Negotiating Networking

20th September 2012

When was the last time you went networking? It is something which I do regularly as part of my marketing strategy but recently I had noticed that my activity on this front had dropped significantly, so I decided it was time I increased this so I have set myself targets to do so.

The trouble with networking for lots of people is they don’t feel comfortable doing it, and therefore they look for any excuse to avoid it. A lot of networking is done at breakfast meetings starting around 6.45am, so that is enough to put many off. But in reality of course for most of us with children going to school, and/or those of us who have been getting up at 7.00am or earlier for most of our working lives, it isn’t really a hardship to get up half an hour to an hour earlier. Also it is effectively dead time in the working day, so it is additional time when you could be making contacts, and doing business.

The other things which put people off are the need to be sociable and mix with other business owners, and in some meetings to stand up and present their business to a room full of strangers. They say that they are no good at this side of things, and therefore don’t go. But again these are poor excuses, which allow you to let yourself off the hook. The socialising is really just talking about business, so it doesn’t require the ability to make small talk, and standing up to present yourself should be seen as a very cheap way of marketing yourself and your business to a whole load of potential new clients.

In fact the face to face contact is still the best way for people to find and do business (despite all the new technology). And getting out and meeting new business owners can be a very cost effective way of bringing in new contracts. You never know who you might meet at your next networking event.

What I do know is that if you sit in your office, or in front of your television you most certainly won’t meet the person who is going to make your fortune.

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