Stop Networking
September 2016
Are you attending a networking event or a meetup group soon? Try something different.
The more you engage with customers the clearer things become and the easier it is to determine what you should be doing.
John Russell, President, Harley Davidson
Know what your customers want most and what your company does best. Focus on where those two meet.
Kevin Stirtz
A New Approach to Getting More Clients
Have you been going from networking event to networking event collecting cards from what may or may not e potential clients? Why? Why have you become a professional card collector? I will help you. You have been networking haven't you? Let me see, it probably goes a little something like this.
You are about to attend a networking event, you grab a bunch of cards, you have memorized and perfected your less than one minute introduction of what you do, and you head out the door ready to go. You work the room of the crowded event and have brief conversations, recite your introduction speech, hand the person your card, and then you move to the next person. You come home, follow them on twitter, look at the website to see if they area a potential client, and then you throw out the card. You are now frustrated because after reviewing 25 business cards you may have one potential client and you just wasted your time.
STOP being a business card collector!
Decide today not to ever use that approach again. Time is valuable and at the end of the day no one cares what you do unless it can help them with what they need.Your job when you attend a networking function or a meetup group should be to do as much listening as possible. What do I mean? Learn to have a conversation that affords you the opportunity to LISTEN to what a person NEEDS so that you can determine whether this person is a potential client.
A few steps to help you navigate this new process of thinking:
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Introduce yourself and shake hands.
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Before you go into this long pitch about your name of your business and all the wonderful things that you do......BREATH.
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Look at the other individual and ask them, what do you need? It will throw them off so give them a minute because usually they will say more clients and that will mean absolutely nothing to you.
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Do not interrupt but LISTEN and WATCH. Watch their eyes and listen to their voice as they speak. They will tell you everything thing that you will need to know.
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Probe them with more questions if you are unsure and maybe even offer tips for their solutions.
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Now you can determine if this person needs what you offer.
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If the person needs your service talk a little but schedule to call them the next day at a specific time if possible.
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Go home and begin your research so that when you speak with them you will have a clearer idea of who they are.
It's called BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS.