1. Network Strategically. Time is precious. It's a finite resource. Network where you will have the most impact - the biggest bang for your buck! Decide who you want to be known by; who you want to get on the radar of. Decide what you want your network to look like. Then cast your net where those fish are swimming. There are at least eight different strategies to network depending on your goals. Network on purpose!
2. Ask Good Questions. Good networkers are good conversationalists. They are especially good listeners. And to do that, you often need good questions. You need to open people up and give them a safe platform to share their pain, problems, projects and plans. Only then can you help, sympathize, resource, connect and even sell to. How could your raise your game with the level and quality of questions you ask people in networking situations?
3. Give Good Answers. If you want to network productively and effectively, you need to take your chances. You might just meet people once. You've got to make an impact. You know that you're going to get asked 'what do you do?' You know you'll be asked 'how's business?' or 'how are things going?' These are great opportunities for you to open a door and create a memorable impression. The great networkers do this with prepared answers, stories, examples and 'ethical bragging' that gets them remembered.
4. Make the First Move. Great networkers are very proactive. They reach out to people. They connect people. They go up to people and introduce themselves. They extend invitations and requests. You don't need to be an extrovert to do this. A simple 'hello' has worked wonders for centuries. Networks are built. They don't just happen. Who is out there needing to meet you, but not yet knowing who you are? Remember a stranger is just somebody you've not yet met!
5. Follow Through. Great networkers stay connected and keep in touch. They are organized, diligent, consistent and productive with time. They use mobile and online technology to manage a huge number of contacts. They constantly seek ways to add value and stay 'front of mind' with key contacts. If you want to be great, you've got to do the same.

Business networking should be an integral part of your professional development. If your company or employer won't train you, you'll have to acquire those skills yourself. A little education, a little coaching, a little mentoring, a little practising... will go a long way. Some of these resources may help you. If you'd like to explore some coaching to make you the number one 'banker of choice' in your environment, email Rob Brown for a few ideas and options. Happy networking!

These days, business networking has become such a crucial part of the marketing mix that most people are pretty okay at 'working a room.' You see, working the room isn't the problem. It's what you do with your networking. In other words, converting those networking leads into business!

Picture the scene. You come away from a business networking event armed with a handful of business cards that you've collected. If you're like most people, you'll put them on your desk, reach for your computer and say 'right, where was I?' I know that because it's what I did many times in my early and unsuccessful networking career. 

What then happens is that those leads and contacts go cold. Leave it too long and it's like you never met them. If you want to make your conversations count and make turn those business cards into sales (the CTC) then here are five of my top tips I share in my networking guides and seminars:

1. Recognise the Networking Process. You're now out of the networking event and into the process of networking. In other words, there are things to do at various stages.
2. Do the Networking Follow Up. If this is a good lead or contact, you must follow up within 72 hours. Doesn't matter so much whether it's email or phone at this early stage. But you need to maintain momentum and keep yourself in their mind.
3. Play a Fast but Long Term Game. Unless you get lucky, they probably won't buy or refer you immediately. But you have to move quickly and get the long term game underway. You're continuing and building the business relationship you started at the networking event.
4. Add Value Quickly. Think what you can do, give, share, offer or introduce to your prospect's life that is of low value you to but high perceived value to them. Good networking is good relationship building.
5. Make It Personal. You know you need to build trust. That's how you get them to a point where they are comfortable buying and recommending you. One of the best ways to build trust is to keep things personal. If you can talk about family, hobbies, sports, interests and other non-business topics, it's away from the business agenda. It softens and relaxes people. It allows them to confide and share with you. That's called getting to know someone.

These business networking tips should get you more motivated to be in the room and following up those crucial networking conversations. That way you'll create more business opportunities and win more business referrals. And here's a great blog post if you want to know The Two Simple Steps to Successful Networking>>

I've done a number of talks on the need to re-calibrate your network. In other words, re-evaluate from time to time the people you investing time in and on. Here's the question I often ask myself, and you should to:

"IS THE JUICE WORTH THE SQUEEZE?"

