If you’re in the city you don’t want to miss the Summer’s Biggest Networking Party! 9th Annual.
Join Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist -  I have been to many of these events and they are always SUPER!

Connect with 500+ business professionals & owners and some of the city’s best-connectors at Toronto’s Biggest Summer Networking Event!  BizNETWORKnews.com’s

9th Anniversary  SUMMER NETWORKING BASH
Wednesday, August 10, 2011,  5-9 pmThe Glass Factory, 99 Sudbury St, Toronto, Ontario, 
(Queen St W & Dufferin)  click here for map 

TICKETS: $25 Early Bird  CLICK HERE  $35 advance/ $45 at door  
Social Media Bar – sponsored by Convurgency

Exhibitor Tables are available – email for details.
SPONSORED BY: ITEX, Premier Fitness, Convurgency, BNI, BCX, BPW Toronto North, Networking Diva, BOSS, BWNA,Toronto Entrepreneurs Networking, Inspired Connections, POWE, Women Who Excel, First Fridays, Entrepreneur Link, Step Ahead, Take II

Now you have that stack of business cards make sure you follow up!
If you need help starting the conversation, keeping it going and building the know you, like you, trust you factor so you grow your sales attend Set The Stage For Follow Up. Training available in Oakville ON, Toronto ON and at your office.

Networking Event Alert!

If you are an entrepreneur, small business owner or women in business looking to grow your network and grow your business, you will not want to miss this event!  Join me, Cheryl Scoffield at this

Networking event with Donna Messer and Sabaina Malik. They have formed a strategic alliance to introduce “The New Entrepreneur”- 

June 16 – at The Oakville Club – 6:30 pm – 9:30 pm 

Based on the research done for TorontoEntrepreneurs Magazine it’s been determined that the new entrepreneur is YOU!
Read the article here.

Register and join me at this event

If you are women in business who would like to meet and network with, other women business owners, please join Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist, Trainer and Coach and Brooke Milne of Because You Said So for 

Speed Networking For Women - Monday, June 20, 2011, from 7 pm – 10 pm.
an opportunity to meet amazing women while enjoying yummy treats and wine.

One lucky winner will leave the event with 2 bottles of STLTO wine!

This will be a relaxed networking event where you start the evening listening to a presentation from Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist, Trainer and Coach speaking about - What to do after you receive the business card while business networking and then have an opportunity to meet with every woman attending the event to promote your business, career or self!

Buy your ticket by registering here on Eventbrite for only $10!

Please join Brooke Milne and I for this networking event presented  by Because You Said So ..  Promotions and Events …

Location: ING Direct Cafe at 221 Yonge Street, 2nd Floor, Toronto, Ontario. Register here on Eventbrite.

This networking event will be at the new ING Money Cafe located across from the Eaton Centre on the corner of Yonge and Shuter in downtown Toronto.  This is a truly amazing space fully loaded with all the new tech gadgets.  Just inside the doors downstairs at street level, you can bank online with a row of new iPads and drink coffee. Upstairs is an membership based open space for entrepreneurs who want to get out of their house, get together with other startups, meet and collaborate.  It really is a beautiful space.

Look forward to seeing you there!

In 2011, International Networking Week®is February 7th – 11th.

The purpose of this event, an initiative of BNI, is to raise the profile of networking in the wider community. The goal is to celebrate business networking’s essential and key role in business development and business success especially in today’s economic climate. BNI is focussed on small and medium sized business.

Business Networking is an important part of marketing, prospecting for new clients and developing sales for businesses of any size be they small or large business corporations. Over the past 12 years, I have attended many networking events around the Golden Horseshoe, west of Toronto, Ontario. One thing I have learned (it is absolutely essential to achieving sales growth, which is the goal of business networking), is to develop a plan BEFORE you attend.

WHY? When you network, you meet a lot of people and collect many business cards. If the business cards just end up collected on your desk and you never connect with people after the event – what was the point of collecting? Did you know that 80% of sales are made on the 5th – 12th contact – yet 48% of people fail to follow up past that initial 1st contact? To maximize your investment of time, energy and resources and avoid falling into the 48%, you need to have a plan for how you intend to follow up people after the event, BEFORE you attend.

