🤔 INSIDER INSIGHTS:

You are reading this week’s newsletter as I am mid-flight from Amsterdam back home to Dubai. (Four blissful nights of sleep in a hotel without a baby feeding through the night! Although I would be lying if I said I didn’t miss it a little.) But I am not sat at the business class bar sipping champagne! Read to the end of this column and you will find out what I am actually doing - and why you should be doing it too.

I went to ‘The Dam’ for a show called Money 2020, which is a who’s who of the banking industry: banks, payment technologies, FX solutions, credit card acquirers and more. I wanted to make connections and find new suppliers for Clique, our banking platform for SME’s and I was told that this is the place to be.

It was three days of power networking but was worth every minute and penny spent. So let me tell you about it and teach you all you need to know about how to maximise your results from events like this.

First things first: The ticket price…

This event was not cheap. €4700 for a ticket! (Although it did include all the Mac & cheese and croissants you could eat!). Even I found it slightly eye watering at first, but an hour into the conference and it felt like an absolute bargain. And that highlights the importance of ‘niche-ing down’ when it comes to networking.

You want to be concentrating on specific targets, people who are directly useful to you and your business - and at a niche event you can guarantee that the people you want to meet are there.

It’s niche - it is everyone in your industry. When you see conferences that are more general like ’start-up show’ ‘entrepreneurs conference’ ‘businesses owners’ event’ etc etc, they are so broad that the chances of meeting people that can supercharge your business growth are slim to none.

One of the great things you got with this conference was an app that you get access to as soon as you have paid and registered. The app shows you the full schedule for the show so you can plan your diary but more importantly it shows you the full profile for every single person who is attending. Name, company, what people / sector they are interested in, other contact details etc etc.

For anyone who doesn’t realise it - networking is the only reason to go to these trade shows and conventions.

Sure, the talks might be interesting, but they are rarely essential and can usually be seen online from some kind of post-show recording. The only reason to take three days out of the office and pay the associated costs is to be in a room with people you need to meet.

So, once I had access to the App, that is when I really started to put the effort in. Last weekend I spent circa 15 hours working thorough the details of EVERY attendee and sponsor company for the event. What their business did, where it was based, who the key staff were, who was best for me to see. I then created lists of the people and companies I needed to be meeting with, based on my research, and I got to work! Individually connecting with and messaging them all to introduce myself and pre-book meetings at the show with them.

Obviously, there is no guarantee that any of these people would get back to me. Maybe they are being lazy and don’t check their app and messages because they are planning properly for the show. Maybe they did check me out and thought I wouldn’t be a good fit or effective use of their time, so they ignored me or declined me. Either way I wasn’t leaving it to chance or a limited number of decisions.

So, as well as messaging them on the app I also found them to connect with on LinkedIn and messaged them on there too. And if there was more than one attendee from a company coming, I connected with them all. (Obviously CEO’s were my preferred choice, but I don’t have an ego about it - I will use the window cleaner to get me a foot in the door if that is necessary.)

When connecting with people in a situation like this, or in general, you should be making your intro messages as personal and relevant as possible.

Don’t look like you are smashing out connection requests willy-nilly. Show them that you have put the effort in to research them. Make reference to common connections, or interests (I told anyone from Finland that I had a Finnish girlfriend as my bonding trick!), and exactly why you want to connect with them so that everyone knows the relevance and can avoid wasted time.

If people knock you back or don’t reply, Don’t cry about it! It’s sales, it’s a numbers game.

Move on to the next connection. The more effort you put in at the front end, the more effortless things will look at the backend.

I couldn’t have been any better prepared. So, by the time I arrived in Amsterdam, my diary was planned with military precision. I had about 20 pre-planned meetings each day, and time left in my calendar to walk around and seek out other connections that I may not have realised at the time would be there.

At the show, the meetings I set up were all 15 minute ‘power meetings’. I loved this as I hate wasted time and small talk. I can’t tell you how much I hate the coming back from the new year in January when ,15 days in, people are still asking if you had a good new year!! Can you imagine how much time is wasted on useless small talk?!

The number of connections I have made and useful information I have learnt, and potential partners I have met over the last 3 days is HUGE.

Sure, I would have met some people just by walking around the show with no planning done whatsoever. But the level of effort and preparation I put into it made sure the numbers of useful relationships I made was on steroids!

And that is the secret. Which like most ‘secrets’ isn’t a secret! It is just another situation in life where a lot of effort and preparation is required to get a successful outcome. Effort and preparation many people are too lazy or arrogant to put in.

If, in the next 12 months, I don’t get £1,000,000 of value out of the last 3 days I will be staggered. £4700 on a ticket and probably another £7k in ancillary costs is looking like an investment with an ROI to make even Warren Buffet’s eyes water!

So I told you at the beginning of this that if you read to the end I’ll tell you what I am doing right now!……. I am doing email follow ups to everyone I have met - and with the 100 plus business cards I have got it will probably take me. the full 7 hours flight back to Dubai! But the real money is in the follow up and that is where most people go wrong. You need to follow up FAST - keep the momentum going, and realise that unless you follow up the all the open doors and connections will go to waste.

