Business networking is practised by all types of people in work and business, particularly through organized networking events and on-line services. A enterprise network of contacts is both a path to market for you, and a marketing technique. Business networking offers a way to reach determination-makers which might otherwise be very troublesome to have interaction with utilizing typical advertising strategies. Businesspeople are likely to fall into considered one of two groups in terms of their views of networking.
Business professionals who don’t have lots of spare time typically ask us which networking groups present the biggest bang for their buck. There are 5 main types, and what works greatest is dependent upon the enterprise they’re in and the prospects they want to meet. A few decades ago, when individuals started out and were informed, “It’s not what you realize that counts; it’s whom you know,” that was a nod to the importance of business networking.
Strong contact networks present extremely focused alternatives for you and your associates to start creating your referral advertising campaigns. You will not meet lots of of businesspeople in this kind of group, however all the members shall be carrying your small business cards around with them all over the place they go. The web result’s like having up to 50 salespeople working for you! With a program like this, you may be establishing powerful long-term relationships that will show invaluable. But, as a result of casual-contact organizations aren’t tailor-made primarily that will help you get referrals, they are better treated as an addition to a strong-contact group, not a replacement for it.
Pick the group before you pick the calendar
Most people do it the other way round. They see an event, they go, they collect cards, and a month later nothing happened. Better to decide first what kind of room you actually need to sit in, and then find the meetings that fill that room.
A short list helps here:
- strong-contact groups, where one member per trade is allowed and referrals are the point
- casual-contact groups, bigger and looser, good for visibility
- professional associations, where your clients may already be members
- community and service organizations, slower but very durable
None of them is the correct answer for everybody. A plumber and a tax adviser will not need the same room, and that is normal.
What you say when somebody asks what you do
This is the part people prepare least and use most. If your answer is your job title, the conversation stops there. If your answer is a small concrete example of a problem you fixed last week, the other person usually has a follow-up question, and now you are talking.
Keep it short. Twenty seconds is plenty, and if they want more they will ask, which is a much better position to be in than talking at somebody who is already looking over your shoulder for the coffee.
Also say who you want to meet. Not "anyone who needs my service" — that gives nobody anything to work with. Name the type of company, the type of role. People cannot refer what they cannot picture.
The follow-up is where the work actually is
A card in your pocket is not a contact. The note you send two days later, referring to something the person actually said, is the beginning of a contact, and even then it takes months before anything comes of it.
Keep a simple record. A spreadsheet is fine. Name, where you met, what they do, what they mentioned they were struggling with, when you last spoke.
And give first where you can. Send somebody a lead, introduce two people who should know each other, answer a question that costs you nothing. This is not a trick to get something back, although often you do. It is just how a network stays alive between the meetings.
Six months of showing up at the same group, remembering names, and following up on what you promised will do more than a year of visiting a new event every week.