Is networking a bit woolly?

In a workshop before a recent Networking Lunch a conversation took place between a couple of the attendees. Let's call them A and B.

A said "I am not really sure about this networking stuff".

B replied "It's about getting to know, like and trust people. You build relationships and as you help and refer others then others do the same for you".

A then said "That all sounds a bit woolly to me. I prefer things I can predict my cash flow with".

I described how I have a number of regular meetings with people in my network where we share an agreed number of referrals so we can predict cash flow. These are people for whom networking is not woolly, but a proven and reliable method of business development. We have invested time in building relationships and are happy to share our contacts with each other openly so as to maximise our referral opportunities.

Last week Sarah Owen of the Referral Institute presented a Networking Masterclass before the NRG Charing Cross networking lunch in London. One of the things she want through was their VCP Process™. This stands for Visibility, Credibility and Profitability*. People can believe the activity of attending networking events is enough. It is not as that can only really build your Visibility. Good networking groups provide the environment for you to build on this and create profitable relationships with people you know and others you want to know.

One of the elements of their Referrals for Life Programme is the Referral Pipeline where you get to spend a day with a trusted contact and execute a process that will efficiently generate enough referrals to completely fill up your sales pipeline!

Networking is only woolly if you are!

*VCP Process™ copyright Referral Institute 2010, all rights reserved.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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How to make your follow up productive

A couple of days ago in 'Why follow up is so important' I wrote about the importance of follow up in networking. You get to know people by spending time in conversation with them and others at regular networking group meetings. You get to know, like and trust them by following that up with One2One interactions.

You should treat that as an opportunity to really understand the other person rather than an opportunity to pitch. If you are not regularly finding yourself able to give referrals, connect people and share your knowledge then you need to be asking better questions. It is by getting to know, like, and trust people and giving them opportunities that will produce opportunities for you as people reciprocate.

As I wrote in 'Applying the 7 habits to your business networking' habit 5* is 'Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood'.

*From the best selling Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Who answers your phone whilst you are out?

One of the points covered at last week's Client Attraction Techniques Masterclass from Small Business Marketing Expert Nigel Temple was response time. Your clients or potential clients often want an answer right now. Indeed this is so important that 80% of business people do not leave a message if they get an answer machine or voicemail.

If you are investing valuable time in generating leads and referrals from networking and other business development activities you don't want to lose out when you can't answer the phone personally. It is uneconomic for may small businesses to employ a receptionist. There are, however, many virtual office and phone reception services available for a relatively small fixed fee or you can pay as you go.

We use a phone answering service from Verbatim for our inbound phone calls. It's an efficient, professional and cost effective way of ensuring we don't miss those important calls. Especially those that require a quick response!

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Competition or Collaboration?

I was speaking at a seminar last week when someone with an IT support business said "I want to find Networks with fewer IT people because that means more opportunity for me". When we explored the subject he agreed that he actually got most referrals from other IT related service providers and said "Forget I said that. What I actually mean is that I want to find Networks with MORE IT People!"

Looking at others as competition is perfectly natural, but very few small businesses really compete directly. Very often other providers will provide complementary services and as you speak to the same buyers you can quickly build a referral relationship. Over time that will often lead to collaborating on bigger projects than you may be able to win on your own.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Do you spend too much time meeting new people?

In a couple of seminars and One2One sessions this week we have discussed the amount of time spent on Networking. We have then broken that down into time spent in different aspects of networking:

1. Meeting new people
2. Getting to know existing contacts better
3. Spending time with your Inner Network
4. Building trust with your close contacts or advocates

Most people agree that before people buy from you or refer you they need to know, like and trust you and that takes time. You need to meet first, but then you need to keep meeting the people you like to really get to know them and build that trust.

The people I discussed this with during the week were spending nearly all their networking time on meeting new people with almost no time left for the most important relationship stuff. Getting to know the people they like and have already met. Then building trust with the ones they know and like.

Do you need look at your networking time?

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Building your Pride

A couple of people recently have asked for advice on selecting people for their Inner Network. At the Referral Institute Conference last week Dawn Lyons and Jill Green spoke about the lessons you can learn from the different roles played by the members of a Pride of Lions in organising around a common goal.

Networking is about helping others as a way of growing your business, but it is important to build your pride with others committed to the same approach and with access to the right markets. People who will share your passion for what you do and who you can be passionate about too.

After the conference Dawn emailed me with some more on the subject of building your pride:

"The key to building your own pride is to first realize you have the right to select your pride members. Select wisely! Select pride members who are:
1) professional
2) they understand how to refer you
3) they believe in and are highly skilled in referral marketing
4) they have a want to and a desire to help you
5) you also enjoy referring them to others

Start slow and build your pride to 4-8 members and watch your referral business grow!"

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Ways of helping your advocates to refer you

I spoke at an event last night about the NRG Networking Advocacy Model*. The model suggests that effective networking is a result of building trusted relationships with your Inner Network. Others that share the same target market as you and provide a complementary service to yours. Over time you will actively refer and introduce some of these as you get to know, like, trust and rate them. Some of these will form your Advocate Network, the small group of people who regularly go out of their way to find introductions and referrals for you.

