Is your boss not as excited as you to attend networking events to grow your business? Here are some reasons why it benefits both the company AND you as an individual...it's a win-win.
Networking is a big deal; it's about cultivation. It is a valuable way to attain new clients, learn from the success of others, and tell everyone about you and your business. Making connections and cultivating relationships grows your circle of influence. You also develop important business and life skills by interacting with people from many different backgrounds. It focuses attention on growing your organization and developing dialogues that benefit all parties involved. Here are four key advantages:
- Lead Generation & Increased Business – As the most obvious benefit, you are more likely to receive higher quality, pre-qualified referrals than with other more traditional forms of marketing and advertising.
- Share Information – Discussing other people’s points of view will expand your knowledge base and allow you to see from a wider perspective. Learning other people’s “best practices” will save you time, money and resources.
- Connections & Relationship Building –Many times, people attend these types of events to solve a problem, finding joint ventures, partnerships, and needs for different services. Having a large pool of individuals at your fingertips is a huge attribute. You can only go so far with social media, emails and phone calls. Personal, face-to-face interaction is becoming somewhat of a lost art these days with so many hi-tech ways of communication. We always tend to do business with others we know and like. Social networking and in-person events should complement each other, not be mutually exclusive. As the old adage goes, “It’s not what you know, but who you know.”
- Credibility – Maintaining your professional reputation and supporting business contacts are also great benefits of networking. If you have valuable information and ideas, along with the willingness to help and support others in their ventures, this will increase your personal and organization’s credibility and integrity.
Tips:
- Show up to an event early to get situated, get used to your surroundings, and have a game plan as to what your goals are for attending.
- Practice your 30-second commercial, or “elevator speech”.
- Place your nametag next to your right shoulder. When you shake hands with another attendee, your name and company will be more accessible and easier to read.
- Make sure you have enough business cards to exchange. Utilize LinkedIn right after your event and connect online with people you’ve met.
- Ask open-ended and intriguing questions, like, “What did you do on your last vacation?” “Who is your ideal lead or customer?” “What’s another reason why you’re here other than meeting new acquaintances?” Keeping questions both unique and professional will make you stand out among others just asking, “So, what do you do?”
- Get in the habit of scheduling and attending networking events two times per month or more to keep your skills sharp and your face in front of others.
Allison Peet is the Marketing Director at WD Door. Located in Ankeny, WD Door has 25+ years of experience providing commercial garage doors, residential garage doors and garage door operators. WD Door also stands behind their work with garage door repair throughout the Greater Des Moines area.