Finding reasons to call

Newsletter - Advisors get involved locally
For some advisors getting involved with local businesses and organisations is an obvious way to make new business contacts, but those of us who travel a lot for work sometime overlook the benefits of local networking. I know that I've often under-estimated the quality and quantity of useful people in my local area. If you're busy, then building local contacts can help you find people to support you and take some of the load. If you're not, then getting involved in local organisations will get you out and about and making new contacts - and you never know when a fellow committee member will turn out to be a potential client!
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Demonstrating Quality
I've always been impressed by the depth and variety of experience that so many Skillfair members have, and that's been reflected in the testimonials, references and other information they've provided for quality checking purposes. We've now added a new feature to the system that allows members to display their key memberships and accreditations alongside the quality rating - so clients can see immediately who is 'Prince Qualified' or a 'Chartered Marketer' for example.
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Finding reasons to call

In this week's newsletter:

Finding reasons to call
Thank you!
This week's projects
Publicising events

Finding reasons to call

Most consultants I talk to find calling new prospects a daunting proposition, and many find even contacting existing clients is something they continually put off. Chatting about this with a former colleague today we realised that we were perfectly happy to call out contacts to help someone else - our anxiety circuits only seem to kick in when we're trying to sell ourselves. The good news though, is that if you do call with the aim of helping someone else there's a good chance the conversation will move on to other areas and you never know, there might turn out to be some work in it for you as well!

Thank you!?

The initial response to our fee rate survey has been stunning - well over 500 responses in the first day. If you've not had time to fill it in yet, please do - the more response we have the better. One interesting feature that's already emerging is that a lot of people have been asked to do work for free or for very low rates in the last year. Your responses to this seem to be split depending on the reason, with many of you quite comfortable with providing help for little return to charities or to small businesses who are struggling, but with much less sympathy for larger concerns or middlemen trying to maintain high margins in the face of client pressure.

This week's projects

The pressure on prices is being reflected in some of the projects we're seeing on Skillfair, particularly in training but we're also getting plenty of interesting opportunities that are offering good rates for the right people.

Mobile Marketing - Resellers / Channel Partners
Direct Client Major Retail Training Opportunity
IBC Job Evaluation Expertise needed,Overseas
Marketing advice needed for sale of Architectural Goods
IMechE Boiler feed water treatment
Client Website Employability MIS Feasibility Study and Provider Mapping, Scotland
Technical Feasibility Study for Community Stadium, Northern Ireland
Artists and Workshop Facilitators, Northern Ireland
Research for Evaluation of Health Programme,Overseas
Print Audit Consultancy, East Midlands
Client Website Brand Tracking Survey , South West
System Implementation Project Manager , North East England
Business Model Options for the Delivery of Learning Services, North West
On-Line Talent, Performance Management and Development Training,Overseas
Client Website Web Site Design, Wales
Business Health Check
Leadership Development Support, North East England
Strategic Advisor for Data Resources, United Kingdom
Evaluation of Talent Programme, North West England
OJEU Design Services, South West
OJEU Server Virtualisation, South West
OJEU Medical Technologies Cluster Programme , West Midlands
OJEU Evaluation of Energy Assistance project, Scotland
OJEU IT Application Development, London

Organising an event and need publicity?

One good way of getting to meet new business contacts, or meet up with existing ones, is to put on a workshop or seminar in a subject you're expert in. Once you have a venue set up - which needn't cost a great deal - the challenge is to get enough people along to make it a worthwhile event. Offering to speak at an event organised by a networking group of professional body can help with this, but if you want to boost numbers why not try Skillfair's Offer and Event alert? Up to 2 alert adverts are included in your membership and the feedback we get is that this is a very effective way of reaching a wide audience. So why not join Skillfair now and post your advert?