In just about any newsletter, book or presentation on marketing, you'll hear a story of how a successful salesperson benefited from a series of relationships he generated through networking.
If you’re like 85 percent of all small business owners, entrepreneurs, service providers or salespeople, as you read that story your internal voice probably screamed a series of things like:
- “Yeah, but how long did he have to network before that happened?”
- “Like I have time to go shake random hands.”
- “I’m just not comfortable schmoozing a room of strangers like some sales dog.”
The simple fact is, most people are much more comfortable serving clients than finding clients, and few are actually in their element when “working a room.” So it’s no surprise to me if you didn’t run right out and network after hearing the last success-story example.
But what if “networking” meant something other than glad-handing? What if you could network without having to work the room? What if there were other ways to build relationships with people who could positively influence your business -- ways that fit you like a glove?
Would your internal voice still scream, or would you be intrigued just enough to perhaps give networking a try?
Leverage Your Strengths
Cindy, my lovely wife, is professional copyeditor and a total introvert. When she enters a room with more than three people, she immediately heads for the spot furthest from the crowd. If there’s food, she’ll hover around the buffet table. If there’s a silent auction, you’ll spot her carefully studying every item to the point of knowing more about the products than their manufacturers. Where you will never find Cindy, however, is in the center of the crowd, shaking hands and trading business cards.
Yet 90 percent of Cindy’s totally new business (meaning other than referrals from happy clients) comes from referrals she’s received from the people she meets at large-group meetings.
How is this possible? Because when Cindy has a job to perform she’s a rock star. So instead of attending meetings, she volunteers to help meeting organizers -- she’ll staff the nametag table, photograph the event or show people around when they arrive.
By leveraging her task-oriented strengths, she creates an environment where she is in her element instead of fighting against her natural instincts. This keeps her comfort level high, which makes her more approachable, which makes her more successful.
Get Real
Joe is a self-proclaimed wallflower whose job is to build relationships with people who can recommend the products his company sells. A major part of his time is spent at industry workshops, because that’s where those people hang out.
To avoid the embarrassment of hovering around the perimeter of the room alone, Joe always heads straight for a table and grabs a seat -- keeping his fingers crossed that the people who eventually sit with him can help him grow his business.
As bad luck would have it, at once such workshop the event planners had secured two rooms, one for networking before the meeting and another where the meeting would be held. Since the meeting room was closed until just before the workshop began, Joe was forced into uncomfortable waters and quickly found himself standing alone along one wall. But within only a few minutes, a young woman approached Joe, held out her hand and said, “I hate networking too, so I thought I’d join you in the wallflower area.”
During the next hour Joe had a dozen great conversations with people who kept approaching him and kept starting the conversation with other "me too" comments. Then, when the workshop began and he headed across the room, he casually glanced back and realized why.
Turns out, the wall where Joe was standing was papered with a brightly colored flower pattern -- people had noticed and thought it was funny that he was standing in the "wallflower area."
To this day, whenever Joe attends a group meeting you’ll see him standing by a wall under a very large sticky note decorated with flowers and labeled “Wallflower Area.” Yes, the first time he prepared that note, stuck it to the wall and stood there was nerve-wracking, but the conversations he has had at every meeting since have been well worth the temporary discomfort of trying something so new.
Leverage The Power Of The Group
While casual relationships come from networking in large-group situations, the truly valuable relationships come from more intimate settings.
Here are some more intimate strategies for leveraging the power of the group to achieve great things for everyone in that group:
Be-Useful Meetings
One of my very favorite ways of taking potential relationships to new levels is to invite people to be-useful meetings. This is where we meet over coffee or lunch for an hour and each find one way of being useful to the other without either of us writing a check.
I never know where these relationships will head, but I always enjoy the ride.
Connection Dinners
Once I’ve had enough be-useful meetings to have found four or five people I think would find value in knowing one another, I invite them to what I call a connection dinner. The goal is to get me and three or four other people around the same table for an hour or two for some great food, great drinks and great conversations.
All I have to do for this to succeed is to introduce my guests to one another, tell them why I thought they should meet and then order myself another beer. (They take care of the rest on their own.)
Referral Network or Lead-Sharing Group
In my not-so-humble opinion, every salesperson on the planet should be part of a strategically focused lead-sharing group. This is a 10- to 30-person group of business owners or salespeople who are not competitive with one another, who sell compatible products or services, and who agree to trade referrals and introductions with one another on an on-going basis.
It's close, personal, dedicated relationships that sustain a business through good and bad, which is why I consider this a must for everyone who sells.
For a concise article on how to build such a group, see: http://yellow-tie.net/articles/referralnetworks.
Group Leadership And Participation
In every area of the country there are dozens of trade associations, chambers of commerce, charity groups and so forth that need volunteers to serve as board members. Every board needs a variety of skills, from salespeople to help with membership, to administration people helping with back-office support, to computer-savvy people who can help manage the membership database or build the group’s website.
Whatever your skills, you can find a board position where you can build relationships by doing what you do best. So get out there and volunteer.
If you haven’t noticed, the common theme of these small-group strategies is to give first -- to be the person willing to give his or her time and energy to a cause other than production of new customers. (Strange thing is, the truer you are to the give-first philosophy, the more you’ll get in return.)
Networking is much more than shaking hands and trading business cards with a large group of strangers. Each and every businessperson has strengths that can be leveraged to build relationships and generate the karma that all businesses need to succeed. So instead of letting that internal voice stop you from networking, let it guide you to the type of networking that leverages your personal strengths.
The relationships you build will last you a lifetime.
Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association