The point is that because relationships often develop (and deteriorate) over time, you often don't know how useful or hindering they can be for you. Hardy mentions three kinds of associations that need evaluating. My model has six kinds, perhaps because networking is my world. Am I more complicated or more sophisticated? Who knows? Have a read and think about whether you are squeezing the wrong kind of relationships!

1. DUMP. Hardy calls these Disassociations. People you may need to make a complete break from. Negative influences. Dream stealers. Destructive forces. Energy vampires. People who don't share your attitude, work ethic, vision or values. Dump them as soon as you can. You probably won't look back!
2. DALLY. I like Hardy's take on this group: "There are some people who you can spend three hours with, but not three days. Others you can spend three minutes with, but not three hours." These are fun people, or useful people. Just don't stay too long!
   
3. DEVELOP. These are people in your network that you know show potential and they need a little nudging. A little investment. A phone call here, an email there to tease out their value.
4. DEVOTE. Where there is a good 'fit' then it's worth devoting some time to these people. These are usually loved ones, relatives and close friend. Business partners, colleagues and
5. DELAY. These are the connections you play reactively. As a committed Christian, I love the scripture in the book of James (Ch 4 verse 8) where God says "Draw near to me and I will raw near to you." I have people in my network that I'll take a step towards if they step to me first. Otherwise I leave them where they are.
6. DECIDE. These people are the 'inbetweeners.' You don't know quite where they fit in. You might need to do some more research. Perhaps check out LinkedIn to see who they know. Take a step to them to see if they take a step back. Meet for a coffee or one to one. Then make a decision.

You have finite time and energy to invest in people. Limited opportunities to network with the right people. So don't just count your conversations. Make your conversations count!

This blog will also help you evaluate your network properly:  What Is the Optimum Size of Your Business Network?

There are two simple steps that will help your business development and your networking tremendously.

1. Know What You Sell

First you've got to sell yourself. Ask yourself:

• How do I generate any kind of impact and create a good first impression?
• How do make myself engaging and memorable?

To become ‘extraordinary', recognise that good networking comes out of knowing the right events to go to, having the right things to say and implementing them with the right actions.

Second, you've got to sell your products and services. You need a pitch or opening. An elevator speech. The pro networkers have a strong proposition. Ask yourself:

• What is it about what you're selling that makes you special?
• Why should I choose you above and beyond all of my other choices, including doing nothing?

In a crowded, predatory marketplace, you're looking for attention. You're looking to stand out in some small but significant way. Differentiate or lose!

Question: Are you the first, best, cheapest, latest, oldest, newest, fastest, closest, biggest, smallest or safest?

Question: Are you the most radical, convenient, innovative, experimental, strategic, thorough, global, positive, entrepreneurial, relationship-based, profit-centric, results-focused or customer-led?

Question: As well as the stuff your competitors do, are you also an author, thought leader, innovator, campaigner, speaker, coach, mentor, consultant, connector, referrer, philanthropist, problem-solver and comedian?

You've got to have some edge. Some hook. Something to set you apart. Only needs to be slight. Just enough.

2. Know Who You Sell To

When you know what your best customer or client looks like, you can go looking for them. The pro networkers know their target market or niche.

"Great minds think alike, as long as they think like you!"
Seth Godin

You can find anybody if you know what they look like and where they hang out! Ask yourself:

• What problems or challenges does your ideal prospect have?
• What's your target market?
• What kind of people come to you?

When you can find that hungry crowd, when you can locate the community, that sector, that niche, that tribe that has a problem you can solve, you've got a business.

Or are you just packing your case with the stuff you've already got and going out there looking for people to sell it to?

Business is simple. Networking is simple. Sell you to yourself. Sell your products and services. And sell to an audience that needs what you do.

