring people to them, passing them leads and vice versa. So it it’s a two way communication and if it’s all one way it’s not going to work.
Ben:
I think that’s a really interesting point. So in a more digital age now, so where the world is quickly, quickly changing. And almost you’ve got the, I know linkedin’s been around for the best part of a decade now, but that’s becoming even more powerful network in itself. So, how does the networking differ between online and offline? What are the some of the differences between how people connect and interact with each other online and offline?
Tracy:
Obviously, Linkedin is a great platform and in fact we’re doing a lot on Linkedin at the moment and it seems to be working well for us. We’re getting approached by a lot of people and we don’t spam people with just emails. Because I cannot stand those, that wouldn’t resonate with Introbiz and our brands because we’re all about creating relationships first. But I think what Linkedin does, it’s a quicker process because you can potentially get to more people than a face to face appointment. But also it gives you more visibility out in the business community. But I think what the face to face stuff does is, people want to deal with real people. It’s not just about communication via email or via skype or we’re on Linkedin having a conversation. The real conversations is when you look somebody in the eye and you meet people face to face and that is when people engage in a better way. But what Linkedin, it’s either that initial introducer, so then connect you with the face to face conversation and the meetup. Or you can do a bit of both, you can do the face to face, but then you also connect on Linkedin. So you keep in contact that way and perhaps you can help promote their business via linkedin and they could do the same for you. So that bonds the relationship even more, I think it’s a good compliment or a good starting point, for the initial face to face connection, once you have connected on Linkedin.
Ben:
So, would you say then that Linkedin is much more specific? So if you were looking at something more specific, you’d go through the digital channel. And because you can almost target really narrowly who you’re looking for. Whereas if you go to a general, open networking event, the chances are you make find people, who everyone there may not be able to help you necessarily. But they may know someone can help you. But if you go on Linkedin, you directly with the people who are are potentially the people you want to work with. Is that much more time and cost effective potentially than attending an open networking event? What were your thoughts on that?
Tracy:
Well Introbiz does things slightly different to that. Because one of our USPs is that we will connect people to their target audience. And so we will actually find out before they’re coming to the event, who their target audiences. Or once I’ve signed the company up on our membership form, it says, who’s your wishlist to, who’s your typical target audience so we can connect you with. So a lot of companies don’t actually do that. Whereas we specifically say, we’ll put you on a table with a couple of people that who are your target audience or who are going to be good referral partners for you. You’re not going to get a 100% of everyone on that table is going to be good for you because then maybe somebody that wants to talk to you and you may not think that there’s a connection, but they might want to talk to your type of category of business. And remember, networking is a two way thing. So you have to give and take. But that’s the way we do things is we will try and specifically target people, to actually make that introduction in a more quick and effective way. But also as part of the network in a membership, is we make personal introductions on email. So we’re not just a networking company, we’re an introductions company as well. We will make those introductions on email. So when that happens people know that, “oh my gosh”, introbiz introduced on an email for a reason. Because they know there’s a connection that can be made and there’s potential business for both parties. So I always say to them happy networking and connecting guys. They will follow up with each other. And that is another thing that I must say is a lot of people go to events, they collect their business cards and then they don’t follow up with the clients that they’ve got contacted. And if you haven’t followed up with them, you’ve just wasted two hours of the event and maybe an hour, hour and a half traveling to get there. So you’ve wasted three and a hours of your day. So you must always follow up with people.
Ben:
That actually leads me onto another point, which I think it really had comes off nicely off your point, are business cards dead? I’m gonna leave it there and I’m going to let you get into. And I want to hear your thoughts on the question on are business cards dead.
Tracy:
No, not, not at all because obviously it’s always good to get their information and vice versa. But I will say is when, if you’re in a scenario where you’re at an event and someone comes up to you and says, “Oh, let me give you my business cards”. I don’t like forcing my business cards on anybody. I usually wait until they’ve asked for my card or if we’re in a conversational. So I’m sure I’d be able to help you. “Have you got a card so that I can get in contact with you? So I can make that introduction for you” or “have you got a card so I can follow up with you and just tell you what we can do to help you”. But people that just give their business cards, you know, that they are takers. Because they just literally, I have many people come up to me saying, “Oh, let me give you a card”. And I’ll say, “well, why am I taking your card?”. “Oh, because I know that my boss wants to speak to you because you can really help us”. And, and that’s fine, but you know, there’s gotta be a reason for that? And, and it’s always good to give a card when someone has asked for it or when you think there’s an opportunity that you can help them. And then you went to them, ask them very politely, “Oh, you know, you’ve got a card because I’d love to be able to follow up with you because I’m sure I’ll be able to help you”.
