Professional Networking 101 - How to get new clients

Here is the question… why do you go to networking events?

Can you answer that? Most people think they can but many have no real clue. Some will say to get new leads, or to get people business cards, or to connect with the right people. While all of those are true what is the REAL reason you go? It’s very selfish when you say it out loud but this is the only reason you should ever go out networking, to get a new client, to get new business, to make more money…

Think about it. Isn't that the real reason you take time out of your busy schedule to go to a networking event? Well if you just said no then it should be.

Yeah yeah.. I want to help people too. But if all we dd was help people we would be broke and not able to help anyone anyway.

So now once again, if we have now narrowed our focus to 1) getting a new client or 2) getting new business or 3) making more money , then how does networking really help us out?

Networking is the first step to making a great personal connection. I have met many people who think networking is about how many people you can meet.

I recently attended a networking event where they held the event at a nightclub. Nothing roped off, nothing private about it. At the door if you said you were a networker they charged you $20 and let you go make you own name tag. And then you had to find the other people who were wearing nametags vs the people who were not. And yes, many of the women don’t wear their name tags because it interferes with their sense of style. So you could walk up to almost anyone, introduce yourself and if you didn't get slapped or visually berated from a table of women who were not networking then you might have made a first connection except for one thing, the sound system. Yes, the music was very loud, the cacophony of conversation noise added in and … wait for it… the live band then began playing.

Needless to say, I left quite early and the next day I spoke to another attendee who said they thought it was a great event and they had met more than fifteen people that night.

Now let us return to the reason we went to the event.  And I did not ask because my input was not requested but I was very curious to know how many appointments my networking friend had established, how many phone calls had they agreed would be received and by whom?

By that I mean when we go networking for the purpose of meeting someone, it is to ascertain if what my services are could be valued enough by the person I have met to allow them to part with some of their hard earned money in order for me to help them grow or improve their business in some manner. To be of value to them. Does that seem to make sense?

And in my trainings I teach people how and what questions to ask to start a great conversation to find all of this out. When was the last time you heard question #2… I mean you always hear, ‘so, what do you do?’ but the next question sets up the 3rd and fourth… it is…  ’and, how is your business?’

How many of you are asking that key question? Now for what you will find out about their business, but 1) what you will find out about how they think their business is and 2) you will start to get a feeling of their pain issues about their business. (but that is all part of the Professional Networking Workshop).

and those four questions will help you (yes I am big on numbering)  a) establish your concern and interest  b) place yourself (if applicable) into a place where you can begin to ease their pain  3) establish yourself as their helper so you can make them feel like they need and want to talk to you.

NOW we have gotten somewhere! because the purpose of your networking is to GET AN APPOINTMENT so you can sit down and spend some quality time to find out if the two of you want or need to do business together. And the appointment is what networking is really all about.

I am Steve Sapato from MentalProsperityBlog.com and I am your networking expert.

www.mentalsprosperityblog.com

Who do you go to for help?

You are your worst enemy~

So many times as I work with people, be they managers going through a difficult transition or with people going through difficult times, I find that one of the first things that falls apart is their real belief in themselves.

Oh it’s easy to say, no, I believe in me, I believe I can do this or get through this or overcome this. But the reality is we all have doubt! And that doubt clouds our ability to truly enhance our situation. The reason we have layers of managers in corporations used to be so that when you were stuck you could go to other managers who had more experience and they could help you. 

But when we are individuals who run into the roadblock or down time we find ourselves struggling so deeply no matter what we say to ourselves and only a few really intuitive people can find their own way without help. The rest of us need to have someone we can share and bounce things off of. We need someone who we can trust, wants the best for us, and we can open ourselves and our problems to them. Once upon a time I believed it was supposed to be your boss or manager but I found that they don’t necessarily want you to succeed or know how to help you. I have found they probably won’t keep your secret or your problem secret. Then I thought it was supposed to be your life partner or spouse and I found that they could use that against you later and might not keep your challenge between the two of you.

What I know now is that is why people pay me $300 a month to be their coach. I have the experience to help them but can never come back to hurt them on a personal or professional level because that is the agreement we have, the honor of our system and the trust that we develop.

When you are struggling to find your path, when you have run into that place where you doubt yourself and you need to unburden or receive advice that is when you need to have that confidant, that person you can bounce things off of. They will help you find your solution whether they give you advice or whether they simply ask the right question so you can find your own answer.

And when that happens you suddenly understand what you need to do, should have been doing or need to find additional people to help you accomplish it. And then your confidence and self belief comes flooding back into you because, there is the person you always believed in right in your mirror.

I encourage you to find your true self and allow someone else to help you stay and often become that person you knew you could be.

mentalprosperityblog.com  - Steve Sapato

Helping you to achieve the results you truly want.

Great Managers Are Made Not Born