salesleaders.com homesalesleaders.com caught up with Deb Haggerty, a leading authority on networking and communication strategies. She shared with us her formula for cultivating productive business relationships.
Networking Success Networking is more than just mingling. It is a personal marketing system with specific steps that can be easily learned and made a part of your everyday life. Practiced consistently, these steps can help you cultivate productive business relationships, uncover new opportunities, and take the struggle out of marketing your self or your business.
Haggerty's four tips for networking success:
1) Set networking goals and develop a strategy to achieve them.
Decide what type of people you want to meet. Go to places where you are likely to find those you most want to meet. Set a reasonable objective of the number of people you want to positively connect with at each event you attend. Follow up your initial contact with a card, phone call, or e-mail message.
2) Design and use business cards effectively.
Emphasize on your business card what you can do for others. Consider using the back of your business card as a mini-brochure that lists your products, services, or major benefits of doing business with you. After receiving a business card from someone, jot down a few notes on the back to later jog your memory about the person. Carry your business cards in an easily accessible pocket and designate a separate special pocket for placing business cards you receive that warrant follow-up. Develop a system for organizing the business cards you collect. Transfer business card information to a paper or electronic contact management system to allow for easy access later.
3) Develop an effective self-introduction.
Create a concise opening line that provocatively communicates the main benefit or benefits of what you do. (Provide just enough information to intrigue your listener.) If appropriate, insert the name of your conversation partner's profession into your opening line. (For example, if you are a caterer speaking to a meeting planner, you might say something like: "I help meeting planners create meetings that are 5-star dining experiences.") Develop and practice a benefit-packed, 30-second description of what you do to follow your opening line. Be ready to deliver your 30-second commercial to anyone within 3 feet of you.
4) Cultivate centers of influence.
Identify those who are known and respected by the type of people you want to meet. Establish ongoing relationships with these centers of influence by continually being of help to them in any way you can. Develop a core group of about 25 centers of influence. Jump-start your networking efforts by getting involved in a business networking group such the National Association of Women Business Owners.
For more information on Deb Haggerty or networking, call salesleaders.com on 800-4321-WIN or send us an e-mail at information@salesleaders.com.
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