When you follow up make sure you remind the person exactly how you are, where you met and what you started talking about - don’t have an ego about expecting them to remember everything. They will have met 100’s of people too and probably won’t be as organised and strategic about networking as I am teaching you to be! Then be clear about what you want, how you can work together and where the mutual benefit is.

Whether it is a trade show for dozens of contacts, or just getting a couple of business cards from people at a casual lunch, the principles I outline above should always be followed, and are what I have been using to get paid handsomely for the last 20 plus years.

I hope you enjoy this weeks newsletter, please email with what you have been up to and any success stories and tips you want to share.

😱SCARY STAT

Recent research conducted by Lloyds Banking Group exposes a startling revelation…

In the UK, a consumer falls prey to a purchasing scam originating from Facebook or Instagram every seven minutes, resulting in a staggering cost of over £500k per week.

📢TEAM TALK

Each week my team will share some of the tips, tools, learnings, apps and hacks that have powered their productivity, improved their lives, got them thinking, or just provided them a little entertainment.

NEW PRODUCT

Google introduces Product Studio, an innovative tool empowering Shopping merchants to effortlessly enhance and personalize their product images using advanced generative AI.

Google's data shows that product listings featuring multiple images experience a remarkable 76% increase in impressions and a notable 32% increase in clicks compared to listings with just one image.

With the new generative AI tool, Product Studio enables swift visual adjustments to product images using simple text prompts.

KEY LEARNING

Oops! eBay's latest mishap unfolded when they introduced generative AI on their mobile app to assist sellers in listing new items for sale…

Unfortunately, the company overlooked a crucial step – informing the sellers and labeling the associated icon appropriately. Consequently, when sellers innocently clicked on the icon, it unexpectedly replaced their entire product descriptions with AI-generated text, leaving them with no means to retrieve the original descriptions.

NEW BUSINESS ADVICE: Do Your Keyword Research!

Before you jump into a new venture or start a new website, it is imperative to research your target keywords, and analyse competition, costs and difficulty. If you don't do this, you may be surprised at how slowly your online presence will gain traction and your marketing budget could need a re-think!

You can also identify new potential business ideas. If your target keywords have low competition and high search volumes you're onto a good thing.

📑SPOTLIGHT: ZARA OWNERS BEAT FOREASTS IN FIRST QUARTER RESULTS

Spanish fashion giant Inditex has posted a robust performance in its first quarter, with double digit sales and profit growth.

Spanish fashion giant Inditex, which owns fashion brands Zara, Bershka and Oysho, revealed sales grew 13% to €7.6bn in the first quarter of 2023, with positive growth in all of its 213 markets.

Gross profit increased 14% to €4.6bn, with gross margin reaching 60.5%. And EBITDA rose 14% to €2.2bn, with net income up 54% to €1.2bn.

Inditex said due to the strong operating performance cash from operations has increased markedly too, with its net cash position jumping 14% to €10.5 billion.

All eyes have been on Inditex this last year, as new boss Marta Ortega, the daughter of Inditex founder Amancio Ortega – became chair of the group in April 2022. With whispers of nepotism from the industry and what her new leadership could mean for the business.

But the proof is in the pudding! These excellent results show Ortega has blown her critics out of the water and her passion for retail is clearly in the blood.

Off the back of its first quarter performance, shares at Inditex rose 6% in Spain to €33.65, as the group continues to see strong growth opportunities in its future outlook.

Inditex says its spring/summer collections continue to be very well received by its customers, with online and store sales in constant currency growing 16% between May and June 4, compared to the same period in 2022.

CLICK TO READ - HOW INDITEX PLANS TO DRIVE LONG-TERM GROWTH

📈  BEHIND THE NEWS: THE SCOOP ON GOOGLE BARD AI

After spending some time interviewing Chat GPT I was reassured that the positives outweigh the negatives. And yes, ChatGPT provides real opportunities for talented, hard-working, creative individuals to do even better work. But what about its biggest rival, Google Bard AI?

Since ChatGPT launched back in late 2022 there have been plenty of developments in one of the fastest-moving technologies ever. There have been a few competitors pop up too – most notably Google’s AI called Bard.

Google launched Bard in March 2023 sparking a tech war to put Apple vs Microsoft and Betamax vs VHS in the shade! So, what are the advantages of Bard?

I took a look at Google’s AI from my perspective as an entrepreneur and came up with this. A magnificent…

7 THINGS BARD DOES BETTER:

1. Google Bard AI Works in Real Time

2. Bard Has Really Smart Ways to Input Questions

3. Bard Lets You Edit Your Input on the Fly

4. Bard Gives You More!

5. Bard Does Technical Stuff, Really Well

6. Bard Compares Articles and Documents

7. Google Bard AI is free

CLICK TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE, AS I DRILL DOWN INTO EACH POINT & HOW IT CAN IMPACT YOUR BUSINESS>

The global conversation around A.I continues to spread across all industries, here’s my take on it..

