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.