The speakers at the Referral Institute Conference last week all reinforced this view of networking. Sarah Owen addressed the subject of helping others to advocate you as you advocate them. The very act of advocating someone else is motivation for them, but only if they know! Unless you educate them on this and what you are looking for they will probably miss opportunities.

In your One2One interactions have you made sure they really know what you do and where? Can they pass on why you are good and what you love about your business? Do they know how you want to be promoted and who specifically you want to meet? Is there anything else that would make you stand out?

They may be saying things about you that you could use yourself.

*My previous post 'The Advocacy Model: Develop Advocates' has more detail and links to further posts on this subject.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Asking for referrals

The subject of when it is right to ask for referrals came up at a networking meeting last week. In 'Are you stuck doing lots of networking with little reward?' I wrote about Mike macedonio's talk at the Referral Institute Conference on the VCP process (tm). VCP is the acronym Dr. Ivan Misner uses for Visibility, Credibility, and Profitability.

Mike emailed this 'nugget' to me afterward on this very subject:

"I do believe that in order to get referrals we need to ask. The key, however, is to know how to ask and when it is appropriate to make the request. When is the right time, you ask? The right time to ask for a referral is when BOTH parties are in the Credibility phase of the referral relationship. Networking should not be a system which ends up alienating your friends and family. Be conscious of the deposits you make into your relationships before you start “writing checks” or, in essence, ASKING for referrals from those you have relationships with."

As I wrote last week to be in this 'credibility' phase requires that each party knows each other and what they do and they perceive each other to be reliable and worthy of confidence. It's no good asking for a referral before someone even really knows you.

Just being part of a group does not mean you are known. You have to put some effort into building relationships. As I have written previously 'You don't get fit just by joining a gym' you have to follow a good process. I spoke to someone else last week who had been a member of a group for a year, but received no referrals. Part of the problem was he was not even known by many other of the others as he had only been able to attend one in four of the meetings! When you join a group make sure you can attend regularly and invest time in getting to really know the other members first.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Networking and Sex

The theme of one of the sessions at the Referral Institute UK & Ireland Conference was 'Networking and Sex - The Perfect Combination!' Hazel Walker shared some great insights from the findings of research she has completed with Ivan Misner on the different approaches to networking between men and women. Her talk was all about helping men and women to network more effectively with each other. She shared some great advice on the subject of asking for referrals and expanded on the presentation from Mike Macedonio that I wrote about a couple of days ago (Are you stuck doing lots of networking with little reward?)

The research findings suggested that men can have a tendency to go for a referral before establishing a good relationship. On the other hand women can be happy to carry on with the relationship and never ask for a referral. So women need to learn from men about asking for referrals at the right time and men need to learn from women about nurturing relationships first.

Hazel used some great dating analogies to illustrate the different approaches between men and women. Her forthcoming book on the subject promises to be a great read!

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Referral Marketing lessons from the Golf Course

Another speaker at the Referral Institute UK & Ireland Conference earlier this week was Mike Holman, Referral Institute Franchise owner and former Golf Professional. Mike entertained and educated us with the lessons to be learned from golf that can be applied to your referral marketing. In golf you generally have a specific target and play 9 or 18 holes accordingly. Unless you have a real vision for your business you cannot see & share the targets that will help you get there. Successful golf involves alignment, balance, timing and practice. It's the same in referral marketing. Your network needs to be aligned with what you do, the balance of giving and receiving needs to be right. In 'Are you stuck doing lots of networking with little reward?' yesterday I wrote about the relationship building that needs to be in place before the timing is right for profitable referrals.

Mike quoted Gary Player on the subject of practice when someone congratulated him on a lucky shot. Player agreed with the spectator and said "Yes and you know the more I practice the luckier I get!"

See this great video of Tiger Woods for someone who puts it all into practice on the golf course:


Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Are you stuck doing lots of networking with little reward?

At the Referral Institute UK & Ireland Conference yesterday Mike Macedonio spoke about people who spend a lot of time networking, but who are effectively invisible. He spoke about the VCP process (tm) which is the acronym Dr. Ivan Misner uses for Visibility, Credibility, and Profitability.

Mike explained that you have to move through these stages in a referral relationship. This takes time, effort and commitment, but people often spend their time getting to meet lots & lots of people without ever getting to really know anyone. In practice profitability is achieved by going deep and establishing trusted relationships.

Visibility is only established when you know who someone is and what they do and they know the same about you.

Credibility is achieved when you each perceive each other to be reliable and worthy of confidence.

Profitability is when you are both consistently and proactively referring business to each other.

Does that mean that Visibility Networking is not important? No, you have to establish visibility first and that sort of networking will often be the place where you can introduce and find referrals for those in your Inner Network.

Read more about this in Mike's article 'Just Ask. Right? . . . No.'

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Keeping track of your referrals 2

I wrote yesterday about the importance of keeping track of your referrals. You may think that is limited to direct contact of some sort, but I have also found that much of the business generated via the internet has its root in referrals and word of mouth. I was phoned a few weeks ago by someone interested in opening a new NRG Group in an area we don't cover. I asked how he had found us & he said Google. When we met I asked the question again. Whilst it was true that he had found our website via Google it was because someone we both know had suggested me to him. I was able then to thank the referral source and update him with what had happened.