✂️ SNIPPETS FROM THE WEEK

• UK to have one of highest inflation rates in G20 this year, new forecast shows. Read here>

• Apple unveils their latest cutting-edge VR/AR headset priced at $3,500. Read here>

• Vodafone, Hutchison to announce UK merger as soon as Friday. Read here>

📸  BIG PICTURE: WHAT IS UNIFIED COMMERCE & HOW COULD IT IMPACT YOUR BUSINESS?

Unified commerce is one of the biggest trends set to shape the future of shopping, according to a new retail report, adding potentially $1.5 trillion to the retail sector globally.

BUT WHAT IS UNIFIED COMMERCE?

Unified commerce is an evolution of the term ‘omni-channel,’ used to describe a seamless customer journey both offline and online. But it goes one step further, by connecting all possible ways consumers can shop and interact with a brand into one unified system.

If a customer wants to start shopping online, then finish in store or visa versa. If they want to shop via a promotion through their social channels, or through a live home shopping link, they will see the same offer.

The idea of unified commerce connects the customer-facing side of omni-channel, with the back-end technology, so that wherever they’re shopping, through whatever channel and using whatever payment method, they will have that single, personalised customer experience. And in turn that seamless customer experience will help to build brand loyalty.

But, importantly for businesses, they will that have that single, unified view of the customer too.

Retail has become incredibly complex over the last few years, with the sheer volume of ways in which consumers can shop and interact with brands. So, the ability to manage commerce from one unified system is (unsurprisingly) music to retailers’ ears.

HOW COULD UNIFIED COMMERCE IMPACT YOUR BUSINESS?

READ THE FULL ARTICLE HERE>

💬COMMENT OF THE WEEK: HOW TO BEHAVE IN A CRISIS BY NETFLIX CO-FOUNDER

If you don’t follow Netflix co-founder Marc Randolph on Linked In or Twitter, I highly recommend you do. Although best known for co-founding streaming giant Netflix, his career spans over four decades as an entrepreneur and he often has much to say on the topic.

He recently posted this about what entrepreneurs can learn from a crisis:

"Maybe you’ve read that investors like Warren Buffett became successful by seeing opportunity where others saw crisis. Well, it’s true — and it’s also just a tiny part of the story. Because the fact is, every crisis has its upsides, and you don’t have to be a financial wizard to take advantage of them.

The most fundamental thing to remember about a crisis is that it always makes something easier to obtain. Stocks are cheaper after they tank, talent is more available, there’s less competition for investment, etc. It’s not just the bad fortune of those affected by the crisis — everyone tends to get more risk-averse, and makes for a buyer’s market.

Especially if you’re an entrepreneur or part of an early-stage business, you should always be looking for the opportunities in any crisis. The SVB fiasco, for example, left a lot of companies reeling. That’s undoubtedly a crisis, but it also means:

1. Valuations are down, so it’s a great time to seek out new mergers and acquisitions.

2. A lot of great people are out of work, so it’s a great time to hire.

3. Plenty of vendors have lost customers, so it’s a great time to drive harder bargains.

Succeeding in entrepreneurship is and always has been a matter of timing (among lots of other things). And a big part of that is seeing each crisis for what it is: a brief period of time when everything’s changing, and opportunities are lying all around.”

🎟️ EVENTS & NETWORKING

The summer is almost upon us, and that means only 1 thing. No, not more pictures of me with my shirt off on Seasquirter - it means it is time for Berry’s Tennis on the 22nd and 23rd of June!

If you are from the Yorkshire area I am sure you will have either been yourself or heard about it in the press. I created the event about 6 years ago as the perfect fusion of 2 of my favourite activities - tennis and networking! We built a marquee and created a grass tennis court in the beautiful grounds of Hazelwood Castle, and over the course of the event our sponsors and my businesses entertain around 800 guests between us.

The food and Champagne is flowing, our partners showcase their luxury items like Patek Philipe watches and Rolls Royce cars, and everyone is entertained by tennis legends such as Richard Krajicheck, Mark Philippousis and Henri Leconte.

When it comes to my networking events I like to create incredible environments and provide ‘money can’t buy’ experiences to my best clients. And arranging them to play games of tennis with Wimbledon champions is the prime example of a way I get to attract the attention of people who normally have access to everything they want.

So if you want to entertain your clients, network with the good and great of Yorkshire, or just entertain yourself at a unique day out then get in touch with me or my team for information on tables and tickets. There aren’t many left!

TELL YOUR FRIENDS AND GET REWARDED

I love sharing things with friends, and if this newsletter has made you smile or been helpful then please share it with your mates and wider connections. Even better, there will be something in it for you.

We are still finding our feet, and the full reward programme isn’t in place yet. But any referrals you do in the meantime will all count towards it when it is.

What rewards can you expect? One of the rewards will be a long weekend in Dubai with me for the ultimate business immersion experience and dinner with some of my network on my yacht. So get referring now!

Copy and paste this link to others to refer them to the newsletter https://matthaycoxdaily.beehiiv.com/subscribe?ref=PLACEHOLDER