Follow Up, Follow Up, Follow Up!

A few days ago I mentioned a Radio Interview about what happens after the networking meeting, the follow up. Following up is the way to build those business relationships that networking is all about.

I found a great quote from Joy Weaver that sums it up perfectly:

"Follow up! Follow up! Follow up!
This is the key to building relationships with others"

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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A Symphony In Four Parts...The Art of Starting A New Business

Every business idea has to begin with a thought. That thought has to be developed. Regardless of the type business, there are certain universal principles that apply.

The 30 Day Challenge is designed to help an entrepreneur focus upon those principles to test the potential of a new idea. Ed Dale, the face of the 30 Day Challenge, shares the key concepts that he describes as a symphony. Like a symphony, it depends upon blending the right parts, in the right amount, in the right order, with the right timing.

Ed introduces the 30 Day Challenge and describes the four parts of the symphony:
1. Market Research
2. Traffic
3. Conversion
4. Product

A conservative estimate is that 95% of mistakes are made in the MARKET RESEARCH stage. This is because most people don't do the MARKET RESEARCH.

Following this universal pattern can't guarantee a success every time. The beauty is that it will help eliminate the stuff that will not work.

Whether you are doing a traditional business or an Internet business, the MARKET RESEARCH capability of the Internet opens new roads to success in starting a new business or growing an established business.

Embedded Video

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Ed Dale's Free 30 Day Challenge In Marketing Training

The past 24 hours have been amazing to me as a lifelong learner. I have added a tremendous amount of marketing wisdom due to an absolutely free resource.

Ed Dale is a marketing leader who specializes in the Internet. He is offering his 4th 30 Day Challenge. This is a way of using Internet resources to market a business that is either online or bricks and mortar. It assumes that your total level of computer skill is to be able to open a browser and to use e-mail.

As a business coach, I spend a lot of time researching marketing issues and helping my clients. In the past 24 hours, what I have learned has at least doubled my efficiency.

Though the program began officially on August 1, you can still join. There are an amazing number of resources, particularly videos, to make it easy for you to catch up and work at your pace.

To get more information, follow this link:

http://www.ThirtyDayChallenge.com/challenge/25809

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Audio Clip - What happens after the networking meeting?

I was interviewed on the radio recently by Chantal Cooke of Passion for the Planet.
The main topic was what happens after you meet someone at an event.
The follow up!

You can listen at the following link:

Dave Clarke interviewed by Chantal Cooke of Passion for the Planet

To hear more Inspiring Good Business interviews from Chantal go to PassionforthePlanet.com & look for Passion Select.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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Quality or Quantity?

Last week I was interviewed for a research project on Networking.
One of the questions asked was whether I favoured a quantity or quality approach. My view is that the 2 are not incompatible although there is confusion.

If you start from the premise that networking is about building relationships then over time you will develop a number of quality relationships. You have a finite resource of time and so your capacity for these relationships is a limited number. As you build trust these 'advocates' will help spread your reputation far and wide. You will not get to like or trust everyone you meet so you need to meet a larger number of people in order to develop these 'quality' relationships. The quality is therefore an outcome of quantity. The right networking groups are an efficient way of filtering & building these 'quality' relationships.

Where I see confusion is amongst those people who seem to think that networking is about meeting lots of people once. People who attend different events with different people all of the time. That type of activity does not build relationships & misses the point of networking entirely.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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Sir Richard Branson Knows Joe Polish…Joe Knows…

Early this week, I received a surprise gift box from Amazon.com containing a DVD and a note:

Enjoy the DVD!
Best, Joe Polish

Some advice givers say, “It’s not what you know, but who you know!”

Others say, “It’s not who you know, but who knows you!”

Still others say, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”.

Regardless of which advice rings true for you, you need to know what Joe knows. Joe is one of the world’s leading advocates of relationship marketing: the concept that people like to do business with people they know, like, and trust. And Joe proves the principle by investing in relationships, often by giving gifts like the DVD about the life of a famous man that he thought I would find inspiring.

Joe is one of the kindest, most generous people that I have ever met. Over the past three years that I have known him, he has expanded my horizons significantly.

Through such generosity in the form of charitable contributions, he came to know Sir Richard Branson. Not only personally benefiting from that association, Joe has opened doors for friends and clients of his company, Piranha Marketing, to gain access to that wisdom. He even recently arranged for a group to spend a week on Necker Island, Branson’s private island, to meet and talk with Sir Richard.

If you doubt how valuable an opportunity that can be, you need to know of the book, Millionaire Upgrade, by Richard Parkes Cordock. The book is inspired by the true story of an eight-hour flight with Sir Richard Branson. It describes the principles of success that a frustrated employee learned about becoming an entrepreneur when he was upgraded on a long haul flight and finds himself sitting next to a self-made billionaire.

The book shares eight principles and a “magic ingredient” that ties the principles together. Though I won’t share the details of the “magic ingredient”, I will share one portion of it:

“Never think you can do it alone – you can’t”

That is why I am thankful that Joe knows me!

Thanks Joe!

For more information on Joe Polish and to see him interview Sir Richard Branson, go to
http://www.joepolish.com/.

Why join a networking group?

Successful Networking depends on developing business relationships with others who place a similar importance on this approach. You probably have a number of these relationships in place, but it can be difficult to generate enough in a small business where you work with a limited number of clients & suppliers.

When you find a group that you feel may be right for you there is one huge benefit. The shared commitment to building those business relationships. If you are wondering about joining a group just ask yourself how long it would take to build that number of positive relationships outside one at a time.

As you develop a high level of trust with others in the group you are able to:

• Specialise in what you are really good at
• Reduce your costs of selling
• Reduce risks
• Work with other companies on larger projects
• Improve credibility
• Give & gain specialist information
• Give & gain hard to get business intelligence
• Give & gain referrals

The Networking groups that work well do so because of the high level of trust in the relationships.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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Trusted referrals

Charlie Collins posted a great quote from Mark Zuckerberg on my facebook profile over the weekend:

"Nothing influences people more than a recommendation from a trusted friend. A trusted referral influences people more than the best broadcast message. A trusted referral is the Holy Grail of advertising"

Although the quote is about advertising it goes right to the heart of business networking - building relationships to regularly generate those trusted referrals.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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Networking is not....

Networking is not attending an event & interrupting as many people as you can & thrusting your business card at them!

I was at a large networking event a couple of weeks ago. I was in conversation with someone I had just met. Another person came up said, "Here's my card. If you ever want this give me a call", then he moved on to the next group.

What do you think happened to all the cards he gave out?

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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Networking: I tried that once!

In a few conversations people have said to me, "Networking. I tried that, but it didn't work"

On the last occasion I asked what the person meant. He said "I spent a few months attending lots of events, but no one gave me any business"

I asked a few questions back including;

"Did you refer any business to anyone else?"
"Did you have any follow up conversations?"
"Did you have any 121 meetings?"

The answer was 'no' to each one.

It's a common misconception that networking is just about meeting people at events and somehow business happens. It isn't like that, it's about building relationships. As Andy Lopata commented on my earlier post 'What is Networking' it is about collaboration, mutual support and teamwork.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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