If you have been following this blog or my posts on LinkedIn, you know I am a big advocate for educating my fellow intermediary. The better prepared we all are, the more likely we all are of being successful. Current trade techniques and regulations as well as the proper etiquette that we should engage in when dealing with not only buyers and sellers but other intermediaries, are all important areas that we as intermediaries in the commodities industry should keep ourselves educated on. If you do not come off as a professional, knowledgeable and experienced industry representative, you are endangering not only your ability to close deals, but your very reputation in this business.
I shouldn’t have to tell you that in any business, reputation is everything. That especially applies when you are dealing with people that potentially have or have access to millions and in some cases billions of dollars in cash and/or assets. You may have already been involved in a transaction that has failed because of the bad reputation of someone involved in the transaction. I have seen this numerous times. A buyer or seller sees the NCNDA signed by all the brokers involved and immediately cancels the transaction because he/she sees someone on there with a shoddy reputation. Utilizing the techniques that I speak about in this and previous posts will be a good start to maintaining a good reputation amongst all the relationships you create and maintain within this industry.
The front line of your reputation: Your web address
Networking has changed dramatically in the digital age. Before social media and the internet became the most effective way to market your business and yourself, you could say things were a lot simpler. You hit the streets. You went to social clubs and industry networking events to chat up potential customers, other industry professionals and other potential business assets to grow your business and your network. One of the most important tools of these days was the business card. Handing out business cards remains to this day a great way to market yourself and present yourself as a professional.
Since the digital revolution, having a website is the business card for the new age business owner or industry representative. Another part of having your own website is having a personalized email address. I have mentioned this both on this blog and on many postings and private emails to other intermediaries that having an email account with a public domain such as gmail or yahoo mail makes you look inexperienced right off the bat. On the flip side of the coin, having a personalized, relevant email address is key to developing a rapport with other intermediaries and especially the end buyers and end sellers or mandates that you start relationships with. Your email address is the first thing everyone looks at when they receive a message from you. The last thing they should be looking at when reading a message from you should be a personalized signature which contains contact information including a website address. Even a one page splashpage that has basic information about what you do or what products you specialize in well help your reputation immensely amongst other professionals.
Getting the help you need, now
If you have seen my posts before you know I am not saying anything new. I have been giving this advice for quite some time now. Yet, the majority of the email addresses I see people using still seem to be from public email domains. You want people to take you seriously, get a website, get an email address.
I see that the biggest challenge for people reading this is simply finding the time and motivation to get this done on their own. The prospect of building a website could seem like a daunting one for someone who has little to no experience with web design and development. Well, I have decided to take my advice a step further and offer everyone some easy tips and techniques on how to build your own website and get your own branded email address.
I have decided that there is such a need from all the people in this business to have this service that I am offering this for free. Yes, absolutely, completely and truly free. I will show you how to not only create your own unique webpage and branded email address, I will show you how to generate traffic to your website yourself using proven Search Engine Optimization techniques. At the very least you will be on your way to building a better rapport with all the relationships you have, current and future.
Not only am I going to show you how to do all this yourself, I am offering free support. If you have questions or problems while you are getting everything up and running, just ask me and I will help you through it, every step of the way.
Free advice, free support. What you need. Now.
Contact me today.