How To Profit From Networking

How To Profit From Networking

Sales are frequently developed through the relationships we have created with other people. Networking functions provide the opportunity to expand our contact list,particularly when we create and nurture quality relationships. It is not enough to visit a networking group, talk to dozens of people and gather as many business cards possible. However, every networking function has tremendous potential for new business leads. Here are five strategies to make networking profitable:

 

1. Choose the right networking group or event. The best results come from attending the appropriate networking events for your particular industry. This should include trade shows, conferences, and associations dedicated to your type of business. For example, if your target market is a Fortune 500 company, it does not make sense to join a group whose primary membership consists of individual business owners. You can also participate in groups where your potential clients meet. A friend of mine helps people

negotiate leases with their landlords. He joined the local franchise association because most franchisors lease their properties.

2. Focus on quality contacts versus quantity. Most people have experienced the person who, while talking to you, keeps his eyes roving around the room, seeking his next victim. This individual is more interested in passing out and collecting business cards than establishing a relationship. My approach is to make between two and five new contacts at each networking meeting I attend. Focus on the quality of the connection and people will become much more trusting of you.

     

3. Make a positive first impression. You have EXACTLY one opportunity to make a great first impression. Factors that influence this initial impact are your handshake, facial expressions, eye contact, interest in the other person and your overall attentiveness. Develop a great handshake, approach people with a natural, genuine smile and make good eye contact. Notice the color of the other person's eyes as you introduce yourself. Listen carefully to their name. If you don't hear them or understand exactly what they say, ask them to repeat it. Many people do not speak clearly or loudly enough and others are very nervous at networking events. Make a powerful impression by asking them what they do before talking about yourself or your business. As I've always stated, "Seek first to understand and then to be understood." Comment on their

business, ask them to elaborate, or have them explain something in more detail. As they continue, make sure you listen intently to what they tell you. Once you have demonstrated interest in someone else, they will - in most cases - become more interested in you. When that occurs, follow the step outline in the next point.

     

4. Be able to clearly state what you do. Develop a ten second introduction as well as a thirty second presentation. The introduction explains what you do and for whom. For example; "I work with boutique retailers to help them increase their sales and profits."

This introduction should encourage the other person to ask for more information. When they do, you recite your thirty second presentation. "Bob Smith of High Profile Clothing wanted a program that would help his sales managers increase their sales. After

working with them for six months we achieved a 21.5 percent increase in sales. Plus, sales of their premium line of ties have doubled in this time frame." As you can see, this gives an example of your work and the typical results you have help your clients

achieve. Each of these introductions needs to be well-rehearsed so you can recite them at any time and under any circumstance. You must be genuine, authentic, and as I recently heard a speaker say, "bone-dry honest."

     

5. Follow up after the event. In my experience, most people drop the ball here. Yet the follow-up is the most important aspect of networking. There are two specific strategies to follow:

First, immediately after the event - typically the next day - you should send a handwritten card to the people you met. Mention something from your conversation and express your interest to keep in contact. Always include a business card in your correspondence.

     

Next, within two weeks, contact that person and arrange to meet for coffee or lunch.  This will give you the opportunity to learn more about their business, the challenges they face, and how you could potentially help them. This is NOT a sales call - it is a relationship building meeting.

Networking does product results. The more people know about you and your business, and the more they trust you, the greater the likelihood they will either work with you or refer someone else to you.

How small business owners can maintain a work/life balance

As a small business owner, you're likely to run low on a few key resources when you first start out.
Funds are one of them, and fortunately cash flow finance can help with that. However, a lack of time is another factor that can bring stress to many a business owner's life.
Even if your business is still in its infancy and you've got your hands full with tasks, there are some measures you can take to strike a good work/life balance and hold onto your sanity.

Set boundaries – and stick to them
Anyone can set deadlines and limits, but sticking to them is easier said than done.
The fluid, flexible nature of start-up businesses can make it difficult to implement strict office hours and schedules, but try to set specific times every day and week when you cut yourself off from work.
Setting these boundaries can also work in your favour as you have a clear deadline to work towards and be more productive and targeted in your efforts.

Delegate and automate as much as you can
You may have handled all or most of your company's work when you started out, but as the business grows and takes on more staff, it's time to share the workload.
Delegate tasks to the people who are most suited to carry them out, while you focus on the core aspects of the business yourself.
Minor administrative tasks such as invoicing and payrolls can also be automated without any human input. There is a range of specialist automation software available, so this could be a wise time-saving investment.

Don't forget to plan for 'me-time'
In the non-stop rush of running a small business, it's important to also pay attention to your personal life.
Use the same systematic approach you use at work to plan for your downtime as well, figuring in after-hours activities and longer projects such as end-of-year vacations.

