There’s much more to networking than simply passing out business cards and waiting for opportunities to discuss business services with casual prospects, and most clients aren’t obtained through chance meetings and randomly placed business cards. Many highly successful entrepreneurs don’t utilize business cards as part of their regular networking scheme. Many tremendously successful businesses secure clients through other networking methods, and these methods of networking are actually very easy for any business to utilize.
Waiting for contacts to come to you isn’t tactical or practical, and most of the time, it just doesn’t work. Don’t make the mistake of attempting to establish a network of clients by simply passing out business cards and talking about your business to all who will listen. There are other easy and highly effective networking methods that can help boost your business, and these methods are tried and true networking tactics used by successful online as well as offline businesses.
Contact Information amp; Referrals
Begin networking by collecting contact information from prospective customers. This means jotting down notes regarding potential clients as well as collecting business cards and contact information. This will help you begin to establish a database that includes information on their primary concerns, business needs, potential problems, and details that can help you eventually seal the deal.
As well as keeping records regarding potential clients in a database or with a contact manager, expand your network even further by requesting referrals from current contacts. Doing so will continually expand your networking sources and put you in direct contact with those who are truly interested in the goods and services you have to offer. This type of business networking will help you build and maintain an ever-flowing stream of new clients.
Maintain Contact
People won’t remember you or your business if you don’t occasionally spark their memory. After making initial contact with prospective clients, take the time to follow up a short time after, and try to stay in touch on a regular basis. This doesn’t mean you should make a nuisance of yourself or become too pushy regarding your business and the goods or services you offer. Rather it means you shouldn’t let a month go by without initiating contact in some form or another.
Whether you contact prospective clients in the network you’ve developed by means of a newsletter, ezine, or by postal mail, it’s important to stay in touch and maintain your presence through networking. That way when the goods or services you offer are wanted or needed, prospects in the network you’ve developed and maintained will remember who you are and what you have to offer.
Networking Strategies
Further peak the interest of potential clients by personalizing mailings regarding the goods and services you offer. Utilize the merge function within your software to further your networking scheme, and personally reach out to those in your network. Personalization will further enhance the bond you have with potential customers by capturing their interest as well as their undivided attention.
Present those in your networking system with valuable information regarding the goods or services you offer. Provide free suggestions and information to help solve or prevent a problem, or to meet a particular need. Your business will come to mind when potential clients encounter related problems, or when they find they require the goods and services provided by your business.
