Five
Habits of Highly Effective Networkers:
How to Turn Chicken Dinners into New Clients and
an Endless Stream of Referrals"
by Adam Urbanski, The
Marketing Mentor
Even
though business networking can quickly put you in front of
how new prospects, help you create life-long strategic alliances,
get more referrals and simply find people you really enjoy
hanging out with, majority of professionals have no clue how
to make their networking count.
They
attend the wrong meetings, use boring self-introductions,
can’t recognize a good prospect if one stepped on their
toe, don't know how to elicit interest in their service, give
no value in conversations with those they meet, gobble down
their rubber chicken, rush out and never follow-up…
Does
this sound familiar? It certainly did for me when I was starting
out. Instead of STRATEGICALLY SELECTING and LEVERAGING a couple
of groups that could get me lots of local visibility I hopped
around from one group to another getting little or no results.
I
was frustrated, attending many of those meetings was no longer
fun and exciting, and each time I collected a few more ‘useless’
business cards I was becoming more discouraged and jaded.
I knew I needed to do something differently but I didn’t
know how.
Fortunately,
with time I discovered how to be a better networker, and that
virtually anyone can easily master this business building
strategy.
As
a matter of fact, by practicing a few of the following tips
you can turn your face to face promotional efforts into a
powerful business building tool.
So
here are Marketing Mentor’s Five Habits of Highly Effective
Networkers:
Habit
#1 - BE PREPARED
I
often joke that every new business owner should be jailed
for 30 days – so that they have time to think and develop
a business strategy. You must take time to plan your networking
activities or you’ll quickly find yourself overwhelmed
and frustrated. Here are at least three things you need to
address ahead of time:
Know
what you are looking for. It’s like going fishing; you
must know what fish you want to catch before you choose a
fishing spot. Conversely, you must know who your ideal prospects,
how to recognize them and what is the best 'bait' to attract
them.
Develop a magnetic ABC (Audio Business Card). It blows me
away that smart business people spend days and weeks designing
their printed business cards, but when asked what they do
they quickly degenerate into a blubbering, brainless baboon!
Don’t
bother going anywhere until you develop an attention getting
Audio Business Card that clearly communicates who you work
with, the problems you solve and the benefits of working with
you.
Find the right group (for you). Even the best marketing message
won’t matter one bit if you are hanging out with a wrong
crowd. Identify groups that are most likely to attract either
your ideal clients or those who already have access to your
ideal clients.
Habit #2 - BE INTERESTED
If
you’ve networked once or twice before you inevitably
had the displeasure of running into that self-centered, never-stops-yapping
about-themselves bore! What we don’t realize is that
we often are THAT BORE!
Hey,
it's only natural that we all get excited about our business.
But frankly, what we do is boring to others. So stop trying
to be interesting and become more INTERESTED. Talk less and
listen a lot more!
Dr.
Stephen Covey said it best: “Seek to understand before
you seek to be understood”.
Fact
is, people never do business with you just because they understand
what you do. They do business with you because they FEEL UNDERSTOOD!
Habit
#3 - HAVE MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS
Learn
to engage people in conversations that will leave them energized
and excited.
Ask
provoking questions that cause the other person to shift how
they think/look at life or business.
Share a success tip that worked for you or a little known
resource that will save them time/money.
Make a connection and open the door...Facilitate an introduction
to someone who you think can become a valuable contact or
a potential client.
Most people are tired of exchanging trivialities and welcome
this fresh approach. Amazingly, such attitude of ‘being
of service’ will set you apart from others and land
you more new business than any sales pitch you could ever
develop.
Habit
#4 - MAKE FRIENDS NOT SALES
Asking
a few questions about your business doesn’t make someone
a prospect or a buyer! Pushy, self-centered requests for business
and referrals expressed too early in the conversation come
across as rude. No one likes to be sold so people will run
away from you.
Instead,
make it your goal to make new friends. Meet and connect with
other like-minded individuals you like as a person and focus
on developing long-tem business relationships with them.
Habit
#5 - FOLLOW UP
In
the five years of running my coaching and consulting business,
I can remember fewer than ten people who promised to connect
with me after I met them and actually did. Sadly, majority
of professionals get so busy
collecting new business cards they forget to stay in touch
with people they already met.
Develop
follow-up tools – reports, articles, audio CDs –
that describe your product or service in an engaging, informative
way. Use greeting
cards, postcards, publish an ezine or a one-page printed monthly
newsletter.
Whatever
you do find a way to systematically follow-up to maximize
your
networking ROI (return on investment).
Do
you like these suggestions? Want to learn more strategies
and how-to tips to improve your networking skills? Look out
for a special announcement this coming Wednesday.
In
that message I'll share with you a few more networking tips
and trick
I learned over the years and you can improve the results you're
getting from your online and off-line networking efforts.
© 2004 Marketing Mentors. All Rights Reserved.
About the Author
Adam
Urbanski, helps service professionals and business
owners develop marketing strategies to increase sales and
profits. His website offers more how-to articles and free
tips to create a winning marketing
action plan
 |
The
7 Deadly Marketing Mistakes
& How to Fix Them... with
Adam
Urbanski
|
Listen
in as Adam Urbanski shares answers to some of the most
nagging questions all self-employed professionals and small
business owners have:
-
Why so many professionals struggle with their marketing and
rarely achieve the level of success they desire?
- If your personal introduction sounds like a boring elevator
speech that gets you nowhere.
- Discover how three to five simple marketing tweaks will give
you an incredible advantage over other similar businesses.
Learn
More & Order NOW
WANT
TO SEE MORE TIPS ABOUT NETWORKING?
Visit my
blog The
Power of Networking
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All rights reserved© BiBa4Network,
LLC 2006
