Can You Really Love Networking?
Because August is Back-to-School month here at the Business Blog, I'm offering small servings of business tips that get you back to the basics. One rudimentary aspect of business is networking, which is really nothing more than relationship building.From Inc.com, check out Learning to Love Networking by Mike Spinney. This brief article follows the transformation of a self-confessed networking wall flower into a charismatic success with more than 50% of his business coming through networking.
My favorites takeaways:
=> Focus on gatherings of people with whom you share a common interest (think golf, skiing, or investing).
=> To avoid walking into a room filled with impenetrable cliques, arrive early.
=> Understand that networking is a process and that it might take 2 years or even longer in some cases to turn a contact into a client.
Labels: sixty seconds
posted by Kim Nishida | 9:26 PM
4 Comments:
Indeed, networking is a great business tool. Over 70% of our clients are referrals from other clients and the rest are from networking. Having joined many networking groups, including Chamber Of Commerce of all kinds of cities, we have found that BNI is working the best for us. BNI has a very good training program on how to network and pass referrals.
The good thing about BNI is that there can only be one representative of a particular industry in that group. So, if you are a life insurance agent there cannot be another life insurance agent in the group. And you will be receiving all the life insurance referrals. Of course, BNI works so well because referrals are reciprocal and most referrals tend to be of prospective clients outside of the group.
The Indra team
Dear Indra,
Your referral stats are a great testimonial to your business! (In fact, I just referred you to an associate today!) And good word-of-mouth is definitely one of the most powerful forms of advertising.
BNI, LeTip, Strategic Alliance, TEAM Referral Network and many of the other "leads" groups can be a wonderful way to build relationships that get you that positive word-of-mouth buzz. I definitely recommend visiting some chapters to see which is the best fit before joining.
Thanks for pointing folks to my story. Fact is, most folks who attend networking events don't have a good approach and can be off-putting when engaging a new face in conversation.
If I learned anything from talking with Reed Thompson and others in writing that article, it is that you should focus your conversation on the other person, and be prepared to answer the question "so, what do you do?" in such a way as to invite further inquiry. "I sell (fill in the blank)," for example, is a dead end, framing the answer in a way that evokes the value/benefit of your product/service is the better answer.
(And you should re-read the article and tell the editors of Inc. how much you enjoyed it!)
Mike
Hi, Mike! Great to hear from the author himself.
You are so right about most people needing help with their networking approach. I think many have already talked themselves into the mindset of, "I'm not good at networking. It never gets me anywhere." And it becomes a vicious circle, feeding into their poor performance.
And yes, I will send the folks at inc. a note about the value of your article. Write on!
Post a Comment
<< Home