Is face-to-face networking right for your business?
This might sound like a strange question, but it is a question that everyone who is thinking about going networking should answer. Networking is a really powerful marketing tool for many people and many businesses, but it doesn?t work for everyone. Answer yes or no to the following questions and then check your answers, to see how useful it will be to you and your business.
- Do some of your clients tell you they work with you because they like you as a person?
- To help clients decide to buy from you, do you need to demonstrate what you can do for their business?
- Do your clients go through a long decision making process before buying from you?
- Is your service something that requires a serious investment of time and money from your clients?
- Do you have a limited amount of time to spend on your marketing?
- Do you work on your own all day?
- Do you need somewhere to try out new marketing initiatives before spending money on them?
- Do you like meeting people?
What do your answers mean?
If you answered ?yes? to questions 1 or 2, networking will be able to help you market your business. When you provide a service, rather than a product, you are actually selling yourself, your time and your expertise. It is a cliché, but people really do buy people. This means that to encourage people to buy from you, you need to meet them. Networking is one of the most cost effective ways of meeting the number of people you need to meet.
If your answers to questions 3 or 4 were ?yes? then networking is also for you. The service you provide may be expensive or it may have a long sales cycle. You may need to speak to a prospective client a number of times, over many months, before they are confident enough to buy from you. Networking provides you with the opportunity to get to know people on a long-term basis, building up a relationship in which your prospects learn to trust you. When people trust you they are more likely to buy from you and keep buying.
Marketing is something that every business needs to do, but time is often an issue. If you answered ?yes? to question 5, then networking will give you the opportunity to meet a number of people in one place, at one time. Instead of setting up numerous different meetings, at different locations, you can collect together a group of people you would like to speak to, all at the same time.
Many people work on their own, spending long days with no one to talk to and no one with whom to share ideas or problems. While it is not always the main aim of networking, many groups give you the opportunity to speak to other people in the same situation as you. If you answered ?yes? to question 6, you can use networking to find the support you need; this can lead to established relationships that can develop into profitable ones for you. Networking is a very good way of trying out new marketing ideas and getting feedback on them, before you commit to them, so if you answered ?yes? to question 7, networking is also for you.
If you like meeting people and answered ?yes? to question 8, then networking should come easily to you. When it comes to deciding which marketing tools are best for your business, you need to focus on doing what you enjoy. If you are the gregarious type, then networking is right for you.
If you answered ?yes? to more than four questions, then networking will really help you promote your business. If ?no? was your answer to more than four questions, there are other marketing tools that are more appropriate to you and your business.