Business Networking with specific intent - The concept of developing a Follow Up Plan BEFORE attending the networking event is what I have coined “networking with specific intent’. Having a plan is such a critical component of business networking  that I developed a series of Follow Up Training Seminars.  Set The Stage For Follow Up  is Step 1 - it gives you the basics and includes ways to enter a room and start talking to strangers. Automate Your Follow Up Process is Step 2 and introduces ACT a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) which works with Swiftpage for email delivery.

Attending networking events without the specific intent of following up after is, in my experience, simply a waste of time, energy and resources. You might have had a great social time, but you failed to maximize the business development potential of  the networking event. So what can you do to avoid the trap of just having a great social time at your next business networking event?

3 Follow Up Tips to Help you Maximize Your Business Networking Efforts During International Networking Week

1. Develop a resource such as a Tip Sheet as your first Follow Up Step
2. Begin to use a CRM (Customer Relationship Manager) such as ACT and connect it to Swiftpage so you can begin to
3. Automate your follow up business processes. That way you will develop processes once, use it again and again and speed up your business. You will also lay the groundwork for being able to free up your time by delegating maintanence tasks to more junior team members. Contact me to find out more about documenting business processes.

Looking for an event to attend during International Networking Week? Jennifer Beale of UnLeash PR runs fabulous events in Toronto Ontario. Join me, Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist and register here for Grow Your Network on February 8th and hear great speakers, Lisa Kember, Christel Wintels and Cindy Mount, Richard Dolan, Donna Messer, Lia Bandoli and Tina Deszi. This event includes an evening networking schmooze and costs only $35 for the FULL day!

Can’t make this event? Find a networking group in your area by visiting Better Business Networking or attend Hamilton Business Network in Hamilton, Ontario,  Mississauga Networking in Mississauga Ontario or my home group  Oakville Networking in Oakville, Ontario on February 4 and 18, 2011. Oakville Networking meets at 8:45 am at e-Spot in Oakville Ontario.

 Find out more specific details for your business here with Follow Up – Discover Your Next Step and Follow Up -Take Action or contact me to arrange a Keynote for your next association meeting or trade show breakout session.

Hear what others have to say about Follow Up Training.

The WQ Gift Company launch party for their new flagship store at the end of October was awesome!

If you haven’t seen the BEAUTIFUL gifts Kristeen Sopeju-Edwards makes - you are missing out!

Drop by her new flagship store at 3-2380 Wyecroft Road in Oakville, Ontario or visit her online store to see a full range of gifts at every price point. The store shelves are filled with something for everyone and you will never again have to worry about finding that perfect gift. I mean just look at this beautiful example.

I was lucky, I  had the pleasure to be included in the preparations for the opening of the flagship store. It was a real eye opener, because in the past, I have only seen a handful of Kristeen’s gifts. This time I got to peek behind the scenes and see how truly special Kristeen’s gifts are. There are gifts for family, friends, new baby, new home, birthday and corporate custom gifts! Really any occasion you need a gift for. As a result, I started kidding her that she was coming out of the closet and now the secret is out …. everyone will see how truly special her gifts are. 

What I really noticed was how much thought and effort really goes into each custom gift Kristeen makes.

When you decide The WQ Gift Company is the partner you need for your gift, Kristeen will go that extra 10 miles to investigate who the recipient is and what gift items would make them feel special. That extra effort ensures that when your gift arrives, the recipient KNOWS, they are not just getting another gift, they are receiving something made especially for them. That speaks volumes, not just about Kristeen, but about YOU, the sender who cared enough to source the very best. 

I do not know about you, but I KNOW when someone takes that kind of interest in me! If you think you only have a moment to make a first impression ….. try being a gift! If you are a WQ Gift Company gift, you will never have to worry again, because it will be love at first sight.

Now that’s a hard act to follow.

When Jordan Banks, Managing Director of Facebook Canada, spoke at SOHO SME Expo last week he included this Socialnomics video in his presentation and highlighted some points about Facebook.

