Last week GDPR in Europe came into force. We were all swamped with 'we've updated our privacy policy' emails. Actually I'm still a bit unsure about whether those emails actually meet the requirements of the legislation.

My own IT guy said that I had to send an email not only saying that we had updated our privacy policy but also including very specific 'opt in' and 'opt out' buttons to allow people to easily indicate their preference as to staying on my database. Fortunately - probably as I don't really market online - I got to keep 28% of my database.

Apparently that is an excellent response rate. That same week I spoke to two separate marketing consultants who said that marketing databases could lose up to 80% of their value to a business. Not only would they lose their contacts but their ability to market to those remaining on the list via email or telephone would also be severely restricted.

So what happens now? How do we engage with prospects and clients to rebuild - with their permission - the value of our prospect and client databases, especially as our online and telephone marketing has become so severely curtailed? Simple, we go back to the basics.

Firstly, networking. Personal contact networking. Getting in the right room, with the right people, with the right approach and with the right skills to rebuild relationships one at a time.

Secondly, presenting and speaking in public in an engaging and compelling way. These are the two fundamental skill sets of the new GDPR age. There's just one problem - most business developers, professionals, relationship and senior managers just don't have the skills to do either well.

Has your firm ever invested in client events where clients and prospects are invited to an expensive venue, where refreshments are provided, where everybody is made to feel welcome - only to be ignored by the business development team and managers who are sitting at the bar drinking with each other and then the CEO gets up to deliver a potted sales pitch which switches everybody off?

Not their fault really - both networking and presenting to groups are completely unnatural acts. Humans are programmed to want to be accepted - to do either networking or speaking in public invites rejection. Why would we chose to do either?

But there is help on hand. If you want to get your teams or leaders up-skilled to succeed in the new GDPR Age then I can help. Check out my free ebook with some tips on how to immediately improve your networking.

If you'd like to discuss how you or your team can overcome the challenges of the new GDPR age and learn how to proactively rebuild the value of your company databases, then connect with me here on Linkedin today and let's start the conversation (and do feel free to share). Talk soon!

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