The Secret To Effortless Business Networking

Do you ever find it a struggle to get up for your early morning Business For Breakfast meetings? There’s not much you can do about the fact that you’re an owl rather than a lark, but wouldn’t it be that much less effort getting up if you knew that business networking itself was a good deal easier?

The thing to do is to concentrate on making it easier for others to follow up on that initial contact (your pitch). Do you have a compelling call to action? This will make your business stand out and increase the chances of others approaching you at coffee time. Are you Creating, Interest, Curiosity, Attention in your communication? Don't try to tell us everything in 60 seconds the purpose of the 60 seconds is to position the opportunity for us to sit down for a one to one conversation where you can go into more detail.

The best way you can phrase your call to action is like this:

1. State your special offer
2. Invite anyone who wants to take advantage of the offer to simply give you their business card and you will do the rest.

This is in marked contrast to “Visit my website and sign up for my free report” or even “Come and talk to me later and I will arrange a free consultation”. A visit to your website gets added to your prospects ‘to-do’ list, which is no doubt already longer than Mr Tickle’s arm. The invitation to come and talk to you may not be convenient if the person in question has to rush off or gets into an unexpected conversation with their own prospective client.

Ask for their business card, and all they have to do is spend 3 seconds handing their details over.

There are lots more ways you can make it easier for others to start a business relationship with you. Spend time observing how the most successful networkers at your meetings operate, and you are sure to find more ideas in this area.

Your BforB Referral Networking Audit

A BforB Referral networking audit sounds a bit corporate but it could well bring you more   leads, prospects and referrals which is where your profit eventually springs from.

What is a BforB Referral networking audit? It’s a long, cool look at how you are performing at meetings. The most common complaint from poor performers is that ‘networking just doesn’t work’ as if it were some creature with an independent will that we have no control over. They may be right and I would certainly agree that superficial networking can be ineffective.

Here are some questions to ask yourself when you audit your BforB Referral networking skills:

·        How many referrals have I given to other group members in the last 3 months?

·         How many testimonials have I given at meetings in the last 3 months?

·         Have I ever brought any guests to meetings?

·         Have I seized every opportunity to set up one-to-one meetings with other members?

·         Have I organised an event (business/social/charity) in the last 12 months that I have invited the other group members to?

·         Do my conversations start off with me asking about them, rather than talking about myself?

If I had to rate my current marketing effectiveness out of 10....where would it be? How can I get to a 10? Like everything in life, you only get out what you put in. These questions will draw out those areas where you can become a more effective networker.Remember its the quality of your questions that gets you to the correct outcome for you and your business!

How serious am I about growing my business through referrals on a scale of 1-10?

 

Making The Most Of Your Business Card

This post will give you some ideas about how to get more out of that most underused of marketing materials: your business card.

First of all, does it contain both your Linked In profile URL and your Twitter ID? You need to give your contact details through as many channels as possible. Some people are Twitter addicts and will follow you immediately if the relevant details are on your card. Others conduct most of their social networking through Linked In – don’t alienate them either.

Of course if you would rather watch paint dry all afternoon than spend a single minute on Twitter, don’t bother signing up for an account just to have a Twitter ID on your business card.

Wondering how on earth you are going to fit this information onto your card? If your fax number is the same as your office number, why not amalgamate them on the same line like this: tel/fax ? You may want to even question how relevant a fax number even is to your business.

Next, does your business card have a call to action? If you have room for this you should definitely include one. However good your free offer sounded at the Business For Breakfast meeting, the person who took your card will have been inundated with jobs to do, calls to make and people to see throughout the rest of the day. If the call to action is on your card, it could jog their memory when they are organising their list of contacts.

Finally, compare it to other business cards you collect – does it stand out visually from the crowd? Can you get it redesigned to have more impact? Any departure from the normal rectangle shape is always a good idea – but don’t make it too big.

Whats the Difference between mere networking and Referral Networking

Recently I met someone who asked at a BforB Club "So what's the difference between BforB and the other networking groups I go too?"

And it's a valid question, in fact it's a great question!

There are many differences, the number 1 is the quality of the members, BforB is a referral networking system that works through trusted contacts and a great way to work and grow any business.

We only look to work with people who are commited to growing through positive referral, who are top of their game and most of all want to put something back in to their local business community.

We are not about being the biggest or the fastest growing.....BforB's focus is on quality, empowerment and education using a proven time tested system.

