Give before you receive

In some research we did into business networking we asked 200 active & successful networkers which statement best described their approach. The majority chose:

"I develop a network of individuals that I can trust. I help and support those people, and expect the same in return."

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke

The importance of PR

I saw Marketing Expert Nigel Temple deliver a great session on Internet Marketing last night. He gave some highly practical advice including the growing importance of blogging. See Nigel's blog here >>>.

We spoke beforehand when Nigel shared some advice on PR in building your brand. Coincidentally we had a piece in the local paper, the Swindon Advertiser today. See this link:
Networking lunch club is spreading net far and wide

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke

Synergy

Is your strategy in business networking to avoid competitors or to look for things in common?

If you concentrate on synergies then the value of your network will be greater than the sum of its parts. Each connection will give you new insights and facilitate new opportunities.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke

World Storytelling Day

I noticed on the BBC website that today is World Storytelling day. You often hear the expression 'people buy people' and illustrating your introduction with a story is a very useful aide in business networking. A quick story can give meaning to the information you are trying to convey.

For example I was talking with a member of NRG in London last week about the importance of building trusted relationships and how that can take time. He said that's so true and described how, almost imperceptibly, over the course of six or seven months he had built a pipeline of new business worth about £250,000.

Does technology rule you...

...or do you use it to support your business development activities? This is a great cartoon:

Go BIG for comic relief

Who do you follow up?

The benefits in business networking come from building relationships. If you're unsure where to start then you might want to arrange some 121 meetings based on the following criteria with a new contact:

• do I like them?
• are there points of contact (business or personal)?
• do I find them interesting?
• do I want to take this further (based on your initial conversation)

The Art of Listening

"Seek first to understand not be understood" is a quote I've heard a few times. It's Habit 5 from Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Listening is key to understanding, and is an important skill to be effective at business networking. Most of the time it's tempting to try and jump in and not really listen. Next time you meet someone on a 121 basis try and give them "a really good listening to" without constantly trying to think of something to say. That's a great phrase I first heard from Nick Heap. Nick's website >>> has some great practical resources.

Sharing your expertise

In some research that we conducted a couple of years ago one of the main findings was how business owners build trust. The key factors are "do I like them?" together with ability, and reliability. They have a range of strategies that they use to check out these factors in some depth over a period of time while building that all important trust. For instance they may well want to see you at work!

This can pose a problem in business networking. The network is your route to market so you need to have a strategy for sharing your expertise with someone unlikely to be your customer so that they get some experience of what you do.

You might do this in 121 sessions, public speaking, a 'free' consultation, a report, a blog or other ways appropriate for what you do.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke

How To Educate a Community

Great quote from Frank Kanu's blog from an African proverb:

"When you educate a boy,
you educate an individual,
but when you educate a girl,
you educate a community."

Let's all learn from the girls.