Social Media Revolution 2 is a refresh of the original video with new and updated social media & mobile statistics that are hard to ignore. Based on the book Socialnomics by Erik Qualman.

Some of the ideas that I wrote down from Jordan’s presentation;

World has gone social where friends influence friends – What are the common threads and key metrics around the questions people ask about … your business? What activities can you do that help friends interact with your business and deepen your social context?

Services will find us, everything we do and purchase is influenced by friends – Facebook is very popular with Canadians.
15 Million users have an average of 190 friends each. Women + 50 years old are the fastest growing segment.

Follow up in your business is all about building a connection to the prospects you meet while out business networking. Proactive follow up engages people in conversation and adds value. That’s interaction and building social context.

Looking for more information on how Follow Up Training can help your business grow sales?

This week is Small Business Week and I have been travelling to several events carrying along my new iPhone. One of the reasons I really wanted to get a web enabled phone was so I could use Twitter while I am attending events. My Twitter account, ESalesSupport, is one of the new social media tools I am integrating into my community building efforts.

To help me use and organize Twitter, I downloaded the Hootesuite ap to my iPhone. As I started using Hootesuite I found their site FAQ a little difficult to navigate so I was glad to find this tutorial, The Basics of Using HootSuite, by Mel who blogs on the Adventuroo website and using the hashtag #momcomm. If you are looking for basic instructions on using Hootesuite, I hope  it helps you too.

Thanks Mel, Happy Tweeting and Hootesuiteing!

BUSINESS TIPS BREAKFASTS SCHEDULE 2010 –  WOMEN WHO EXCEL INC. Events

Don’t miss out on the next Women Who Who Excel ‘BUSINESS TIPS BREAKFASTS’ at Lezley’s Restaurant, 355 Plains Rd. E., Burlington, L7T 4H8,  Phone-905/333-4431. LEARN up to the minute information to grow your business.

Tuesday, July 13, 2010   - Follow Up To Maximize Sales Opportunities

80% of sales are won on the 5th to 12th contact - yet 48% of all business people never follow up beyond the first contact.Getting prospects costs money! Implementing a step by step system makes sure every prospect is followed up and your sales opportunities are maximized.  

Cheryl Scoffield, Sales Facilitator at Executive Sales Support. www.executivesalessupport.com

These morning events (for women only) will be the second Tuesday of the month starting at 8:00am and ending at 9:30am.

The cost is $10.00 for WOMEN WHO EXCEL members; $20.00 for one-time only guests — cash only. 

Receipts will be given out at the door. You pick and pay for your own breakfast.

Preregister at 905/547-7135×3 or wwe@hwcn.org.  www.womenwhoexcel.com REGISTER TODAY!

80% of sales are won on the 5th to 12th contact – yet 48% of all business managers never follow up beyond the first contact.

Attending trade shows, monthly association meetings & networking events to get new prospects - costs money. 
Implementing a step by step system makes sure every prospects you met goes into your sales funnel, is followed up and your sales opportunities are maximized …. makes cents.

If you are a women who wants to meet & network with other women and learn the basics of how to;

• raise business visibility
• drive traffic to your sales funnel
• maximize sales opportunities
• maximize your investment in trade shows, monthly association meeting & networking events
• move forward, take action and grow your business

Join Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist and other women for Follow Up To Maximize Sales Opportunities – Women Who Excel, Business Tips Breakfast – Tuesday July 13, 2010 at Lezley’s Restaurant, 355 Plains Road East, Burlington, Ontario, L7T 4H8. $10 for members and $20 for one time guests plus the price of your breakfast.

If you are a Business Manager, Small or Medium Sized Business Owner, Sales Professional or Entrepreneur who finds this topic interesting but you were unable to attend this presentation, you can still take action and learn how to put follow up into practice to build and grow sales in your business …. 

Join Cheryl for Set The Stage For Follow Up – 2.5 hours of hands on training,  Monday night August 16, 2010. $89.

Get the details and hear what other participants have to say about Follow Up Training.