Using Your Community To Increase Your Business Network

So, you might notice a drop off in engagement in your content, or less impact of your marketing materials.

Why?

Well, it sounds like you aren’t getting feedback from your audience. No bad reviews. No negative direct messages. Nothing.

Just radio silence.

Where do you go from here?

That’s what your friends and community are for. There are tons of ways to get honest feedback and use that knowledge to empower your business. Here’s how to use different types of connections you have:

Friends and Family:

Ask for the brutal truth. You need to hear it, uncensored. You’re not doing yourself any favors by only asking for pretty words. Get that honest feedback, otherwise you won’t be able to fix the problem.

Your Community and your Professional Connections:

Stop viewing people as a puzzle piece you need to force-fit into one of your service plans. If you’re just marketing and advertising your services to no avail, you need to start by asking more questions like this:

What is your goal for this year for your business?
What are you doing to meet that goal?
What is working well for you?
Are you hitting any walls or struggling with anything in particular?

Don’t sell to them, just keep gaining information to see what is working or not working for people. You can take advice on what is working and implement it for your business. For what people say isn’t working, you can see if your business is helping address any of those pain points for people.

Take on more of a consultative approach, less of a sales pitch approach. Be a value-add. Listen to problems and honestly evaluate if you can solve it or refer them to someone who can. In the end, you will be someone they value and refer business to in the future. Plus, the more you learn about the people in your network, the problems they face, the goals they have; you’re setting yourself up to improve the way you approach your business model.

Don’t feel defeated if you are at a standstill, just don’t give up. If something you did this year didn’t work, that’s ok. Now you know you need to change it, and you can try again. Keep track of what you try and what kind of results you garner, that way you can keep improving.

Now go get out there and try again!