Stepping up

An excerpt from Stepping Up by John Murphy

Listen carefully to successful people all over the world and they will tell you one thing. Opportunity quietly surrounds you. Information and knowledge are within your reach. Prosperity is silently knocking at your door. Victory mysteriously awaits you. Subtle and elusive as it may seem, there is no scarcity of success. It is available to all of us. The only real problem is how we choose to respond to the unlimited abundance that is ours for the taking. Do we accept it or reject it? Do we allow it or resist it? Do we demand it or dismiss it? Do we take it in or turn it away? Stop and ask yourself: How do you see the world? How do you see yourself in the world? How do you see your relationship with the world? Do you see the opportunity? Do you believe it is yours for the taking? Do you feel worthy of success? Do you feel deserving? Are you asking for it? Are you looking for it? Are you listening for it? Are you open to it? Are you allowing it to manifest in your life and your presence, or have you convinced yourself that you do not qualify for one reason or another? Are you seizing the opportunity to advance yourself and the world in a mutually beneficial way or are you putting it off for another day? Are you expecting success or suspecting it? Are you even aware the choice is up to you? I am fortunate to work with many successful executives, professionals, military leaders, authors, consultants, teachers, parents, coaches and athletes around the world and a term I hear more and more frequently is "Step Up." From North America to China to Brazil to countries all over Europe, the mantra is the same. We need people to step up. We believe in them. We see the potential. We know they can do better. We want to them to succeed. We just need to see them take charge and step up. In other cases, proactive people are advancing themselves without being asked or encouraged. They just do it, often surprising the people around them. They use the ten "take-aways" described in this book to tap into their true potential. This illustrates that we do not need permission to step up. We do not need to be told to do it, or even asked. We can apply these take-aways to our personal and professional lives wherever and whenever we want. The key is to know that we can step up and then to know how! The purpose of this book is to explain how to step up and accelerate success. Why wait? Why not seize the moment? Why not get started immediately? Why make excuses that limit us? Why rationalize our undesirable results and restrict ourselves? This book is not about self-imposed resistance to change. It is about flow. It is about energy. It is about movement and motivation, insight and inspiration. It is about "taking away" lessons learned from the best of the best, people who in many cases overcame tremendous odds to reach levels of performance and prosperity that many only dream of. Take these tips and use them to elevate your life. Use this book and these take-aways to:

- Take ownership and responsibility for your outcomes - Take a good, honest look in the mirror - Take time to reflect on who you are and what you are capable of - Take measure of your current state—the good, the bad and the ugly! - Take advice from wise counsel - Take a chance - Take action - Take another look at your life and your results - Take a knee and give thanks for what you are and what you have

Click here to order Stepping up

Own Your Dreams

An excerpt from

Own Your Dreams

by John Maxwell What is your dream?

How will you achieve it?

The first question may be difficult to answer. You may have many dreams. Yet, there must be one that stands out above all others...one that inspires you, energizes you, and empowers you to do everything you can to achieve it.

The second question is the reason most people never realize their dreams. They have no strategy in place for attaining it, no knowledge of what is needed and must be sometimes sacrificed to have the dream come true.

Will you achieve your dreams in your lifetime?

I'm certain that you desire to. I'm sure you hope you will. But will you actually do it? What odds would you give yourself? One in five? One in a hundred? One in a million? How can you tell whether your chances are good or whether your dream will always remain exactly that—a dream?

Most people have no idea how to achieve their dreams. What they possess is a vague notion that there is something they would like to do someday or someone they would like to become. But they don't know how to get from here to there. If that describes you, then you'll be glad to know that there really is hope.

 

 Change is a process that most people do not like to undertake. Whether it’s a change in jobs, homes, relationships, memberships, etc., in almost all areas people complain about the change process. Instead of embracing the new that is approaching on the horizon, people lament the old that is slipping away. You might think of it as the dawn and the sunset. Both occurrences are beautiful and serve to enhance each other. Yet alone, a lifetime of sunsets would not be the same as a lifetime that experiences both.

Looking at change from a different perspective, it would be a happier and easier process if we looked at what we are gaining rather than what we are losing. Think of it as the yin and the yang of the universe. Without change we would become stagnant. Stagnant water stinks. It is not drinkable, and no one wants to swim in it. Animals avoid it and people do too.

Conversely, living water is water that flows and refreshes itself and its boundaries. It invites us to its shores as we watch and listen to the process. It invigorates us rather than depresses us. Change can be that way too if we allow ourselves to see it from the angle of newness.

Being part of the here and now requires us to embrace change. A change in routine, diet, exercise, or in whatever else has become stagnant in our lives, can change our world. It does not have to be monumental to make a difference in our lives, but we do have to begin the process. It could be as simple as a thirty minute walk during the day that can be the start of further change.

Why not challenge yourself to the change process if you feel you are stuck in a stagnant life? Find a small change to make that is non-threatening at first, and then do it. Like the snowball that gathers speed and size as it rolls downhill, I just bet you will find that everything about change is not negative. And, there is much more of the positive that you will like to explore in this process when you take that first bold step toward gifting yourself with more of life!