Easy, right? As the meerkat would tell you with the brand that found a hungry crowd...simples!

1. After You've Given Them a Lead or Referral. Be constantly thinking about what kind of introductions they want. Ask who would make a good customer, client or introduction for them. When you can pass business their way, you obligate them subconsciously into reciprocating.
2. When They Have Been Particularly Demanding. If they have been over the top, make sure you leave them under no illusions that you're putting yourself out. You can do this in a nice and professional way, as long as you do it. And it's a great time to ask for something in return.
3. After They've Moved the Goal Posts. When they change their minds, change criteria, change deals or change moods, you are in a good position to ask for something in return. They may well be feeling a little sheepish or bad for messing you around or making those changes. It gives you the leverage to ask.
4. After a Meeting. Sometimes, as you are packing up your things after a good meeting, drop in a simple ‘By the way, I was meaning to ask you about a business development issue I've got. You've got a pretty good network. Who do you know who might ...?'

If you don't ask people, you've got to be pretty good to get referrals. If you want to raise your game in this lucrative but poorly understood area of marketing, check out this great blog post on sowing referral seeds>>

But whichever way you come by your good name, here are three positive outcomes of a powerful reputation in business.  A good reputation...

1. Helps You Avoid Feast and Famine Cycles
Many employed and self-employed professionals experience the intense activity of business delivery, only to find that their marketing suffered during those hectic times, and their pipeline is rather empty. ‘Good days, bad days' can turn into ‘good months, bad months'. If you deal in large corporate accounts and long lead times, it can even mean good years, bad years.

Being known by the right people for the right reasons means that you position yourself so strongly that you do not need to go out and market yourself so much. In other words, people come to you instead of you going to them.

2. Makes You Stand Out From the Crowd
This is the age of the surplus society, where too many companies employ too many similar professionals, with similar qualifications and experience, for similar wages, to deliver similar products and services to similar clients and customers for similar prices and similar results.

Think carefully about how you're going to stand out. If you are predictable, it can sometimes mean you are not memorable. Which is another way of saying you are history and you are forgotten. When somebody needs what you do, you want them to think of you first, above and beyond all of their other choices.

When you differentiate, you give people a reason to choose you instead of everyone else. It makes you not just a professional, but the professional of choice. Not just a business, but the business everyone wants to work with. This is not just so that people know you as the obvious expert but that they also come to you and make the decision to use you.

If what you do has competitors of any kind, then all of your prospects can choose not to use you and go somewhere else. If what you do is optional, then your prospects can choose not to use you or anyone else. Either way, you need a strong reputation to carve out a lane along which the people who need you, can both see you and get to you quickly. If you have a clear and distinct reputation, then it's easier for people to clearly see their need for you.

3. Helps You Compensate for Poor Marketing
You may be brilliant at what you do. You could even be a world beater. But unless enough people are willing to pay you enough money for what you do or sell, you will never make your business a success. It's no good being the best kept secret in the world. These days, everyone is in the marketing business.

Some people develop a good reputation by accident. Some people develop a good reputation by doing a good job and hoping it will come to them. And some people develop a good reputation by strategically and systematically deciding what they want to be known for and creating that perception accordingly.

If you are poor at educating your target market about the wonderful things that you do, you will always struggle to attract the business and revenues you need. You may lack the ability or the inclination to market, and this is normal. Not everyone is blessed with either a marketing mind or a marketing motivation. Still, the result is the same - no business and no revenue.

By developing a strong reputation, you position yourself so that people come to you instead of you having to go to them. It takes the effort out of marketing!

Here are more details about the Staffs Marketing Academy Action for Business: LIVE! event where I'll be sharing more insights like this.

These days, business networking has become such a crucial part of the marketing mix that most people are pretty okay at 'working a room.' You see, working the room isn't the problem.

It's what you do with your networking. In other words, converting those networking leads into business!