Ben:
The reason why I ask this question is is because again, I do lots of reading and speaking to people. In case of where with business cards, people do sometimes hand them out like candy . It’s ridiculous. The amount of business cards sometimes you can come back from events with. So is it better though, do people need a physical business card or is something like a linkedin page? What does the actually suffice? Now, are people not better off putting potentially connecting through Linkedin because it alleviates it. Gets rid of that conversation where you go, here’s my business card. Talk about that. You actually have a more meaningful connection now where you can actually find out a lot more about the person. You can have the conversations with people through there and you can actually remember everyone that you’ve spoke to. Because I know sometimes when I speak to so many people events and you’ve got these generic business cards, it’s got a name on it. And I go, I thought I spoke to six Johns. I have no idea which John this is. I know one of them was maybe somewhat important. Whereas through Linkedin you’ve obviously got not just their name and their job title, you’ve also potentially got pictures and things. So how does that work? Would you encourage people to go down instead of not taking business cards so much in terms of no, they’re not dead. But in terms of, not taking them back. So maybe focusing on connecting through at these face to face networking events, but connecting through a digital means.
Tracy:
Absolutely not. You must always take your business cards and I’ll tell you for why. There’s this, a little strategy that you can use. We do this very much at the expo when we present this to everyone when we do the training before expo six weeks before. Is you always grade your business cards or you can have a little comment on them. So if, for instance, I was talking to somebody and I was talking to six Johns. Out of those six Johns, one wanted to become a referral partner and one wanted to book a stand at the expo. I would actually physically write on their card, I would say, well, “can I just borrow a pen a sec”. Or if I had my pen on me and I would just make notes on the call saying “potential referral partner” or “potential stand” and the details. So when you go back, that you’ve had those conversations with those people because you’ve already marked. If for instance, is a really hot lead and you pick up 20 business cards, ok. The other thing that you can do is you can either mark it with that potential conversation or you can mark as an A for a hot lead, or B medium lead on a C for just, I’m happy for you to add me to my database. Or, you know, send me some details. So you can, when you look at the end, they’re hot leads and they’re the ones you get back to first. So always, always take your business card, but make sure that it’s clean, presentable, professional, have a nice quality. Because obviously that is a first impression that people have of you and if you have a dirty a creased or faded or this cheap and nasty. That’s gonna obviously not, not reflect good on your brand. So always, always take business cards. But It’s good to connect with them on Linkedin as well so that, that’s fine. There’s a double whammy. So you’ve got a double double way of getting in contact with them.
Ben:
Yeah, he’s always quite an interesting sort of blend there and actually how you find the difference between digital and real. Are you finding though that more and more younger people, “millennials”, are taking into networking in a different way that previous generations have? Because they’ve obviously got more ways to connect now. Are you finding it’s harder potentially to attract younger people to the open network events or do you find that they potentially do differently? Is there a difference in that?
Tracy:
I find it’s much easier to attract the younger ones now because there’s a lot of young startups and we’ve just offered a startup package or for Introbiz. Which is fantastic for them, you know, starting from £399 plus VAT for a startup company. That’s awesome. And we can, we can put them in touch and connect them with a lot of big companies so we’re attracting a lot of youngsters at the moment. I think youngsters a lot more tech, savvy. I’m not fantastic and technically minded. So I’m an old school so it’s a learning curve for me. I do learn everything and I’m always learning new stuff, but a lot of the youngsters are very, very tech-y savvy. They’ve got a great attitude. So I think they’re slightly different to the older generation. I think a lot more youngster millennials are more open to have better conversations and I think they’re very much all about sustainability. And I think they’ve got a really good outlook. And that there are a lot more savvy these days than years ago and I think because obviously we’ve got the online Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, and all those other platforms. It’s making them, that the world is their oyster now and I think there’s a lot more opportunities for youngsters to really come through. And the fact that they have a lot of technical and computer skills given to them in schools now. It’s fantastic. So attracting a lot of the youngsters at the moment, which is great. And we’ve got a young team, you know, because they are techy and we’re not so tech savvy. And you have to surround yourself in business, with good people that know what they’re doing, you know?
