People who say that networking played a role in their success spent an average of 6 1/2 hours a week networking and had half of their clients from their networking time. However, people who did not invest as much time networking also did not report as much reward.
Therefore, spend about 8-10 hours per week networking and do the right things to build the relationships first when networking.
I have been doing video blogs for quite a few years now and a while back it occurred to me that some of the videos I’ve previously posted focus on timeless topics that deserve to be revisited and not buried way back in the video blog archive. For this reason, I decided to occasionally feature a “classic” video blog from my blog archive and today I am sharing the fifth one–”How to Invest Your Time and Money for the Highest Return.” In this video, I talk about how to invest time and money into your business in the way that will ultimately pay the highest return–education.
Many businesses fail within their first three years of existence because they only pay lip service to education yet aren’t willing to invest the time, effort, and money into learning about how to continually grow and develop in order to achieve the business goals and the vision they outlined for themselves at the start.
The fact is, people who immerse and engage in a culture of learning are much, much more successful than those who don’t. Watch the video now to learn about an action you can take this week that will help you measure whether or not you’re investing enough of your time and money into what will truly help your business earn more and achieve more.
I’m quite interested in hearing your thoughts on this video, your comments about what you currently do in order to invest in educating yourself to build your business, and also your results from carrying out the action item I explain at the end of the video. Please leave your feedback regarding any or all of these things in the comment forum below. Thanks!
I have been doing video blogs for quite a few years now and a while back it occurred to me that some of the videos I’ve previously posted focus on timeless topics that deserve to be revisited and not buried way back in the video blog archive. For this reason, just this past July, I decided to occasionally feature a “classic” video blog from my blog archive and today I am sharing the second one–”How to Invest Your Time & Money for the Highest Return.”
In this video, I talk about how to invest time and money into your business in the way that will ultimately pay the highest return–education.
Many businesses fail within their first three years of existence because they only pay lip service to education yet aren’t willing to invest the time, effort, and money into learning about how to continually grow and develop in order to achieve the business goals and the vision they outlined for themselves at the start.
The fact is, people who immerse and engage in a culture of learning are much, much more successful than those who don’t. Watch the video now to learn about an action you can take this week that will help you measure whether or not you’re investing enough of your time and money into what will truly help your business earn more and achieve more.
I’m quite interested in hearing your thoughts on this video, your comments about what you currently do in order to invest in educating yourself to build your business, and also your results from carrying out the action item I explain at the end of the video. Please leave your feedback regarding any or all of these things in the comment forum below.
If your network is a mile wide and an inch deep, the fact is it will simply never be very powerful. In this video, I talk about why investing the time and effort into really getting to know your contacts and building deep, trusted relationships with them is key to networking success.
Do you know your contacts’ hobbies? Do you know their family members’ names? If your answer is no, this means you’re not delving beneath the surface with your contacts and you’re not building fruitful relationships–you need to get to know your contacts much better.
Watch this short video now to learn how to build deeper, mutually beneficial relationships by using the GAINS Exchange, get relationship-building success strategies used by international sales expert & keynote speaker Harvey Mackay, and more.
Do you have a method or a tactic for getting to know your contacts better which has really seemed to work for you? If so, please share it in the comment forum below. I’m always interested in the tactics that networkers around the world have successfully used to achieve networking success and I’d love to hear your thoughts!
In this video, I talk about how to invest time and money into your business in the way that will ultimately pay the highest return–education.
Many businesses fail within their first three years of existence because they only pay lip service to education yet aren’t willing to invest the time, effort, and money into learning about how to continually grow and develop in order to achieve the business goals and the vision they outlined for themselves at the start.
The fact is, people who immerse and engage in a culture of learning are much, much more successful than those who don’t. Watch the video now to learn about an action you can take this week that will help you measure whether or not you’re investing enough of your time and money into what will truly help your business earn more and achieve more.
I’m quite interested in hearing your thoughts on this video, your comments about what you currently do in order to invest in educating yourself to build your business, and also your results from carrying out the action item I explain at the end of the video. Please leave your feedback regarding any or all of these things in the comment forum below, and for the first ten people who add to their comment where Bob makes his cameo appearance (and get the answer right) during the video, I’ll send them a surprise gift that will most definitely help them invest in their networking education! (Note: To ensure you receive your gift, please e-mail your name and complete mailing address to erin@bni.com with the subject line “Bob.”) I’m looking forward to hearing from you!