If a person adopts the BforB process and approach in to his or her area of business and does not fall in to just thinking or viewing BforB as just a business meeting they attend to get contacts then they can generate some serious success year after year.

If you want to collect cards then mere networking is great for that and may be what you are looking for, but if your like most successful business owners who want qualified referrals that turn in to actual business, relationships that turn in to friendships and contacts that turn into contracts then you may be right for a BforB group or you may want to launch one in your locality? If you can make a commitment to improving your skills, polishing up your follow-up and most of all making sure you have your attitude right so you can achieve your goals then do get in touch.

How To Vary Your Pitch

It’s vital to vary your pitch every networking meeting. Here are some ideas to do this without spending hours the previous day reinventing the 60 second soundbite wheel:

1. Highlight a different aspect of your business each week. This way, people will start to expect to hear something new about you at each meeting. This is great, because it takes you out of the pigeon hole that your company name or tagline might put you in.

2. Using current affairs is a great way to vary your pitch. In fact, it’s almost prerequisite if your area of expertise has hit the headlines. For example, in September 2010 the news about HMRC miscalculating millions of people’s tax is something that many accountants were probably discussing in their networking pitches that week.

3. Test having different calls to action at the end of your pitch. I say test because it may be that the first call to action you think of is actually an irresistible offer that can’t be improved upon.

4. Vary the theme of your pitch. One meeting describe a recent project you undertook, the next read some testimonials, the next give some statistics about how much money you saved/made for your clients – or however you measure the value that you bring to your target market.

These are just a few ideas for varying your pitch. The more you start trying out different ideas, the more of your own you will start having.

The Effortless Business Networking

Do you ever find it a struggle to get up for your early morning Business For Breakfast meetings? There’s not much you can do about the fact that you’re an owl rather than a lark, but wouldn’t it be that much less effort getting up if you knew that business networking itself was a good deal easier?

The thing to do is to concentrate on making it easier for others to follow up on that initial contact (your pitch). Do you have a compelling call to action? This will make your business stand out and increase the chances of others approaching you at coffee time.

The best way you can phrase your call to action is like this:

State your special offer

Invite anyone who wants to take advantage of the offer to simply give you their business card and you will do the rest.

This is in marked contrast to “Visit my website and sign up for my free report” or even “Come and talk to me later and I will arrange a free consultation”. A visit to your website gets added to your prospects ‘to-do’ list, which is no doubt already longer than Mr Tickle’s arm. The invitation to come and talk to you may not be convenient if the person in question has to rush off or gets into an unexpected conversation with their own prospective client.

Ask for their business card, and all they have to do is spend 3 seconds handing their details over.

There are lots more ways you can make it easier for others to start a business relationship with you. Spend time observing how the most successful networkers at your meetings operate, and you are sure to find more ideas in this area.

The ABC Of Business Referral Networking

Business Referral Networking as a marketing tool is as easy as ABC. Don’t believe me? Follow these 3 principles religiously for 6 months and watch your client base - and profits - grow:

A is for Attitude

Attitude is more important than ability. Let me prove it to you. If you were offered £15 commission for every referral you got for your business, could you get 100 referrals this month? You might say yes, or no – depending on your desire and or (perceived ability). Now answer this question: If you were offered £50,000 for getting all 100 referrals this month, could you get the lot? Of course you could.

Enough said. With the right attitude, we can achieve far more than what we are right now. All we need to do is decide to improve our ability – then go out and accomplish this. It applies to networking just as much as sales.

B is for Be Patient

Business Referral Networking is certainly not for the quick fix merchants and not generally responsible for overnight success stories. Go in with your eyes open – do not expect to start making direct sales or even get referrals straight away. It takes time for others to trust you.

C is for Commitment

Part of the trust issue is about showing up at every meeting. Once others see that you are committed to the group, it won’t just be you making all the effort to build relationships. People are not interested in excuses on why you can't make a meeting as business referral networking is about giving business....not excuses.

And make no mistake, it’s about more than just attendance. If you have employees you may have heard of ‘presenteeism’ – where someone shows up at work and goes through the motions without really achieving anything of note. Be careful that you don’t fall into this trap with your Business For Breakfast meetings. Who in your group can you help out this week? When was the last time you went and chatted to someone about their business without trying to sell them anything?

Start thinking like this and before long you will start to reap the rewards. Learn More

77 Ways To Get More Referrals

Leverage the Power of Referrals in Your Business

6 Golden Rules to Win More Business (AUTO PLAY AUDIO)



Claim Your Free Report