Prospecting Playbook 1.10

(PHOTO: This is the image used on the invitation to Street Smart Sales Forum, which was the inspiration and input for this particular blog.)

WHAT NETWORKING FUNCTIONS DO YOU LIKE AND WHY?

This was a question raised at Street Smart Sales Forum this morning.  Here are some of the comments … as I recall;

[] What is your objective for going to a networking event?

[] … too many of these events seem to be all sellers and no buyers, like too many of the parties back in school, all guys, no girls.

[] Are you prepared for a networking moment?  When given the opportunity to “network” do you have a plan, a script … an objective?

[] A professional networker (a connector) will learn at least one thing about each person they meet as to what that person needs or wants now.  Some ask; most tell.

[] If you do not follow up with the people you meet at the event, the connection will be lost and the event a complete waste.

[] There is a protocol here in Charlotte that you need to be seen; showing up matters and your being there is indicative of commitment.

[] How much is your networking costing you … in terms of time, and in actual dollars spent?  What is your return on this effort?

[] It’s easy to compete with price and service; it’s hard to compete with relationship.

[] If you arrive and know no one there, the event is a complete gamble.  You will have no idea whom you are about to meet.

[] Are we “selling to” these people, or “selling through” them?

[] Some networking events are like a grade-school playground, complete with clicques and bullies.

[] Street Smart Sales Forum is a networking event and it is a favorite of all of us who attended today because . . . . . it is a small group and everyone participates in the same discussion and there is no “direct selling”.  It is a discussion during which we get to know each other.

[] Is networking a waste of time?  Is Linkedin the smarter way to network?

[] If I know that there will be more than 50 people at a networking event, I won’t go.  With so many people, too many of them will be hurrying to meet and greet and will deliver their data dump and move on to the next victim before any exchange can occur.

Wow. 

So, what do we plan to accomplish if and when we go to a networking event?  Which events might be better for us?  Can we really accomplish anything at the event?

Or is it simply a starting point of a relationship?

From this discussion, may I offer for debate the following generalization . . . .

As a starting point;

The main reason to attend a networking event is to meet someone who might fill a need for us.

Mostly we will be meeting people for the very first time.

During the first time we ever meet someone, how often do we retain that person’s services?

0% … 1% … 5% … 10% of the time?

It is definitely NOT more than 10%, which means 90% of the people we will meet may be good, better and great, but a “hiring” then and there is going to happen, very rarely.  The more likely result is another meeting … a one on one meeting, during which the relationship or a proposition can be furthered.

And so, meeting people at a networking event is an effort to open the door to a next meeting.

And if so, then, perhaps we should compare the strategy of networking events with other methods of doing the same.

The comparison is how much time and effort does it take to set up a meeting  with 10 quality people? 

  

 Charlotte, NC