Networking Strategy

‘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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“Why didn’t you tell me they were your clients?”

March 18, 2014

I was working with a client recently and I came upon a recurring problem. The client was a well-established, family run business with a large turnover and several different departments selling different products to different customers. To give them an idea of how being very specific about who your target market is, we were doing a who-would-be-your-dream-client exercise.

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Build a Better Business: It’s as easy as ABC!

March 11, 2014

Comedian Bob Monkhouse used to say the secret to a good presentation was ABC and XYZ: Always Be Confident and eXamine Your Zipper! To be honest, that is just about the best advice there is. But, the initials ABC can also be used to signify something else critical to our success: the three steps of winning a sale…

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10 Things the Best Networkers Do

March 4, 2014

Growing your business by networking and referrals makes good sense. Pretty much all business is personal these days, and building trusted relationships that lead to recommendations and introductions is a good use of your time. Good networking is coachable. You can get better. And the best way to do that is to copy the great networkers. Here are 10 things you will always see the best networking doing…

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What do you do with business cards? Part 3

February 25, 2014

As I browsed around the shops in my local village I found myself lingering in the antiques shop admiring a rather beaten up and character filled twin pedestal desk. The desk now sits at the centre of my office upon which sits the latest computer, video camera and microphone.

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“Just One More Thing” …get your service right before you ask for referrals!

February 18, 2014

There’s something stunningly crass about asking for referrals before you’ve even delivered the most basic service to a new customer. And yet so many people do it. Known as ‘The Columbo Close’ after the TV detective who would be on his way out of the door, before turning around and, with his immortal words, delivering the knockout blow that would unmask the villain of the piece. In the sales world, the villain of the piece is the salesman who finishes off his sales pitch by asking ‘one more thing’.

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How many business cards do you aim to give? Part 2

February 11, 2014

As we gathered that sunny afternoon on the House of Lords terrace, we were treated to a fabulous cream tea and inspiring speeches. One of the guests must have just completed an ‘accelerated networking’ course or was taking networking steroids…

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