Business Development

Will Online Networking Expedite the Development of Rainmakers?

Will Online Networking Expedite the Development of Rainmakers?

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I asked Mike O’Horo, of Sales Results Inc. if he thought social networking online will expedite the development of young professionals into rainmakers. His response was so on point that I would be selfish not to share it with you.

So, I asked Mike, “Do online social networking behaviors produce rainmakers at an earlier age? Where does business development fit in?” Here’s what he said:

“That depends on the degree to which the young professionals in question recognize the difference between marketing and selling. Social networking tools emulate and magnify personal networking behaviors, and serve the same purpose: helping you to get found, presumably by those whom you most want to find you. [marketing/exposure]

Getting chosen from among those found (selling) requires a disciplined decision-management process that is entirely distinct from marketing [networking]. Therein lies the double rub re: online social networking. If you can’t sell, all the getting found (leads) in the world is just wasted opportunity. Likewise, if you can’t manage the distillation process, weeding out those who want to act vs. those who must act, you’ll exhaust your extremely limited sales-time bandwidth before you get the desired results.

The bottom line is that these tools are just a medium within which to conduct the same marketing and sales activities that have been necessary in commerce for hundreds of years. Faster, cheaper, broader? Yet bet. Sufficient? Not by a long shot. As my friend, Mark Greene, was wont to say during his decades as a premier market research wizard, “Necessary, but not sufficient.”

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Getting The Product Off The Shelves.

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Here are a few recent scenarios of how firms are managing their inventory in 2009.

* Firm #1 is downsizing to clear the warehouses of unused inventory. They hope to absorb the initial loss of income over the next year.
* Firm #2 is reducing prices. They hope to sell more time at lower prices and thus break even.
* Firm #3 is working harder to move the product off the shelves because they know clients still need what they’re selling. And, they’re still in the business to make a profit come hell or high water.