Business Advice Tip #4 – Business netWORKING
How many business owners really view networking as netWORKING?
You work all day in your business, you bust your butt to get warm leads, you worry all the time about getting new clients, so if you are going to attend networking events, shouldn’t you have a plan BEFORE you get there? Why waste the money, if you could actually take some time to relax, spend time with your family, or plan your next vacation. Because any of these would be more productive than to meander around a room full of people without a goal in mind.
Networking is Not An Afterthought (and bad networking is the easiest way to turn off a prospect)
As with all business endeavors – and especially marketing and personal branding – you get out what you put in. So if you are going to get the most out of business networking you need to have a plan before you walk through the door. Here are some great tips from top notch networkers.
- Never go to a business networking event unless you know there will be prospects there that can potentially get you business. Your time is money.
- For every networking event you attend, identify five people you must meet, plus another five backups. Not everyone that you are targeting as prospects will show up at your event so you have to have a backup plan. Ideally, you want to keep the number small so you can ensure you really focus on the people that are absolutely your target prospects.
- Before you go to the event, rehearse what you are going to say to the people you want to meet. Practice in front of the mirror, or with a spouse, friend or colleague. Business NetWORKING is a business art that needs to be practiced over and over again. No matter how long you’ve done it, you still want to keep yourself at the top of your game.
- Read from the experts: If you’ve never read Zig Ziggler or any of the other true experts on sales, then you owe it to yourself to buy a couple of books and really study the science of salesmanship. The statistics say that less than 1% of the population are born as salespeople. The other 99% have to work at it. If you’re one of the 1%, then you’ve got it made. If you’re not, practice, practice and keep practicing.
- When you do get to meet your prospect and after you’ve introduced yourself, don’t start selling. There’s no greater turnoff than the bore that immediately starts pitching you for business – you’ve experienced this yourself. Instead, start asking questions. Ask them everything you can about them and their business.
- Once you’ve hit all five of your key targets, you can choose to focus on your backups, you can go home, or look for the random opportunity. The key thing is that you’ve accomplished your mission for the event. Mission accomplished, so go home because you’ve earned it.
Following these simple steps will make netWORKING more efficient and rewarding for you.
Written by Coach Josh Slavitt, pictured here with his son
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Comments
2 Comments on Business Advice Tip #4 – Business netWORKING
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LinkTrack on
Mon, 26th Oct 2009 1:27 pm
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Josh Slavitt on
Wed, 28th Oct 2009 9:08 am
Hi Josh – I like most of your suggestions, but I don’t agree with #1. I’ve gotten a ton of business by showing up at untargeted events with a “How can I help you, I need nothing in return” attitude. Even if there’s no one at the event that needs my service, I almost always walk away with a few good referrals.
I appreciate the response I received to my recent blog posting on netWORKING. I would say that your point of view and my posting are not incongruous. Rather, you are describing a tactic that I wholeheartedly recommend. I want to build repore with prospects and one of the best ways to do that is exactly as you describe: “How can I help YOU?” expecting nothing in return. However, I still believe that with all the networking events that a person can attend, it is still more strategic to have a plan ahead of time and to attend events where you know you will find warm prospects rather than going to events with cold prospects, at best. I would also add that the burden is also becoming greater on organizations to demonstrate why their events warrant our attention and our financial commitment. These days organizations have to get smarter about holding events that will bring diverse people together for real business networking, as opposed to socializing.
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