Ben:
Yeah, definitely. And so that sort of leads me in is how is the networking sphere changing with different generations and over overtime. Because obviously networking events used to be almost got quite stale it was the same style of networking event. Is to say you go in, you stand up, you talked to a few people, you sit down, you have some data, you listened to some people now. How is the networking sphere changing in terms of the range of events? In terms of, actually how different events potentially a catered to different people’s. I try to think of the word, how different people react better to different events. Introverts versus extroverts. People with different styles of business or people who want to different things. Was the sort of styles of networking and how is it changing?
Tracy:
Well, there’s a lot of people that obviously, as you say, they’ve all got different choices on what they prefer and practices. But we do 7 different types of events, we do socials, we do business clubs, we do canopies and drinks, sit down ladies lunches and breakfast. So they’re all different. Some people like just the socials where they’re not actually sat around tables of 10. Because when you sit around our power group tables of 10, everyone has to speak for five minutes each. But obviously they talk on their table for five minutes and all the attention is on them and a lot, as you say, there’s a lot of introverts out there. And a lot of people get scared of that and they’re like, oh my gosh, I don’t want to do the public groups. That’s why they prefer the socials because the focus isn’t on them. They don’t want to be that center of attention. And the social environment is more like as if you’re in a cocktail party and you’re mingling to people and that’s fine. But that they’re all very different than people, you know, it’s horses for courses. Some people prefer the power groups because they’re more strategic or a lot of people prefer the power groups. I would say they’re more of our popular ones. The power group tables rather than the socials. But obviously there’s an element that. That just like to come to the socials, but I think these days there’s so many different types of events in different places and we’d like to create really nice experiences for people in really 4*/5* restaurants and hotels. Because it’s not just about the connecting with the people, it’s above the whole environment that you’re in. Because if you’re in a nice, classy environment in a really nice space, it’s going to create a everyone’s in a better mood. If it’s you’re in a scrappy old cafeteria per se, you know. It’s not gonna, it doesn’t, it’s not conducive to a nice environment. Whereas if you’re in nice 4* /5* hotel or restaurants. Everyone’s in more of a nice mood and obviously that, that creates a better vibe.
Ben:
I think that was really interesting to see actually, how the environment actually shapes the conversations. The style of networking and how actually people grit come together can create some sort of happier mood. People feel, people feel it, people feel wealthier and people feel like they want to do more business because they are in the right type of environment do business. Again, if you use a scruffy old cafeteria, it’s almost not really a business environment. So actually it may not necessarily be conducive. It’s almost like, the environment can almost be like a conductor and the people almost like the electricity. I don’t know if that’s a really weird anecdote to use, but is that sort of almost how the visions I had in my mind of how it works?
Tracy:
Yeah, exactly. And as I say, if you create a nice experience because people want experiences. Now when I’m all about creating memories with people and create really good memories and a nice environment, you bring good people together with a good ethos. And I would say that the Introbiz family, as we call it, we are like a big business family. We’re all helping and supporting each other. And if you create that sort of environment, you’re not going to just get a room full of sellers, you’re going to get a room full of like-minded business people that all want to help and support each other. And that’s far more conducive to a productive networking event rather than having a room full of sellers and just people who are just takers. It’s about people connecting, engaging, helping each other. On, going forward, helping each other on an ongoing thing.
Ben:
And you’ve just dropped the mic and walked away. That was almost like a perfect way to sort of summarise exactly what networking is and why people should come together. And actually it’s not that networking is dead, networking is far from dead, even in any form. And if humans do business with humans, people do business with people, whatever it is. That was like a really nice sort of way to sort of summarise exactly why networking is so important.
Tracy:
Oh yeah. And it’s massive and at the end of the day, people do business with people that they know, they like and they trust period. I’m a great believer of brands, you know, people do buy brands. But when you’re in a business environment, you’re not going to do business with someone you don’t like. You just won’t. If you have someone who don’t like you, you’re not going to do business with them, but if you get on with people and you do business with people that you like, and trust. You will exponentially grow your business.
Ben:
Perfect. I think that’s a really nice way to wrap it up. But before I let you go, Tracy, I want to sort of see, what other marketing and business buzzwords are there, at the moment, that you either absolutely love, absolutely hate? What are some of the things that you’re hearing out there in the moment?