Be Your Very Best Always,
Judy Williamson

It's Not Where You Start—It's How You Finish

An excerpt from
Achieve Any Goal
by Brian Tracy  

 

When I was eighteen, I left high school without graduating. My first job was as a dishwasher in the back of a small hotel. From there, I moved on to washing cars and then washing floors with a janitorial service. For the next few years, I drifted and worked at various laboring jobs, earning my living by the sweat of my brow. I worked in sawmills and factories. I worked on farms and ranches. I worked in the tall timber with a chain saw and dug wells when the logging season ended.

I worked as a construction laborer on tall buildings and as a seaman on a Norwegian freighter in the North Atlantic. Often I slept in my car or in cheap rooming houses. When I was twenty-three, I worked as an itinerant farm laborer during the harvest, sleeping on the hay in the farmer's barn and eating with the farmer's family. I was uneducated and unskilled, and at the end of the harvest, I was unemployed once more.

When I could no longer find a laboring job, I got a job in straight commission sales, cold-calling office-to-office and door-to-door. I would often work all day long to make a single sale so that I could pay for my rooming house and have a place to sleep that night. This was not a great start at life.

The Day My Life Changed

Then one day, I took out a piece of paper and wrote down an outrageous goal for myself. It was to earn $1,000 per month in door-to-door and office-to-office selling. I folded up the piece of paper, put it away, and never found it again.

But thirty days later, my entire life had changed. During that time, I discovered a technique for closing sales that tripled my income from the very first day. Meanwhile, the owner of my company sold out to an entrepreneur who had just moved into town. Exactly thirty days after I had written down my goal, the new owner took me aside and offered me $1,000 per month to head up the sales force and teach the other salespeople what I was doing that enabled me to sell so much more than anyone else. I accepted his offer, and from that day forward, my life was never the same.

Within eighteen months, I had moved from that job to another and then to another. I went from personal selling to becoming a sales manager with people selling for me. In a new business, I recruited and built a ninety-five-person sales force. I went literally from worrying about my next meal to walking around with a pocket full of $20 bills.

I began teaching my salespeople how to write out their goals and how to sell more effectively. In almost no time at all, they increased their incomes as much as tenfold. Today, many of them are millionaires and multimillionaires.

Life Goes Up and Down

I have to admit that since those days in my mid-twenties, my life has not been a smooth series of upward steps. It has included many ups and downs, marked by occasional successes and temporary failures. I have traveled, lived, and worked in more than ninety countries, learning French, German, and Spanish along the way and working in twenty-two different fields.

As the result of inexperience and sometimes sheer stupidity, I have spent or lost everything I made and had to start over again—several times. Whenever this happened, I would begin by sitting down with a piece of paper and laying out a new set of goals for myself.

After several years of hit-and-miss goal setting and goal achieving, I finally decided to collect everything I had learned into a single system. By assembling these ideas and strategies in one place, I developed a goal-setting methodology and process, with a beginning, middle, and end, and began to follow it every day.

Within one year, my life had changed once more. In January of that year, I was living in a rented apartment with rented furniture. I was $35,000 in debt and driving a used car that wasn't paid for. By December, I was living in my own $100,000 condominium. I owned a new Mercedes, had paid off all my debts, and had $50,000 in the bank.

Then I really got serious about success. I realized that goal setting was incredibly powerful. I invested hundreds and then thousands of hours reading and researching goal setting and goal achieving, synthesizing the best ideas I could find into a complete process that worked with incredible effectiveness.

Anyone Can Do It

What I found was that these ideas work everywhere, for everyone, in virtually every country, no matter what your education, experience, or background may be when you begin.

Best of all, these ideas have made it possible for me and many thousands of others to take complete control over our lives. The regular and systematic practice of goal setting has taken us from poverty to prosperity, from frustration to fulfillment, from underachievement to success and satisfaction. This system will do the same for you. 

The Power of Attitude

An excerpt from
The Power of Attitude

by Mac Anderson 

In many ways, we're alike; however, one little difference almost always makes a big difference. The little difference is attitude.

William James, over a century ago, said, "The greatest discovery of this generation is that a human being can alter their life by altering their attitude." I believe this with all my heart, and over the years have seen it happen countless times. What most people fail to realize is that your attitude not only impacts your happiness and your success, it also can impact the happiness and success of all the people around you...your family, your friends, and your peers at work. Attitudes truly are contagious, and from time to time we need to ask ourselves..."is mine worth catching?"

There is no way to overstate the importance of a positive attitude in your life. However, no one can underestimate the difficulty in maintaining it. It's not easy, and it's a very personal thing, but it can be done.

The Power of Attitude was written with that in mind. I only can share with you what works for me in developing and maintaining a positive approach to life. My goal is that some of the ideas and stories I'll share will inspire you to live the life of your dreams and to make a positive difference in the lives of others.

It's my hope that this book will be a useful tool in helping you:

• Manage your energy levels
• Keep your soul alive
• Take new paths
• Reduce stress
• Develop the "Human Touch"
• Attack your fears
• Live in awe
• Savor small successes
• Burn brightly without burning out
• Hang on when the storms blow through