I help professionals and firms become the Go-To-Expert. Unusually for someone with an Engineering Degree, I accidentally became a writer and used my knowledge on social media to write the current best-selling and award-winning book on networking, The FT Guide To Business Networking. (75 five star reviews on Amazon- and read the 1st chapter for free here) People frequently talk about me as someone who really knows her stuff – which may be the reason I have, over the last decade, worked with over 100 partners, coached and trained over 1000 professionals at every level of the UK’s most ambitious professional practices.
I’ve always loved a challenge which is why I have solved the problem in my next book, which has perplexed many consultants, lawyers, surveyors, architects and accountants – ‘How to make partner and still have a life’. (Published by Kogan Page in November 2012)
The Excedia Group was founded by myself and Jon Baker to bring clarity, perspective and knowledge to help our clients achieve their business goals. Over 75% of our work comes from professional service firms - both large and small, helping them get more clients via referrals utilising networking and social media. Over 50% of the Excedia group’s clients are small professional practices of between 1-50 employees.
My work splits into about 50% Executive & Business Coaching with Partners, Practice Owners & Potential Partners, with the rest split between training, consultancy and writing.
I adore writing, (as well as helping others achieve their goals without having to sell their soul) which is why I blog regularly at Partnership Potential, Joined Up Networking, How to make partner and still have a life and venture-Now
2012-01-22 11:59 - 1397 reads -
A ‘hot’ prospect? It’s enough to make a professional with business development responsibility start to salivate!
But, what do we actually mean by a hot prospect or as we often call them ‘warm’ leads.
Ford Harding defines a lead, in his great book ‘rain making’ as “the opportunity to talk to a prospect face-to-face about a need that he has acknowledged”
Great definition.
It also identifies one of the big mistakes we all make – not qualifying the lead. In his definition it clearly states that you have the opportunity to talk to the prospect face-to-face. How many of us define a lead when someone somewhere intimates that they have need of our services?
2011-12-31 20:02 - 681 reads
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You have your social media policy. Tick.
Worked out yet how to implement it?
This is the challenge that is raised at many forums and events I run. How do you actually implement it without stepping on your staff's personal privacy?
It's one thing to strongly recommend that staff do not post stuff on facebook when drunk, but another to be able to monitor this and then take action. After all if the member of staff is not connected to any customers or potential customers on facebook, then what does it matter if they post up a status when drunk? But, how do you as a company know they are not connected to any customers on facebook?
You could just ban your staff from being connected to customers of the company on facebook. But this is shortsighted. After all, you actually encourage employees to recommend the firm's services to their family and friends. You can't then tell them that because their mother is now a customer of the company that they have to unfriend them on facebook.
2011-12-22 00:08 - 535 reads
The Excedia Group have been very lucky to be able to recruit two new high-calibre, quality employees to join our team. Sue and Lisa are both intelligent, amenable and eager - and we plan to invest in them for the future.
As a result I am so enthused as to how the future will unfold for our small but growing company. However, the majority of businesses, small and large companies and professional service firms would have overlooked the opportunity to obtain such high talent as Sue & Lisa.
Why you ask me?
Quite plainly, Sue and Lisa are not looking for a traditional 9-5 Monday to Friday role. The main reason for the appeal of joining Excedia was the desire to be a working mother and to be there for their children, as well as feeling mentally challenged and providing a worthy role as part of a team. I am also a working mother and am fully aware that priorities are bound to change when children join the clan - however the strong sense of wanting and needing to have a meaningful career outside of having a family may not.
2011-12-05 00:23 - 640 reads
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I've been running four networking workshops for businesses this week. On every workshop, someone has raised the question of how to memorise names. A real fear for many business owners, entrepreneurs and professionals in general and actually a skill which needs to be learnt.
So, here is my definitive guide to remembering people's names:
1. Use their name
After you have met someone, aim to say their name a couple of times. Such as:
2011-08-25 11:54 - 516 reads -
On Friday I had a debate on twitter with a Canadian career coach where three very flawed beliefs became apparent:
• The best networkers only use face-to-face networking
• Small business owners don’t have enough time to use social media to network
• Using social media to find a new job is fundamentally different to using social media to attract new business
Mmmm, this conversation was ever so slightly ironic given the fact we were having it on twitter. To be fair to the other person, social networking may not be as main stream in the small business community in Canada as it is now with the UK small business community.
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