Kristen Haley

Let's face it,

We've all slipped into it. A lot of us are there now because of our crap-outlook on this economy. I know a lot of organizations have been working very hard to get out of it and we’d all be screwed if we’re stuck forever in this Sales Depression. I think we all know there is a direct correlation between your personal economic situation and your performance in the field.

The only remedy: get out there. Get smiling and get exchanging cards… or get out.

“But I don’t have the time…” Yes you can. There are easier, less time-consuming ways to go about exchanging corporate information; what I call “Internetworking.” If you’re not savvy, I’ll key you in: this is a type of social networking happens online. Like-minded (or unlike-minded) individuals come together and share ideas, information and create buzz about what it is they sell.

…But the only way for this to work is by each person doing their part. Pick up the phone and act upon a lead or referral, as big or as small as you feel it may be. It could lead to your whale. Don’t wait for people to call you. They won’t. Your competition is already calling them and trying to win them over because they found out about their need via Web 2.0.

Your competition (and you if you cared or knew any better) has access to the greatest “book of business” and it’s called the Internet. Your competition is taking advantage—no OPPORTUNITY—of your client’s core values, and creating a personal relationship just by learning about them on their personal or business website or through what I’d like to call “3^rd-party sites:” LinkedIn, Facebook, Manta, etc. or even more so from an infinity of blogs or reviews. The fact is, you can do the same thing; you just have to be smart about it.

First, before you’ve conquered the Internet, GET ON THE PHONE and do what you supposed to be a pro at doing which is making appointments and closing a few deals in person.

Secondly, when that pipeline runs dry or you become weary of the phone and you’re getting consistent “no’s,” create or forward those LinkedIn-Introductions like you’re supposed to. That’s how LinkedIn works and if you don’t do your part, the “get in touch with decision-maker” scenario fails.

Third, make nice with all of your old clients from your fill in the blank days at your job 5 years ago. They might be able to pull a referral out of a crevice for you ;)

Next, start writing. Write down your ideas, good, great or meh. Keep a pad and pen available. If you want one, I have plenty; schedule an appointment with me and I’ll make up a personalized one for you. Be personal. I’ve found out firsthand that mass emailings to reach out for the first instance after a long epoch between conversations only works about 2% of the time. Although I still do it. I’m technically doing it right now in blog-form.

Your choice is to write back. Ask me questions about what I’m doing and tell me what a good referral for you might be. You can even reply straight to this post so that everybody else who reads it can find out more about you. I know a few people… I may be able to help you out. Need a legal document written? Accounts receivables factored? Collection company to help collect $$? How about a fabric that you can wet, wring out and snap that amazingly becomes 30 degrees cooler than ambient temperature within 3 minutes? Who knows, this may be the re-beginning to a beautiful relationship. You could have hundreds, if not thousands of allies if you just reach out to them. Add me ;) www.kristenhaley.com

Happy Internetworking,

Kristen Haley

Entrepreneur @ AMAC International

Have you ever played with Microsoft Office OneNote? I love it. It's my virtual filing cabinet. Here's a screenshot:

Notice the tabs on the left, top and right. It's a layered document.. and it saves locally in real time. Try it sometime; you'll thank me later :)

Also!!! Google is coming out with a new tool called "Google Goggles" which will keep you from drunk emailing. In a nutshell: it makes you solve some simple math problems before the message will be sent. Probably won't work if you're too stupid to do math sober (like me) but you gotta start somewhere.

Now if only they came up with something like this for my phone calls/txts..

-kristenhaley.com

Hello all :)

Here's my list of the most important events I'm interested in checking into in the great month of October. I want to let you know that there are TONS of expos and events going on this upcoming month so let me know what you're interested in and we'll meet up (goto www.kristenhaley.com and click the calendar to see specifics)

10/7 Taunton Chamber BAH

10/15 Taunton Chamber BAH

10/16 Multi-Chamber Business Networking Expo

10/16 Cape Business Connect 2008

10/16 Narragansett Chamber BAH

10/21 South Shore Chamber Expo

10/22 SouthCoast Business Expo

10/23 Newport Chamber Cruise

10/30 Taunton Chamber Expo

September was a doozy with networking. Call me and let me know if you want to hear my stories, rants and raves I'll be blogging more about it soon. Check out the RI Localism site and you'll be able to follow my blogs. http://localism.com/ri

Also~~I have tickets to Game 2 @ home 10/6.. so Game 4/5 of the ALDS. RFB 91. I'll be selling them after either the away Game 2 or home Game 3.. dependent upon if we sweep. Let me know if you're interested~~but they're not leaving my hands @ face. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you probably don't need them ;)

Have a great week and GET OUT THERE!!

Kristen Haley

khaley@mxcsi.com

Oh, by the way, I'm never too busy for your referrals :)

Happy Autumn!

Now that it's fall-time, I'm noticing a lot more networking events popping up. I've been trying to get out to 2-3 a week, but even that's hard although there are so many to choose from. There aren't enough hours in the day. I recently updated my networking calendar with a refreshing new look and the capabilities to share and edit events interactively. I really like the Collectivex calendaring system and you can view my networking calendar for Boston to RI to Worcester to the Cape here. If you haven't done so already, check out kristenhaley.com. It's a great resource for all your networking needs. Also, my LinkedIn profile can be found @ kris10haley.com. You should probably add me to your network.

I'm working for a full-service network integration company in Raynham, MA as of June and I love it. There's so much fun technology out there and it's up to me to sell it :) In addition to networking you and your salespeople, I also sell network components to businesses with 50-500 users. Most of our business is municipality-based but I do like a good distributor, hospital or school if I can get em. We'll even hire someone under our payroll to work for a government entity, just let me know!

MX Consulting Services has been around for just under 20 years and our engineers have the same amount of average experience. Our service contracts can be tailored to be as large or as small as your organization needs them to be; ranging from 10 block hours @ $125 an hour to printer or network maintenance contracts. We are partners with a lot of powerhouse companies such as Cicso, APC, HP, IBM, McAfee, Microsoft, Apple, Dell :-p, MX Logic, WatchGuard, Citrix and Symantec as well as others so let me know if you're looking to purchase anything special and I'll see what I can pull from up my sleeve.

If you know of any company who is not happy with their current IT setup or isn't absolutely in love with the company they're working with, give me a number so I may follow up with them. Then, they'll have the opportunity to work with me and you all know how neat that can be. ALSO: and this is the BANE of my existence at the moment: I am looking to get onto the RI MPA. It's their master price agreement and you need to win a bid thrown out by the state to get on the list. It's the vendors that municipalities, schools, corrections, etc. can just grab from without throwing a project out to bid because the vendors have already done business with the state. If anybody can help me out with that, it would be much appreciated.

Let me know if there's anything I can do for you... and be sure to check out my sites!!!

/kristen haley

khaley@mxcsi.com