If you sell professional services and high ticket items, networking provides your first and best opportunity to succeed. You cannot get far without having relationships in the market. Robust networking is the fast track to building relationships.
There’s a craving for authentic human interactions in business dealings. Of course, there are those who prefer the semi-anonymity of occupying a controlled camera view on a screen, the safety of mute, and the convenience of staying put.
Stay Out!
Intentional business networking is a skill that no software or AI can replace or enhance in any meaningful way. It takes you and you alone to make networking an effective part of your marketing mix.
Networking is really all about listening to others and serving them while expecting nothing in return. And get this. You might go to a few networking events, say and do all the right things, and not get a single direct sale out of the effort. And if you conclude that it was a waste of your time, then you weren’t really listening, especially to the influencers.
The Success Principle
We were created to serve one another, not exploit our gifts. The instinctual goodwill of others proves this over and over again. Think about all the helping hands throughout your life, and all the times you’ve come to the aid of others, especially when they really needed a hand.
The networking groups in which I participate welcome people in all sorts of roles. We actively look for opportunities to do business or refer business to people we get to know in our ever widening circles.
Your Networking Strategy
Clearly, it’s important to join the organizations where you’ll find clients, suppliers, and influencers in your industry. The more you participate in the events, the more influence you’ll have, and the better people will know you.
Go to events prepared to ask good questions and learn. Listen with both ears and take an interest in others’ experiences. Relax and you’ll be asked about your business too. Make it all about your clients’ success working with you.
Grow Your Organic Audience
Let your direct marketing have the power of an actual human relationship behind it. When people know that it’s really you who are writing and sending them content, then you have just distinguished yourself among all the spammy players out there.
The best potential marketing leads in your sales database are the people you’ve met personally through networking and direct selling efforts. When you reach out to them, put some relevance and meaning into the message and you may experience immediate results. And don’t we all want results?
Chuck Sink is the owner of Chuck Sink Link, a marketing services agency in Sunapee NH.
