Building relationships

Who to Build Relationships With?

July 1, 2014

“Everyone”, I hear you scream, and yes that’s true, in general. Always remember that you never know who the people you know, know.  Therefore, you never know who the people you don’t know, know! It’s so easy (in fact it’s too easy) to make the mistake that the person in front of you doesn’t have the same personality as you, which by the way, is what makes the world go around. Therefore, we haven’t really got the time to build relationships with them because it’s too much like hard work. If you are going to proactively build relationships, who would [...]

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The ABCs of Referral Marketing – G is for Giving

June 18, 2014

Did you ever go to a “bring a bottle” party? Or a summer barbeque where everybody brings some food or dessert? You want to be the person who brings something to the party, people enjoy it and in turn you enjoy their food or drinks. Everyone has a great time. You don’t want to be that guy who comes to the party all the time with nothing, however they still expect everyone to feed them! What if everyone turned up with nothing? Then the party is over before it even began. Yet this is how we approach our networking, or [...]

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Put your clients at the heart of your network

May 14, 2014

People who spend a lot of time networking for sales leads often overlook an important part of their network; their clients. Your clients should be right at the heart of our networking activity, because an introduction from a happy client to one of their contacts will go a long way to helping us win more business.  

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An i for an Eye

April 29, 2014

I was at a conference recently which had a great keynote speaker called Paul McGee, if you ever have the opportunity to hear him speak, jump at the chance! He was captivating, and talked to the audience about some of the concepts from his book “S.U.M.O. (Shut Up, Move On): The Straight-Talking Guide to Succeeding in Life” which is a fabulous read…however something really stuck with me that he said: “In a world of iPhones and iPads, never forget the impact of eyeballs.” As an expert in word-of-mouth marketing and networking, I was delighted to hear this phrase. However, it [...]

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Different Stages of Networking

April 22, 2014

In my humble opinion, the only thing you can get wrong when networking is the initial approach. My personal golden rule is to ensure that the person you are speaking to doesn’t feel like you are trying to “sell” to him or her. Make it non-threatening and they will stay in the conversation (for a little while, at least). The reason I say that is because if the initial conversation goes wrong, then there isn’t a chance to get it back at that stage or ever (sure, at a later date perhaps, but not at that moment). As the saying [...]

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Why People Actually Like to Help You

April 10, 2014

It’s amazing how often people are nervous about asking for referrals. It’s as if we are scared of being a burden to our networks rather than taking pleasure by enabling them to do something they enjoy. Yes, something they enjoy. Because, in my experience, most people seem to derive more pleasure from making a connection that makes a positive difference to someone else than they do even from receiving such introductions. Stop thinking about referrals to you, as an imposition on others. As long as you add value to the person you’re being referred to, as long as you are [...]

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‘Follow Up’ – What’s that?

April 1, 2014

BNI has done studies of its members, and all have come up with the same conclusion. The most common trait of a good networker is that they follow up.  But what does that actually mean? Have a look at these typical networking scenarios: You got chatting with a business person at a mixer networking event.  There was some common ground between your two businesses, and you agreed when chatting that it would be a good idea to meet up for a coffee.

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Are your customers missing your flight?

March 25, 2014

What’s flying got to do with it? I travelled to the UK recently for a couple of days BNI training with my team. As I was walking through London’s Heathrow Airport looking for the taxi driver who was due to pick us all up, an airline representative came up to me and asked me “Can I help you? Are you one of our customers?”

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