Make of the following what you will. I went to a networking bash the other week and met a chap claiming to sell business training. What he didn’t know was that I had just won a client and had identified some massive holes in their systems and processes.
Marketing – which is my area of expertise – might be the very thing that would tip this particular company over the edge ……win them lots of order and overwhelm a back end office system not able to cope. I was ‘buying’ business training / business consultancy that day. This is where I pause for a little aside (please forgive me!)…….one of my little ‘test’ quirks is to throw out a piece of bait…… ‘fancy meeting for a coffee some time?’ I use it to test response. They invariably ask if I have something in mind and I always say ‘not really but it would be good to meet up for a one to one so that we can understand how to help each other’. I usually send out a follow up e-mail to give them the benefit of the doubt, and see if they back to me. On this occasion I did just that and, after 7 days, I got a response asking me what it was I wanted to discuss. I reiterated in writing what I had said verbally……….and the line of communication went dead. A few days later I met that same chap at another networking do and he commented that he had been really busy getting proposals out of the door, but few of them had come to fruition. To this day he knows little about me, and even less about what I was looking for, because he failed miserably to build a relationship. He failed to observe the most basic of networking codes……get back to people quickly and remember people do business with people they know and like. By contrast I met a woman (they are better at the relationship thing) at the same event selling sales promotion materials. Not only did she look great but she was bubbly and bright. I gave her the same line and she got in touch with a few dates and suggested we meet for coffee at Pret a Manger. There were no preconditions and even though I didn’t have any business on that occasion I really wanted to help her. After an hour she said she commented that she needed to meet more marketing, promotional or PR managers. I instantly recalled a colleague who worked at the national Royal Armouries Museum and another woman whose husband was head of PR for one of the country’s leading rugby clubs. After the meeting I warmed up both contacts, told them to expect my colleague’s call and then informed the lady in question what I had done and how she should approach the potential buyers. She was over the moon and I felt good about helping her. Oh, and just to add a bit of spice………..I met the woman whose husband was the rugby PR guy at the earlier lunch event referenced in my previous blog (24.10.09 – The Room’s Too big to Network). Read that blog if only to help you understand what networking is really about…..it’s about making links for others as well as yourself. Business Network International (BNI) is right, it is the giver who gains, very rarely the taker. Build relationships, phone people back and, sometimes, set up a meeting knowing that you are not necessarily going to get an order……………..you will be paid back tenfold further down line.
