Daily Deliberate Habits for a Networking Businessperson

If you are participating in a strong contact network such as BNI where members meet for the purpose of exchanging referrals, then there is a distinction to understand: the difference between membership and participation.

Just by taking on a gym membership is not going to yield a healthier you. It is essential that we work the program and do our part to achieve the desired goals.

Networking is no different: a mere membership is different from participating in the membership.

I was earlier having a conversation with a key person in my team and we discussed some deliberate habits of a good networker as follows:

1. How many contacts have you invited to visit your networking group as a guest, for networking, business and even possible memberships?

Simple arithmetic will reveal that if we ring 2 contacts a week, which is about 8 - 10 a month, we will bound to have a hit rate of say 15 percent, where you can easily contribute 1 - 2 guests a month to your networking group.

2. How many members have you rang in a given week to have a conversation about their business, new products offered, what type of referrals they are looking for?

How long does it take to do this? A couple of minutes while stuck in traffic?

3. Armed with the information from your phone conversations with your colleagues, how many phone calls will you make to enable connections be made from your contacts to your colleagues in your networking group for possible referrals?

Another couple of minutes while scrolling your mobile phone address book?

4. Finally, how many lunches/afternoon teas can you have with your personal contacts while inviting a member from your networking group as a possible new contact? A networking businessperson will always make sensible business connections.

This is working the system within a networking group. Like working the machines and weights in a gym.

Results: not right away but consistently being at it will yield desired results.

Become a contact point for your contacts!

A good business networking person will often become a contact point for all her contacts.

This means that you would have worked all along to constantly inform all your contacts that you are the person to ring if they need any services, products, solutions to run their business and their personal lives.

If someone needs a new business printer, they should call you. If someone needs an interior designer, they will ring you. And this must be for almost everything.

An indicator is this: say you visited a friend in his office and have seen that he has just purchased some new furniture or even hired a new sales executive. If you did not have anything to do with his selection of things to purchase and people to hire, then there's plenty of work to do!

I picked up this tip from a BNI Podcast and thought that it is an excellent tool to implement the idea to enable all your contacts to contact you for contacts needed for their business and friends.

In essence, Dr. Misner developed this technique for getting referrals in the earliest days of BNI. He realized that he needed to be the 'go-to' guy whenever anyone needed a referral—to anyone.

He started sending the following letter to his clients three or four times a year:


Own Letter head

Date:

“Dear _____,

I really believe in the process of referrals, so part of the service I provide is to be sure to refer my clients and associates to other qualified businesspeople in the community.

Attached is a list of areas in which I know very credible, ethical and outstanding professionals. If you’re looking for a professional in a specific area I have listed, please feel free to contact me. I will be glad to put you in touch with the people I know who provide these services.

Sincerely,

Dr. Ivan Misner


He did not include direct contact information for the professionals, because he wanted to make sure people came to him first. This was so that the lead can be qualified into a proper referral first before referring to solution provider concerned. It worked like a charm, and people really appreciate the service.

This is among the service you can provide to your contacts. I really hope you will implement this. I am updating my list now and will send a letter to each contact.

Gotta understand this fine line...

If you are a networking business person, then there's a distinction that needs deep understanding.

It's about how a professional will prospect someone he's met at a networking event.

Currently, I have a situation where we have a person who is actively networking and meeting new people in networking functions.

But word has it that this person is also busy making calls to solicit business from the people he has met. Upfront, there's nothing wrong with it unless we dig deeper. Here are some distinctions to consider:

Because some of the people were rather taken by surprise with the call to solicit, so soon after a networking meeting where there wasn't enough time to create an element called Visibility-Credibility-Profitability (V-C-P).

This person went for the jugular right away, for the profitability without giving due consideration to his visibility and building of credibility in the eyes of the people he is prospecting, although these prospects were met at a networking event.

The V-C-P Process is a deep subject on its own.

However, I can offer an upfront suggestion as to how anyone can leverage on their colleagues in a networking team, to benefit from contacts brought to a networking event:

Rather than calling the guests yourself for a prospecting conversation, have the prospect referred to you by the person who has invited them.

It's as easy as making a call along this line: 'Hi Julie, I would like to request a favour: remember the friend you invited to the event yesterday, the piano teacher? I believe he is a suitable prospect for me. Would you please be kind enough to ring him and inform him that I will be calling him for an appointment?'

By adding this element into the prospecting process, you will benefit as follows:

• Your colleague in your networking team will be aware of your intentions and hence can position things better.
• Your colleague can qualify the prospect for you, and in the event this prospect is not keen for the contact then can appropriately inform you. Perhaps, this prospect has already got some suppliers or service provider and are not keen to switch suppliers?
• You will be better empowered when you do eventually ring the prospect (after having qualified by your colleague) and instead of explaining why you are prospecting, which is no different than a cold-call, have the prospect anticipate your call.

If you are a networker, you gotta understand this fine line. Although you have met people at networking events, it is essential that you enroll the help of the person who invited the guest when prospecting. Apart from extending courtesy, you'll be avoiding jeopardizing the whole organization by acting responsibly and with professionalism rather than giving the impression that the organization is filled with people inside it who are 'hunters' for business.

Hope this helps to provide a clearer distinction.

Invitation conversations - avoid the fear of being sold

Have you noticed that even after a confirmation of attendance, more than half of the invitees to a networking event fail to show! Why?


Remember your first date? Most people are way ahead of themselves. In a way, people are thinking to far ahead.



'Will I be asked to buy something I don't want? Will be coerced into joining an organization against my will? Will be tricked into buying more insurance/water-filters, spa package, etc?'



These are common fears people have. You have them too! So do I. And at many a time, I had declined attending certain events.



Other than the fear of public speaking, most people have the fear of being sold. Agree?



Therefore it is essential that we eliminate the fear of being sold.


Solution?



Apply a combination of words that will eliminate the feeling of being sold.



Instead, make people want to buy/attend/come willingly.



If inviting to a networking meeting, after your invitation details, always add a classy yet casual and honest conversation after your invitation regardless of whether the response was a Yes or a No, as follows:



'Firstly, you will be meeting many local business people who could be interested in your product/business or they could refer you to someone who may be interested.



Secondly, if you like what you see/experience, then you can enquire from the members there how you can be a part of their group.'



See, now we are positioning the invitation to their benefit and even clearly explaining that if they like what they see, then they can enquire further (to participate/enroll/register, etc).


This is how we eliminate the fear of being sold.



Hope this is helpful.



You can apply to use this in any situations/businesses that involve meeting people you do not know yet.

Invitation: Eliminate the fear of being 'sold'

Yesterday, I was speaking to a group of business people in a networking meeting.

This group apparently needed to increase its head-count which meant that all the current members needed to invite more.

However, they reported that many who were invited didn't show.

Therefore I shared this info with them:

One of the reasons people fail to respond positively to an invitation (even if they had earlier agreed) is the fear of being sold.

Just ask yourself, when a friend had invited you to a meeting, or a discussion, or an event, don't you have the same feeling?

The feeling that you will be sold something?

It's the feeling and the fear that needs to be addressed.

I have an idea on resolving this, which I will share on my next post.

I learnt this tip from a networking expert while attending the BNI European Director's Conference in Dublin in April 2008.

Yes, eliminate the fear and you'll have more people responding positively to your invitations in various areas of businesses.