All Business Networking

Networking and Pipeline Building

For many people networking is a very hit and miss affair with no predictability and reliability around developing business. Earlier this week I attended a Pipeline Seminar with Sarah Owen of the Referral Institute as part of their 'Creating Referrals For Life' programme. The Pipeline Seminar is all about how to implement a structured referral strategy. On the day the attendees generated close to £750,000 worth of appointments for each other!

I have sat the Pipeline Seminar with others previously and now have monthly follow up One2One meetings where we usually give between 4 & 8 referrals to each other for the following month. It's a great complement to my networking and a way of ensuring that some of my close networking relationships are mutually profitable.

Does your networking strategy include anything like this?

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

business networking | business networking events | business networking podcast

Engaging with people in Networking

I was talking with an NRG member today about his experiences presenting Seminars at NRG Business Networking Lunch Events. He shared that he had received 2 referrals from people at each of the last 2 talks, but none for the 2 before those. The only thing that differed was that he did not use a PowerPoint presentation in the last 2 and felt the audience was much more engaged with him as a result.

Finding ways of engaging with the people you regularly meet networking are vital in getting to build strong business relationships. Presenting to your group is a great way of engaging and adding value to the others. An experience of you sharing your expertise first hand goes a long way to establishing your credibility and building trust in you and your services.

How many speaking slots do you have in your diary?

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

business networking | business networking events | business networking podcast

The Tipping Point & Online Networking

I was explaining how to integrate online and offline networking to someone at an NRG seminar recently. In '10 tips for building business with the effective use of offline & online networks' I suggest that you identify the online networks to join and start a blog. Your blog is the cornerstone of your online presence and the image below from the Logic + Emotion Blog in 'Twitter Tuesday, Influence Ripples + Tipping Points' is a great visual aid to illustrate my point.

The 3 types of networkers identified in the Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell are shown and described. The Salesman uses knowledge to engage and persuade, the Maven connects people through sharing knowledge, the Connector connects people to each other. To be effective online you need to be a bit of each (or get people to do some of it for you). Think of your blog as engaging and persuading, then use social media to share knowledge and social networks to share connections.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

business networking | business networking events | business networking podcast