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Business Networking in a Down Economy
By Tina Marie Combs
Some business professionals in Minnesota are wondering what things they need to do to besides attending local networking events to get business. I look at a business networking event as a way to meet new people that I may be able to help one day. When I meet someone new I enter the lead in my database back at the office. Then I follow-up with them right away with an email telling them it was nice to meet them. I also try to pass along any resources or contacts that I think may be helpful to them. This helps me establish a business relationship with them without trying to sell to them but, this is only the first step in effective networking.
One of the marketing forums I belong to asked this question: If selling is a "numbers game" What are you doing to increase your numbers in this economic climate? Anything new out there we should know of?
It's not what's new, it's what you should still be doing. My response to the question was this:
Nurture the prospects and clients that you already have. Make the most of the leads you already know, and who know you. You can access a large pool of potential leads that are already aware of your company, products and services. Check your existing leads database and blow off the dust and nurture those old leads. The first step is to reconnect with your lead and nurture it until it comes to a point where they become a qualified prospect. Regardless of economic conditions, lead nurturing is a a must for any company. You should continue to invest in your audience.
Okay so you are probably asking how do you nurture networking leads?
Don't stop trying to help people after the first email. Set aside a certain amount of time each week to keep in touch with your contacts. There may be a variety of reasons to call them. You may have heard about another networking group that they may be interested in, there may be an article in the Minnesota Business Journal that they would be interested in knowing about or maybe their birthday is coming up. There are many different approaches to a keep in touch call and they all point to one thing and that is to let the person know you are still out there and you care about them.
I once worked for a top selling real estate agent who was a pro at this technique. Everyone she met went into the database. During a normal conversation she would ask you things like do you have any job openeings at your company? do you have any pets or children?, What's your birthday?, Whats your wife do? None of these questions seemed out of place because she seemed like your new best friend and it was genuine. All those answered questions were recorded into her database. She kept networking with her list of contacts by taking a scheduled block of her time each week to keep in touch with her database. She was a networking pro in action with her database open and a headset on she would start dialing numbers. First she would re-familiarize herself with the person she was about to call, scanning the record for birthdays, pet names, and past family events. Then she would make the call and you would hear the magic of lead nurturing.
One of the first things she taught me is people love to talk about themselves and few good listeners are out there. She would say this is Mary Jones of abc company(for example)I met you at Twin Cities Entrepreneurs last month (refresh their memory), this is just a keep in touch call. How are things going? How is the search for a new salesman going? How is that new sales promotion going? How are the kids? Sam will be going back to school soon, what grade is he in now? How did Charlie do at the soccer playoffs? All of these responses went back into the database to paint a unique picture of each contact she had. When you are a good listener people naturally want to talk to you and this is how to build good business relationships. Who do you think those contacts will call when they are ready to sell their home? Mary, of course.
The key to networking is nuturing leads. If you go to a networking event just to gather leads and then do nothing with them you are wasting your time. On the other hand if you go to networking events and build your database and nurture your leads your conversion rate can be incredibly effective.
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Business-to-business networking is about building relationships based on trust, and enabling your business to grow.
It's said that on average each person has 250 contacts. Each of those people is an opportunity.
What if you could reach out to those 250 people and gain access to the other 249 people that they know? If you trust each other, you may be able to do just that.
Just think what it would be like to gain access to over 60,000 possible clients...
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