Many of the people who found us via google also turn out to be via Word of Mouth. More than half of the  searches  that found our website include NRG suggesting someone recommended or referred them in the first place.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Keeping track of your referrals

I facilitated a networking breakfast on Friday 7 at the end one of the visiting members asked if she could say a few words. She shared that the NRG business networking group she belonged to had been a great factor in her success. Much of her business was a result of the relationships she had made in the group. It was not all, however, down to direct referrals. It was sometimes 2, 3, 4, 5 or even 6 steps removed, but by tracking back to the initial source she knew which relationships were critical to maintain & nurture.

If you don't keep track in this way you run the risk of upsetting your referral sources by not keeping them up to date with the results of the positive Word of Mouth they are generating for you. You could potentially miscalculate the return on investment on some of your activities and end up dropping some for the wrong reasons.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Are you clear about what you do and who for?

After a seminar yesterday on building business with the effective use of offline & online networks I had a conversation with a couple of the attendees about clarity of message. During the seminar there was general agreement that the more specific you can be about proposition the better. If people know exactly what you do and who for it is much easier to find referrals for you. One person mentioned someone they knew, liked and trusted but found it too difficult to find opportunities because they positioned themselves too generally and for any business whatever the size.

It is much better to be a specialist than a generalist. It is also much better to have a specific target market or market sector. Being a generalist for everyone is a very crowded space. The following image helped people to focus on this:

If you do not consider yourself to have a specific market sector then at least try to position yourself as a specialist. And if you really are a generalist at least try and define a market sector. That could be for example by business type, size, geography or a particular problem that you solve.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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How does this networking work then?

In a recent three way conversation at a networking breakfast someone asked "how does this (networking) work?" and one of the others, a wealth management professional, told a quick story.

He explained that he had met an estate planning consultant about 6 months ago. He had got to know him and introduced a few people. He was then invited to a conference of lawyers, accountants and other professionals with an interest in estate planning. He had got to know a few of them and made a few more introductions. Recently the Estate Planner had given him a referral into one of the specialist family law firms he was hoping to build a relationship with.

He finished by saying "So that's it in a nutshell. I go to the networking groups where I will meet the right people for me, get to know some of the others, find out what they need and help where I can. Then good stuff happens for me."

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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I know you don't do this, but ...

Do clients ever say to you "I know you don't do this, but do you know anyone who can help with ..." or something similar?

I asked this question to someone last week who shared that they were finding it difficult to find referrals for their network. If you are the person your client contacts first with any request you can make yourself pretty much indispensable if you have a good recommendation for them each time.

It also means you have a steady supply of referrals that you can make for your network. In turn that should generate a similar number flowing back to you.

Even if they are not asking you now then next time you talk to them ask them some questions about other help they may need. If you can help them by referring someone else you are helping to cement trust with your client and the person you refer.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Can you refer the other people in your networking group?

In a recent One2One meeting the person asked me for some advice about a networking group she belonged to. She said "I have given it my best for more than a year, but I haven't received any referrals". I asked about the number of One2Ones she had with other members and the referrals she made for others.

It turned out that she hadn't been able to make many as most of the others operated in completely different markets to her. I suggested some other groups where she was likely to get to know, like and trust people with similar markets to her.

A good question to ask yourself when evaluating which groups to join is whether you regularly have the opportunity to refer the types of businesses represented in the group. Then whether you can envisage getting to know, like and trust them first.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Where do you get your new business?

I often ask Business Owners and Professionals "Where do you get most of your new business?". The most popular answer is recommendation or referral. There is often silence after the supplementary question "so what is your strategy for generating more recommendation?".

The ironic thing is that most of them will have strategies for other parts of their marketing, but not for the most important! Listen to this short podcast for the simple steps involved in developing a strategy to generate more business from your network.

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Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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What simple tips do you have for networking?

In 'Is offline networking still relevant?' I wrote about the interview I did with Rod Sloane. After answering that question he asked if I had any simple networking tips. I answered that follow up was the big thing that makes people stand out & to be effective at follow up you need to learn to listen.

In a recent survey of first time guests at NRG networking events we found that the top three reasons for networking are:

1. More Business
2. New connections
3. Help with business issues

The most successful networkers build relationships by following up quickly and providing referrals, introductions and help to others. If you listen for where you can do the same and do it then others will do it for you.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Getting referrals by being the answer to their problems

Last week someone introduced himself at one of the Networking Groups I facilitate by saying that one of his main client groups were charities who often pay too much of a particular type of tax. He didn't just say he was an accountant. There were immediate referrals because he had succinctly expressed the help he was able to give for a particular problem for a specific market.

In 'Dominating your niche through Business Networking' I wrote about talking about your business with regard to the specific issues that your target market have, where they are and what they will be saying about their problems.

It is much easier to find referrals for someone obviously the answer to a specific problem for specific organisations.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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