Picture the scene. You come away from an event armed with a handful of business cards that you've collected. If you're like most people, you'll put them on your desk, reach for your computer and say 'right, where was I?'

As a result, those leads and contacts go cold. Leave it too long and it's like you never met them.

If you want to make your conversations count and make turn those business cards into sales (the CTC) then here are five of my top tips I share in my networking guides and seminars:

1. Recognise the Networking Process. You're now out of the networking event and into the process of networking. In other words, there are things to do at various stages.
2. Do the Networking Follow Up. If this is a good lead or contact, you must follow up within 72 hours. Doesn't matter so much whether it's email or phone at this early stage. But you need to maintain momentum and keep yourself in their mind.
3. Play a Fast Long Term Game. Unless you get lucky, they probably won't buy or refer you immediately. But you have to move quickly and get the long term game underway. You're continuing and building the business relationship you started at the networking event.
4. Add Value Quickly. Think what you can do, give, share, offer or introduce to your prospect's life that is of low value you to but high perceived value to them. Good networking is good relationship building.
   
5. Make It Personal. You know you need to build trust. That's how you get them to a point where they are comfortable buying and recommending you. One of the best ways to build trust is to keep things personal. If you can talk about family, hobbies, sports, interests and other non-business topics, it's away from the business agenda. It softens and relaxes people. It allows them to confide and share with you. That's called getting to know someone.

These business networking tips should get you more motivated to be in the room and following up those crucial networking conversations. That way you'll create more business opportunities and win more business referrals.

And should you need any more motivating to be a world class networker, then click this link to discover the only four reasons you need to network! >>

1. Play the Numbers. Nobody becomes an overnight success. Every entrepreneur, every professional, every world-class performer has had set-backs. Knock-backs and disappointments. What connects them all is their knowledge that most people don't come back from even minor setbacks. So if they just keep going and get back up again, they'll play the numbers to their advantage.

Example: You go networking once, twice, three times. You don't get anything from it. You don't enjoy it. You don't contribute anything worthwhile. Most would turn their backs on networking. But if you stick with it, you'll gradually thin the crowd of people who hang in there and build the relationships that matter. You'll begin to have the conversations that count. You'll start to make it work. Famous cyclist Lance Armstrong talked about having 'miles in the bank' - those training hours he put in to ensure peak performance. Most people won't. If 1 in 20 make great money from their networking efforts, you can beat most of the other 19 people just by sticking with it and playing the numbers.

2. Enhance Your Skills. You won't raise your game simply by doing the same thing over and over. You do not fulfil your potential merely by the passing of time. So what gives you the edge? It's your education, your training, your skill development.

Example. A personal one here. Years ago I was in a role selling private medical insurance for a leading healthcare organisation. part of my role was networking to generate new business. I was a lousy networker. I made the decision to become world class. I looked at what the top networkers were doing, and emulated them. I read books, listened to audios and attended any kind of related seminar on impact, presenting, confidence, working a room, building trust and forging relationships. As a result, I multiplied my income by a factor of 15 in 13 months. If you want to earn more, you have to learn more!

3. Be Strategic. It doesn't matter how good you are at working a room. If you're in the wrong room with the wrong people having the wrong conversations, you'll soon get frustrated. So a lot of my work involves helping professionals devise the right networking strategy that plays to their strengths. It also goes about connecting them to the people they need to meet and builds social capital with the right kind of network.

Example. A banking client worked in a sea-side town with lots of good businesses but very few networking events. He was struggling to meet the kind of businesses and accounting professionals (referral partners) he wanted to. Together we formed a strategic approach centred around online networking, a contact strategy using the phone and a sequence of self-hosted events. He's the top business winner in his area, yet doesn't go to any formal networking events. He has the right strategy!

Becoming world class is not an accident. It starts by making the decision to become brilliant. Then you invest in your education. You also keep at it, because you'll win in the end. Finally, don't just do things right. Do the right things right. Be strategic.

Happy networking!