Networking – Your Success Depends on Supporing Others
The C***** C***** has focused peoples minds on how to ensure their businesses survive. The two things that often go in a downward market is marketing and training. Ironically these are the two things that will determine how well you do in a tough market, i.e. who knows about you and how skilled are the people working for you.
I am not going to emphases the huge benefits of training in this posting, (however please do see www.performancecoachingandtraining.co.uk for more details!!!) One of the most cost-effective ways of marketing is networking. You ask any business and they will say that the word-of-mouth referral is the best. It is personal, it shows trust and the turnaround from enquiry to business is much shorter. There are many aspects of networking that you can familiarise yourself with to ensure it works for you.
One aspect is the support you give to others. You can get all you want and desire from networking events by helping others get what they want. Ask yourself this, if you went to an event and there were people there who were solely focused on getting what you want, either by getting you contacts, giving you referrals or giving you advice, would you want to help them as well,? Of course you would. The difference here is that don’t go to networking events expecting others to help you.
One golden rule in networking, is go to events with the intention of seeing how you can help others, with the expectation of not expecting anything back. The nature of how business works and the ways humans operate is that we are all looking to make our business flourish and our lives easier. We like people who know their stuff and we especially like people we like. We are naturally attracted to them.
Networking is a slow burn. By going to events regularly people get to know you, you get to know people. You expertise will be talked about and you will talk about other experts. By giving to others, they will like what they see and tell others about you. This is the funnel that will generate business for you, that is fun, effortless and profitable. Above all have fun, if you are feeling nervous when you go to events you can be sure many others are too, even the seasoned networker, I should know!!!