Do any of the following sound familiar?
- Do you seize up when entering a room full of strangers?
- When people ask what you do, do you find it difficult to offer a coherent answer?
- Do you struggle when comes to articulating who your target clients are?
- Are your colleagues struggling to generate referrals for you?
Don’t worry if you said yes to any of the above, you are no different from most people. Networking is not a skill you simply pick up, it’s something you need to learn.
A major criticism I have of most networking organisations is that they don’t offer their members any networking training and it shows. …
- Members try to sell to each other as soon as they meet
- Members fail to keep in touch after they’ve first met
- Members don’t clearly explain what they do and who their customers are
- Members give up on networking after just a few months because they’ve not (yet) had any business
To successfully network, you need the following skills…
- Presentation skills: Articulate what you do so that people meeting you for the first time have a clear understanding of what you do and can easily refer clients to you.
- Networking skills: Identify which people in the room are most likely to be able to help your business. Once you’ve identified them, you need to get to know them, like them and trust them before you can do business together.
- Referral skills: The more you can help colleagues with their business, the more they will want to help your business. Learn to identify what your colleagues do, who their clients are and how to introduce them to potential clients.
If you’re not already being offered training, why not come on our next networking skills course where we can teach you how to present, how to network, and ultimately how to generate new referrals for your business. The next course takes place Monday 3rd December.
We look forward to seeing you there!
