Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing

In general, networking to increase sales quickly can often be a frustrating undertaking. Many businesspeople join their local chamber of commerce or other business-networking group, excited by the prospect of turning these new contacts into customers.  What we often forget is that others are there for the same purpose – getting the message out there about their business.  Much time can then be wasted talking at each other during these events rather than looking for opportunities to work with each other.

The result: The networking experience doesn’t live up to expectations; so we quit and look for another way to drive sales to our business.

But wait! Don’t hand in your membership card just yet.  There are principles of networking that do work.  We just have to change the way we think about networking.  When we stop trying so hard to sell ourselves, we can begin building the relationships that are actually going to benefit our business.

The focus of networking should not be on gaining an immediate sale from the people you talk to. In fact, that tactic almost never works. Instead, success tends to come from focusing on building a referral relationship – one that turns into a referral connection, serving as a conduit to other customers.  This will not be as easy as “Hey, here’s my card, give me a call when you want to do business.”  If only networking really could be that easy… The goal is to build a mutually beneficial relationship with someone who may never even buy your product or service.  This would be a great time to practice the listening skills I talked about last week.  Get others talking about their business, and then figure out how you can help each other.

When writing the book, The Connectors, I observed that many of the most successful people I interviewed were incredibly skilled at networking, but not in the way that I thought of networking. It is a mindset formed around what you will accomplish while networking. If you build a relationship with someone they could become a great advocate for you. So, it’s really not about who you meet in your networking activities – it’s about who they know. It’s about building a relationship based on trust and credibility and having your advocates do the selling for you. It is absolutely genius!

So for the next networking event you attend, consider focusing less on the short term sale, and instead look for the opportunities that await in the longstanding relationships with others in your community.

www.redzonemarketing.com

Maribeth Kuzmeski, is the author of the new book, The Connectors: How the World’s Most Successful Businesspeople Build Relationships and Win Clients for Life (Wiley, September 2009, ISBN: 978-0-4704881-8-8, $22.95)