When you tell entrepreneurs that relationships are the “key” to developing a personal and professional network, they often smile and acknowledge the concept without fully appreciating its true meaning.
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- Entrepreneurship_ch,
- Marketing_ch,
- Featured,
- starting business,
- social networking,
- small business,
- products,
- product,
- of commerce,
- networking,
- invention,
- intellectual property,
- company,
- business startup,
- business,
- leadership,
- entrepreneurship,
- marketing
Just like fishing,
the
process of meeting people, staying in touch, and then asking for their business is something you can do time after time.
Do referrals happen by accident?
As a business professional, I can tell you from personal experience how effective referral networking has been in the success of my own businesses.
There’s a very good reason why referral networking is becoming an accepted and important marketing strategy in businesses worldwide: it works.
Imagine being dropped off in a foreign city with nothing but a few hundred dollars and told that the only way to get home was to start a business and make a lot of money—in six days. Well, you don’t have to imagine it. Just watch the BBC television show The Last Millionaire.
Has anyone ever said to you, “If there’s anything I can do to help you with your business, let me know”? And was your response “Thank you. Now that you mention it, there are a few things I need”? Or did you say, “Well, thanks, I’ll let you know”?
If you’re like most of us, you aren’t prepared to accept help at the moment it’s offered. Before you can do so, you have to make the connection between specific items or services you need and the people who can supply them.
The holiday party is a great time to meet people but… you should have a plan!
Everybody goes to parties, and the holiday season is full of them. It’s also a business
slowdown season for many of us who are not in retail.
Some business people seem to have all the luck. The right people just seem to put
themselves in the path of these lucky people, ready to introduce them to people who
will give them all the business they could ever desire. Do you know any people like
this? Then you should also know that it’s likely more than just luck that brings a
deluge of referrals their way.
There are “tried-and–true” networking techniques that are so simplistic they seem
that they cannot be really effective. Many times, we try to re-evaluate, improve upon and
complicate them.
During the “back to school” season, I often recall the first day of the first class I took as I pursued my Ph.D. at the University of Southern California.
If you had any lingering thoughts that social media was just a "fad," you may want to let those go, particularly in light of LinkedIn’s recent IPO -- with a valuation of $4.3 billion.
I’ve been following the development of online business networking for several years, particularly at the inception of sites like Ecademy.com, Ryze.com, and of course LinkedIn.
