The key to any successful business is in creating relationships with like-minded individuals. More often than not, business owners who network together recommended clients to each other. The more supportive relationships you make, the higher the chances of a potential client walking through your door.
The more business owners you network with, the greater the chance that some of them are going to refer clients to you (and you to them) so you can both benefit. If you take the time to build relationships both inside and outside of your industry, you are going to find yourself with a deep pool of referral partners who are happy to help each other for years to come.
Unfortunately, many business owners don’t network enough or don’t even know how to go about doing so. The three tips below will help you figure out how to take advantage of business networking.
1 – Give Support To Other Business Owners And They Will Support You
When you are networking with people online or offline, show them some of the insider tricks you normally reserve for your best clients, and prove how much you could be of service to their business.
Fight the urge to talk about yourself and your business, and ask probing questions to show the other person that you are genuinely interested in what they do. Share valuable information that they can use right away to improve their business in some way, and they will see you as a solution provider rather than just another sales person.
2 – Keep Your ‘Elevator Pitch’ Short And Simple
You don’t want to confuse anyone with a complicated explanation of what you do, so keep it simple so it is easy to explain. Most importantly, if what you do in your business is too complicated to explain, people are going to be unlikely to refer you, because they won’t see the benefits you can offer.
3 – Try To Do The Majority Of Your Business Networking Online
LinkedIn has grown exponentially over the last few years and is now a huge online networking opportunity. This is especially the case for business owners, sales people and people who are self-employed. You can look at a person’s public profile and tell whether or not they are somebody you would like to build a relationship with. Then simply contact them through a group association, a person common to both of your networks, or by using LinkedIn’s InMail application.
Offline networking meetings are still important, but you’ll find it’s a lot better use of your time searching for networking opportunities online, at least initially before you make the first contact.
Growing Your Business Into The Future
Your goal right now should be to create an organized business plan, and create a good explanation of what your business is all about (your Elevator Pitch). Then go ahead and meet business owners with similar interests both offline and online, and refer people to some of these colleague’s businesses in order to expand your own.
Successful business networking is the key to growing your business and staying in the game for the long run. While it does take time, when done with an attitude of helpful service, it can bring you massive dividends worth much more than the time commitment you’ve made.
}
The Best of Education website The top 5 most popular Education websites in the world