Quite often I am asked by young lawyers or accountants or other professionals how they can stand out from their competitors for business development purposes. They seem to think it is next to impossible to achieve this but I take a different view.
Let me introduce you to Ben who works for my company. He is a good analyst programmer but then we employ lots of good analyst programmers. He specialises in CRM but he isn’t the only one who has a niche subject in our firm. If you meet him he is a very friendly and normal person but what makes Ben stand out is he writes a blog on CRM which gets over 200 hits a day. Within his world is very well known and respected. Behold the power of blogging!
When I mention blogs as a way of standing out from the crowd and making business development easier I tend to get the same two objections: no time and not enough material. I hold no truck with either answer I’m afraid.
Time: This blog entry was triggered by an email I received from Ben on Friday. On the way home I began to think about what his blog had done for him and by the time I arrived home this entry had pretty much formed itself. It then took me about 20 minutes to write it down and another 10 minutes to knock up the graphics. Done!
To start with if you committed half an hour a week to produce one blog entry and dispensed with any graphics and pictures you could officially claim to be an active blogger. Welcome to the frontier world of social media.
Subject matter: I think when you enter into the spirit of blogging the problem is that you will find too many subjects to write about not too few. Take a look at the diagram below.
Starting with your area of specialisation – tons of material there. What developments and news are taking place in your sector; what books and papers could you review; what new ideas (some of which can be yours) are beginning to emerge. Really the list is endless so don’t give me the old “I’m not sure what I’d write about” excuse.
For a small investment of time every month you can raise your profile and become a recognised voice in your particular niche. Not only that but Blogging is a very useful aid in business development. No better way to establish your credentials than by pointing a prospect towards one of your blog entries on a subject that they have shown interest.
So come on. Build your brand and strengthen your business development armoury: start blogging today. You know it makes sense!
