Networking: Improving Your Results*
March 9, 2009
In networking, you goal is to:
- Meet prospective referral sources and develop a contact sphere
- To meet prospective clients.*
In a networking environment where people meet on a regular basis you might walk up to Mary and say, “Mary, when you were talking, you mentioned that you are a business attorney. As you know I am a business coach. When you said that you like to approach issues in (and then you paraphrase something she said) that resonated with me. I think you and I think about business in the same way. Maybe we could help each other get business, what do you think?” If the networking environment is one where you don’t know the people you are sharing the room with, it becomes very key to you develop questions that help you to quickly establish whether the person you are speaking with is a prospective client, referral source or neither.
If you get a positive response, set up a time to either meet or talk on the phone to follow-up further.
If you are a business attorney, for example, and you heard some one say something about their business partner, you might say: “I heard you mention something about your partner. I’ve worked extensively with partnerships … I’d like to meet with you to see if there are ways I could be helpful to you. Would you like that?”
If the response is positive, make arrangements and move on.
This type of approach works well because it sets the table for when you do meet, as to what the meeting is about.
Meet in a way that is comfortable, where both feel free to talk. This is information gathering. Whether this is a meeting with a prospective client or a referral source, this meeting is all about listening to their issues to see if you can help. While the meeting has a high level of comfort, there should also be a structure. After listening to their situation, this is when you have an opportunity to say something to the effect of, “this is how I see it….” and then let them know that you have heard, digested and interpreted what they had to say. And follow up with, “this is how I think I could be of help,” and then describe in broad strokes, without giving away the store, what you would do. If this is a prospective referral source, you might give an example of how you would refer them and then say, “Likewise, with me, you might say …” and then give an example of how you can be referred. If this is a prospective client, after you have said how you might be able to help them, you simply ask, “How does that sound to you?” This is one of many times when shutting your mouth and letting the other person speak first is key. If they say they like the idea, say something to close the deal, such as, “my retainer for this would be X and you would be billed at Y per hour. Are you ready to get started?” Another approach is to ask if they have questions about your services and how they work. This is where they will often ask about pricing. In either case, this is another moment when silence is important. Let them work it out for themselves. This is not a hard sell. This is one in which the prospective client has articulated their issue, you have offered a solution and it is up to the prospective client to think it through and say what they want
.
Whatever the outcome of this discussion, you will want to decide what kind of follow-up, if any, you want to have with this individual. If it is a referral source, my suggestion would be to suggest that two of you touch base in no more than two weeks. At that time, you will discuss any opportunities that have arisen to refer the other person, how it went and how it might be improved. Continue this process and a great power team will be created. If it is with the prospective client, the follow up will be about getting started working together or whatever your business proposition happens to be.
You should always know your conversion rates. How many prospective clients come out of how many hours of networking? This will help you evaluate the value of a given networking venue and/or the value of your networking abilities. What is your conversion rate of prospective clients into clients? This will help you understand your effectiveness when you meet prospective clients. Likewise with referral sources, it is very important to track where your clients come from to know which of your referral sources are the most valuable. Certainly it is important to cultivate new referral sources, but it is more important to maintain and improve current good ones. Just like it is much cheaper to keep a current client happy than it is to get a new client, the same thing applies to referral sources.
In summary, early in the networking process you quickly determine if there is a connection and what the nature of that connection is. If there is, you let the other person know what the possible connection is you see and that you’d like to meet them and explore it further. When you meet, you listen until the person has really had a chance to fully express themselves and then let them know that you were listening by saying back to them what you heard and what you think the most important issues are. You offer a solution and see if they want to continue. Decide if there is going to be a follow up. If so, schedule the follow up and describe what you hope to accomplish in that follow up meeting.
This is a manner of networking that has the potential of yielding great results.
*See previous blog, “What is the Purpose of Networking?”
Coach Chuck
March 14, 2009 at 9:27 am
There’s a lot that I could comment on in this post. Since I know some of your background Chuck, I know that you approach networking systematically since you have experience with and you are currently a member of the largest business networking. This means you are applying the system that you learn there to networking events in general.
There was one sentence that resonated with me and I am paraphrasing here: At an event that you do not know who you are sharing the room with, establish whether the person you are speaking with is a prospective client, referral source or neither.
Oh, it’s the word neither that irks me. I get referrals from unlikely sources all the time. People refer me becuase of my work ethic and because well, they know me. Everyone, no matter how different, is a referral source.
I take personal offense to categorize someone you meet as “neither.” Maybe I miss understood you, but to devalue someone based on noncompatiable businesses is within a word: counterproductive.
I do believe as you do that you should track your networking efforts/results. You should know how effective your efforts are but keep in mind that networking is a long term growth or marketing strategy. It’s not always immediate.
That’s my take on that!
March 14, 2009 at 8:56 pm
Angie,
I agree with something you said in your reply: “people refer me because of my work ethic and because well, they know me…. to devalue someone based on non-compatible businesses is … counterproductive.”
I would strongly agree that developing a working relationship on the basis of what some one does for a living is, for most people, not wise. When we are networking, we need to develop our nana perception. Be aware of everything and listen very closely to the people we are talking to. Are they open to working with us for mutual benefit? That is what we are trying to find out when we are networking. As an example, I recently met a Coach at a Networking event. Being a coach myself you might think, I say, “have a nice day,” and move on. In point of fact, however, he was very warm and welcoming, so I continued to talk and listen. I learned that he and I have very different things that we Coach about. He coaches mainly for public speaking and I don’t. He was fascinated my background. I was fascinated by his and we are planning a follow-up meeting.
When I am networking, I am looking to meet people who I can be open to and who can be open to me and that we can help each other.
My point about the networking situation is that we have a limited amount of time and it is important to try to develop ways of introducing yourself to get to the point of seeing if there is a purpose in following up quickly.
And yes, about being long term – networking is a process that takes 3 – 5 years to start to self generate.
However, when building a power team – that is another matter. A power team should be made up of people that are both open to each other AND in a business that they deal with the same clients in a non-competitive. That is simply the definition of a power team.
Let me give you an interesting example. There is a particular hairdresser that is a very good referral source for me. He is also a good referral source for the wedding photographer. We can all refer to each other. However, my client that is an international marketer is on a completely different power team. Is it possible that he may possibly run across referrals for these other two people? Yes. Is he going to do it consistently enough, and get referrals back from them for international marketing clients – on a regular enough basis for these three to spend a lot of time networking with each other? No. This is not a matter of devaluing any one. It is a matter of whether they are of valuable in a certain position. I think my computer guy is great, but I wouldn’t hire him to head up my marketing team. It is really that simple.
Angie, I appreciate your feedback, and I appreciate the opportunity to clarify my meaning.
March 18, 2009 at 6:02 am
Chuck, I reread your post, I just can’t imagine a person being a “neither.” Everyone is a potential referral source, even though you might not receive a referral from that source. I’ll give you an example I am experiencing. I am a realtor as you know and even though my family knows it, they do not aggressively advocate for me. They know I’m in the business but since it was a career change for me, I think that it might take some getting use to. It’s been four years and they still have a hard time with it.
In your example, I understood that you feel people do not go out of their way to make connections unless there’s some underlining reason. Ergo, a belief in Karma: give more than what you expect to receive so that you can live a more fullfilled life; Refer so that you can get a fee; refer because you get that warm and fuzzy feeling when you help people. . . the third is usually why I refer, but I try to refer people that I know will either deliver the same results or better.