www.oakbookkeepingservices.co.uk
‘People buy from people’ is a mantra you will hear at many a networking event. We want to work with people we like and trust. It’s the reason we are happy to refer the plumber or builder who did work in the house.
Networking and referrals are the mainstay of many a small
business. Which is why I cannot
understand why at several recent networking events there is nearly always someone
who either comes up to me while I’m in mid conversation with someone, butts in
and says ‘can’t stop but I’m Joe X, I do
this, here’s my card, gotta go’. Alternatively we’ll be in a group listening to
a conversation and you can see one of the ‘listeners’ has switched off and eyes
have glazed over. OK I can understand it’s
because they’re not interested in X’s product but either excuse yourself or
feign interest. I know both these types
of people are not going to get my referral if I get asked to recommend someone
in their profession.
I always say that it’s not likely to be the contact I meet
at networking that’s likely to be my client but a contact of theirs, current or
future. In the same way I may not have
need of their skills but may know / meet someone who does.
There are some people I see regularly at various networking
or trade shows and we always ask how the others getting on, what they’ve been
up to etc, and these are the ones that I’m more likely to remember when someone asks ‘can you recommend’
or ‘the type of contact I’m after is’…….
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