In a previous blog, I talked about how to help people understand what you do in order to help you more effectively; making it easy for them to do so rather than antagonising them.
Once your network understand what you want them to say about you, you then need to focus on who you want them to share your message with. If, for example, you are looking for contacts in the public sector, there is little advantage to be gained if your message is being shared with small start-up companies. [click to continue…]
by Richard White on April 29, 2013 · 1 comment
I always say that one good advocate is worth ten clients. When networking I am normally looking for potential advocates rather than clients – people who can recommend me to their clients when a sales related problem arises. What gets exciting about having a network of advocates is that provided you look after your direct advocates then your reputation will start to grow through their networks.
I am regularly amazed at how badly some people treat their advocates. I had one company who I had been advocating and had referred to them almost £50,000 of business over a couple of months. When I decided to use them for my own business they took advantage of the relationship and gave me a very sloppy service saying they were too busy with other clients. The clients I had referred to them by the way! [click to continue…]
I was chatting with a business owner the other day about online networking. He said he was getting massively frustrated with Linked In – he understood that it was important that he had a presence on the network – but just found himself inundated with connection requests, and plenty of them were from people he didn’t know.
I asked him what he did with all these requests – he replied that he simply clicked ‘ignore’. [click to continue…]
What exactly is a networking strategy and why do you need one? Why can’t you just show up to networking events and win bucket-loads of business?
A business networking strategy is essentially a marketing plan for your networking efforts. Like any good marketing plan it describes who you want to meet, how you’re going to meet them, how you’re going to help them and what you’re going to say/do when you get in front of them. [click to continue…]
In a previous blog, I talked about how to help people understand what you do in order to help you more effectively; making it easy for them to do so rather than antagonising them. 