Tracy:
Obviously there’s one. Well, two little words that we use quite a lot, but only because we’re very, very passionate about what we do . And we know we can help everybody is we say no brainer a lot because we give so much value in our business and the connections that we can give people in the introductions. We always say to people, what this is for you guys, is this is a no brainer. Because we know that if they come on board and we give them all the service that, the connections that we give is fantastic. So I love the word, I know there’s that other word hustle. Its very much an American word, hustle is. And I know Gary V uses that a lot if you watch him and he uses that word. I’m not a great believer of the word hustle, if I’m honest. I think it’s a bit gangster-ish, you know. It doesn’t, you know. Everyone’s different, but no, I’m not first on that word. But I love the words, no brainer.
Ben:
Yeah, I think that’s when those things, again like you said actually halfway through the interviews, which is a different horses for different courses. Some buzzwords people like and don’t and that’s almost why set up the podcast to actually try and understand what these buzzwords actually means. It’s quite easy to throw all these different terms around and trying to understand what they mean. So obviously Dan Gingis in episode, the words was social customer service. It’s one of the things people say do customer service on social media and it was like what does that actually mean. And relationship marketing, we had an episode too with Jessica. And to talk about what does actually relationships actually mean?And people throw these terms around but no one actually. People start knowing what does it mean and they start using these words and then it gets diluted and it becomes sort of not what it was meant to be.
Tracy:
Yeah, exactly. So what’s your favorite buzzword and what’s your worst buzzword that you don’t want?
Ben:
Oh god, Tracy, you’re putting it back on me. You’re the first guest so far I’ve had is actually put this all back on me. You’ve stumped me now. Because this is not what it’s supposed to be, it’s supposed to be my interview. I actually love the term social customer service. I think customer service is an incredible thing that. And how customer service isn’t just customer service, it’s incorporate so much more. It’s almost a sales tool, a marketing tool, a feedback tool all in itself actually. How when people do custom social customer service or just customer service right, as it has incredible impacts across the entire business. It’s really hard for people to actually understand that, they think that they need to sell more or market better or need to improve my product. When actually, if you improve your customer service, you’re actually potentially impacting upon all of those things at the same time. So I absolutely love that.
Tracy:
Yeah, we use it. We use those two words, customer experience. So come and try the Introbiz experience and see what we can do for the customer. And that’s what it’s about. If you, if you serve people well and you get your fans. They’ll tell other people and then you’ll attract more fans.
Ben:
Yeah, and I think probably there is a couple of terms. I really don’t like in the moment. One of them is definitely life coach. That is a bit of a bug bear at the moment.
Tracy:
And there’s a lot of those out there.
Ben:
Everyone’s a life coach. And there was something else, hyper-growth. I mean what the hell’s hyper-growth? Is it just growing really quickly? And growth hacking, how are you hacking growth. You should just be working really hard in your business doing the right things and you grow. I mean, what is growth hacking? Is it just, is it just running a business? Is that growth hacking? If you’re growing a bit, if you’re running a business that wants to grow and you’re doing outreach and you’re doing marketing and selling and customer service. Is that suddenly growth hacking or is that just running a business as you should be running a business. That’s a term that bugs me a little bit.
Tracy:
I think that’s more of a digital one, isn’t it? Growth hacking is where if you spend £5 on social media, on the Internet and you get £10. Then spend £10 to get more back, so I think that’s it’s more of a digital media type of thing, isn’t it?
Ben:
It’s one of those that really sort of gets to me. Because no one can quite explain to. There’s no sort of set definition. Where everyone goes, yeah okay, that’s what it is. So was networking and we understand now what it means. Relationship marketing; Engaging content; Great content. We can understand what some of these mean, and either love them or hate them. But, for me, growth hacking just so just doesn’t quite make sense. Brilliant, thank you so much for coming on today, Tracy. It was an absolute pleasure to speak with you and hopefully we’ve said some really nice networking insights to the listeners.
Tracy:
Yeah, that’s right. And if they’re having any challenges in their networking. They can either go to my onto Amazon and download and buy my book, “Master networker”. They can buy it on my shopping cart on Introbiz.co.uk. Or I’m more than happy to chat to anyone, to give them some free advice on how I can help them. That’s not a problem at all.
Ben:
And of course, all the links to Tracy’s book, Introbiz and everything are all in the show notes. Thank you very much, Tracy.
Tracy:
Thank you very much Ben, for the opportunity. Appreciate your time. Thank you.
