For 3 weeks last month, Our DISClive Pro Sessions were spent in DISCussion with the wonderful Nicky Davies who shared some amazing tips and ‘how tos’ in levelling up your business. She provided sensible, simple and practical advice that can be applied to all levels of business in a way that was easy to follow and succinct.  

During the sessions Nicky gave five golden nuggets of advice for businesses: 

Who’s In Your Backyard? 

Sometimes we forget to look close to home for potential clients. Nicky pointed out that our own backyard is a great place to start! Who do you come across on your way to work or your school run? Set filters on LinkedIn and Glassdoor or use HubSpot to identify local businesses in a 10-mile radius around you.  

Once you have a good selection, find out what they do, what do they do well, how big they are, who their target audience is, what are the names of their decision-makers.

What Are Their Pain Points? 

Using what you have learnt about these local businesses, consider what sort of problems they could be facing. Is it something that you could solve for them? What they say on social media could provide useful insight into their struggles. Maybe a blog they have written reveals new legislation or change that they will have to face.  

Go through your list of businesses. Put them in priority order of how well your possible solutions may be able to help solve their problems. It is important to note that not every organisation on your list will be relevant but do not dismiss them! Nicky believes that building relationships is never wasted effort! 

Making A Connection

Find the person that you want to speak to. Look at what they talk about, what do they post? How are they responding to current affairs or others? Do you have similar thoughts/ interests?
What do you think their DISC style is? Check it against your own. Think about them and how they like to receive information (If you are unsure what this is check out our videos page).

It is often easier to connect with people who share some of your values. If you are lucky enough to view the world in similar ways it will be easier for you to find conversation starters and build an authentic connection.

Nicky stressed the need for authenticity in your connections – people know when you are not genuine and that can lead to distrust – An absolute deal-breaker in any sales scenario.

12 Touchpoints 

In days of old marketeers and salespeople were told that you needed an average of 7 touchpoints with potential clients for your name to stick. Now with our overabundance of information and online connections, this has grown to 12.

It is a good idea to plan out these touchpoints in advance. You could use a spreadsheet and plan them over a 40-day period.

Think again about the behavioural style of your prospect and tailor your touchpoints to suit (We will be doing a post on these in the next few weeks – keep your eyes peeled for that!).

Because you’ve done your research into who you want to talk to, why not send them a relevant article they may be interested in or tag them in a LinkedIn comment on a post that they may find useful. Why not send them a private message or think about who you could possibly introduce them to in your network. There are so many ways for you to stand out and be remembered as long as you are authentic in all your interactions.  

Use Your Behavioural Style to Your Benefit 

Use your strengths! No matter what DISC style you have, you can use it to your advantage. Think about what value YOU can bring on a larger scale. Whatever you get the most out of professionally, you can recreate. Whether it is bringing together a panel of speakers (online or in-person), hosting a public speaking event, running a webinar or organising a more intimate roundtable, know where your strengths lie and use them to your benefit. They will, in turn, naturally benefit others.

During her sessions, Nicky’s insight was focussed and straightforward. She outlined a practical and very accessible system to look at larger businesses and how you can get in front of them using your strengths and building authentic relationships. It was a fascinating set of sessions and gave us a small taster of what her bootcamp might be like.  

‘…Incredibly smart and easy to understand.’ – Thierry Mazué 

 ‘Such an amazing session, great advice and so clearly and succinctly delivered by Nicky J Davies MSc FInstLM. Really looking forward to the next two sessions. Thank you!’ – Lucy Warman 

 ‘This was such a great session. Thank You! Wonderful to have the time and space to strip things back and make the daunting prospect of approaching companies simple (especially if you’re currently more individual-based).’ – Martin Seville

Find out more about Nicky Davies and how she can help you by arranging a 1-hour discovery call.

Keeping things simple in a complicated world.

To learn more about the DISC tool and how you can learn to identify different DISC styles. Come along to one of our free lunchtime sessions. They are full of powerful insight into the world of Everything DiSC® (part of the Wiley group) and in just 30 minutes you will learn something! We run a learning session every Monday and a Pro session for professionals already working with DISC every other Thursday.

If you are a people development expert, independent consultant or coach and would like to benefit from a like-minded and supportive network of people get in touch at discover@discsimple.com to find out how you can become a partner.