The Art Of Connecting Part I

What do you think of when you hear the phrase Business Networking? Unfortunately for most it is an opportunity to sell their product or service to others. For many networkers the focus is on collecting as many business cards as they can, so they can put contacts straight on their database with the intention is to sell their product or service.

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If this has been your belief about networking then ask yourself this question. Why would someone change from their current supplier to you without knowing who you are, what your values are and without having a full understanding of your business?

Networking is first and foremost an opportunity to meet others and build rapport and trust leading to strong business relationships over a period of time, Think about this carefully, would you enlist the services or products of someone you just met without knowing as much about them as you can?

When you network and you look at the people in the room as potential clients you miss the opportunity of a mutually beneficial relationship that can have lasting positive consequences. Most business people have existing clients and a growing database. The real opportunities of networking are on developing relationships with people that share your values, beliefs and visions. In fact sometimes these types of relationships develop even when on the surface the two businesses don’t appear to have any similarities at all.

Unfortunately a lot of people don’t see the value in this type of marketing strategy because most people think this is way too time consuming to get business. Developing relationships does take time to grow and may not help your cashflow while you wait for something to develop. This is the reason that many people figure they need to “sell to” as many people as they can. In the process they can burn many bridges that could have proved very fruitful.