new england b2b

Kevin Willett says communication is key when trying to build new business relationships

Last week I received my daily LinkedIn recap email and I noticed that it was a friend’s birthday. This guy always goes out of his way to endorse me on LinkedIn, so I wanted to take a moment to thank him and wish him a happy birthday. He sent me back the nicest email I’ve ever received, thanking me for taking the time to wish him a happy birthday. I have to be honest, I was having a super stressful day, but his email made me realize that everything was going to be okay. So take the time to wish your friends a happy birthday. It just might make your day.

One of the expressions I hear all the time is ‘I cannot do that; it is outside of my comfort zone’. I really wish people would simply say that they are afraid to do something, rather than it is outside their comfort zone. When you say something is outside of your comfort zone, I find people accept it and give you a pass.

I like to spend time each day answering business questions. One of the questions I see a lot is; when will I stop caring if people do not like me? Most of the answers given by other people were similar to ‘what people think of you is none of your business’ and ‘these opinions have nothing to do with you’.  I see those types of answers as a defense mechanism. If I don’t care what you think then it cannot hurt me if you do not like me.

I was reviewing my LinkedIn profile and I noticed someone had viewed my account that fit my criteria for people I want to connect with. So I sent her a connection request, which she accepted, and told me that she was participating in a webinar on how to connect with people on LinkedIn. Her goal was to reach out to a mutual connection to ask for an introduction, but she did not have to do that now because I connected with her.

My friend has started hosting business networking events in our community. When I messaged him to see how the event went he said it was ok but he wished more people had attended. I have to admit that I smiled when he said that because I have hosted many events that I wish more people had attended. Most people do not understand how hard it is to host networking events. I always joke that people think it is like the movie Field of Dreams if you host it they will come and I wish it was that easy.

Can you help me grow my business? People ask me this question all the time and in most cases I think I can help you. I always start by asking them if they attend business networking events. In many cases the answer is no. They tell me that attending networking events is outside their comfort zone. I then ask them if they are active on social media, are they utilizing Facebook Live and sharing videos on LinkedIn. The answer is usually ‘no, I am not doing that but I am active on social media, every day I do a post reminding people that I can help them and to call me if they need me’.

Kevin Willett knows that sometimes it is hard, be we need to let go in order to move forward

I have a friend who is new to his job in sales and he was getting discouraged because sales were not coming as quickly as he hoped. Last month all of his hard worked paid off and he was able to close on a number of deals. I am really proud of him for not giving up. He kept attending events and building relationships.

I see many people get frustrated and give up too soon because sales and entrepreneurship are really hard. If you are tempted to give up, please send me a message so that we can talk about your business to see if I can help you.

Last week I was speaking to one of my friends and he told me that one of the struggles he has, as a small business owner, is staying motivated and doing the daily marketing tasks that he knows he has to do to be successful.

I think most people can relate to this comment. Often I see my friends get discouraged because their marketing efforts are not producing the results that they want, so they give up. In other cases their efforts are working and they become busy, so they stop marketing themselves and then of course their business slows down.