It’s not what you know…

It’s who you know. We’ve all heard that expression before.

Well I’d like to suggest that’s not reality. In many cases it’s a cop out for all those people that feel they’ve been dealt a bad hand and no matter how hard they work, someone else will always steal the prize because of… who they know. Rubbish.

It’s all about “what you do with what and who you know” that will help you succeed in business.

My tip today is to encourage anyone in business to expand and grow their network and their contact database. The key as you start to make these amazing new contacts is to know how and when to take action, but make no mistake, you need to get into action for this to happen. Stop sitting at home aggressively waiting for the phone to ring - it won’t happen!

For a long time I have been quite publicly berating the effectiveness of many business networking events. I have first hand experience of what I call the Monday Moaning Meetings. Have you been to these?

Typically, the same group of often jaded, depressed, negative business owners meet up every week at the crack of dawn, just to sit down to the same greasy breakfast offering and moan with their comrades about the dreadful state of the economy and why they’re not getting enough business. Then, in that state of mind - they head off to work… and hope that their network will also go out during the next week and find each other leads - dumb!

However… I’ve had a change of mind.

I stumbled across an organization called 4Networking. Now, I have no axe to grind, no allegiance to pledge, this is just my opinion, (well, and that of the other 24,000+ members). Check them out for yourself and see what you think. Not only are they warm, welcoming, effective formats for their face to face networking events, but they have an amazing on-line presence too. You will find me on there. Steve Clarke, CDML. Find a group near you and get along. They don’t charge to to visit and check things out.

The first mistake that most people make is to think in terms of how much business they will get and who in the room they can sell to. The typical networking myth is that each seat is worth so many thousands. Forget that and get to know people. To be interesting to others, first be interested in them. Here are some basic tips for effective networking;

  • Allow people to get to know you - and get to know them. can you remember the guy you met at that networking event, who asked nothing about you or your business, but just tried to sell to you? Don’t turn into him!
  • Don’t think about just the 20 or so people listening to your brief pitch. They all know other people. Be interested in them, listen to what they say and you will learn so much more.
  • Research events and even attendees so you can prepare a little before you go. I find it’s much easier for most people not to turn up “cold” to a meeting.
  • Set yourself a useful and practical target for your networking. You can’t just whizz in, collect 30 business cards and run away. Get to know four or five people each time you attend.
  • Have a purpose and an objective clearly in mind for each event. Not to sell, but to build relationships.
  • Don’t be ALL business - People are people, get to know them, join in with some of the banter at the meeting and on the website. Friends will become clients and clients will become friends.

Keep your sales and marketing questions coming - I’d love to hear from you. email me [email protected] or call 0845 053 4937

Please feel free to link to this blog post or copy and reprint. Do the decent thing though… give credit where it’s due and link back to this site. Talking of which, a couple of the bullet points came straight from www.4networking.biz

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