In this short video, I’m joined by two esteemed referral marketing experts, Phil Bedford and Tom Fleming, each of whom offer memorable metaphors which demonstrate the crucial nature of education in achieving success when it comes to business networking and referral marketing.
Watch the video now to find out how lumberjacks, lots of excuses, driving a vehicle, and one good reason can all combine to help you make time in your schedule to learn more and ultimately earn more.
After watching the video, think about the ways in which you might already seek out education in regard to business networking (e.g., reading the blog posts on this site, etc.) and please leave a comment in the comment forum below sharing your suggestions for great educational resources which may help others learn valuable tools and skills to improve their referral marketing success. I’m always on the lookout for great books, blogs, etc. so if you’ve found educational resources that have been particularly helpful to you, I’d love to hear about them–thanks!
To find out more about the Referral Institute®, the educational organization in which Phil Bedford and Tom Fleming are both highly involved, please visit www.ReferralInstitute.com.
In this second installment of the “Why People Resist Networking” Video Series, I discuss another commonly held idea behind why people most likely resist networking–they claim they are much too busy to network.
The bottom line is that though people may feel they “don’t have the time” or that they’re “too busy to network,” in reality they’re simply not making the effort to take the time because they don’t realize two extremely important facts about the benefits of networking and the power it has to significantly build their business.
I highly encourage you to watch this video to find out why the “I’m too busy to network” mentality is something you definitely need to overcome if your goal is to grow your business as efficiently and effectively as possible.
After watching the video, I’d love for you to leave your feedback, thoughts, and/or comments in the comment forum below. In addition to leaving any feedback you might have, I’m specifically interested in hearing your ideas/tactics for combating the “I’m too busy . . .” mentality. Thanks!
People often mistakenly perceive what goes on at networking meetings and events as making small talk with a bunch of strangers. Real business networking , however, isn’t about making small talk at all; rather it is about building meaningful, mutually beneficial relationships with other business professionals and small talk isn’t generally something that helps further this aim. Serious networkers, recognizing that they have limited time to introduce themselves and convey the essence of what they do, generally avoid lengthy small talk.
If you want to build your business through word of mouth, you must give a message that’s heard by others. You need to create a positive message and deliver it effectively–who are you, what do you offer, and to whom do you offer it? When you properly position yourself with an effective message instead of trying to connect through making small talk, you save time because others quickly understand what your company represents and offers.
Take the time to plan your introduction and prepare some concise and descriptive overviews of your products or services. Then, when you meet someone for the first time, you can give him a good explanation of what you have to offer. I recommend that you develop several scripts that you can readily use when attending networking meetings.
Show pride in who you are and what you do. As an example of this, I often mention a fantastic quote from Martha Taft. When she was a young girl in elementary school, she was asked to introduce herself to a group of people. “My name is Martha Bowers Taft,” she said. “My great-grandfather was President of the United States, my grandfather was a United States Senator, my daddy is Ambassador to Ireland, and I am a Brownie.”
If you have honed your message and have crafted an introduction which has been very effective for you at networking functions, I encourage you to share it in the comment forum below and to explain how you went about constructing your message and your introduction. You never know who you’ll help by sharing your insights. Thanks!
A friend of mine, TR Garland (pictured with me in the photo at right), just wrote a great blog entry which contains some very timely information for many people across the globe and I’d like to take the opportunity to share it with you today as a guest blog. Enjoy . . .
“New Year’s Resolutions and Networking” by TR Garland
In about 30 days, the majority of people around the world are going to be faced with the same thing we’re all faced with once at a certain point every single year.
No, I’m not talking about keeping a smile on your face while spending the holidays with your in-laws (wink-wink). I’m talking about setting New Year’s Resolutions.
Every year, one of the top resolutions is to “get in shape.” The truth of the matter is that most of us already know how to get in shape:
1. Design a nutritional plan and stick to it
2. Design a workout schedule and stick to it
3. Track your actions and results daily and recalibrate if needed
The problem is, a large percentage of people don’t reach their goals because:
1. They don’t write out a formal nutrition plan or workout schedule
2. They don’t hold themselves accountable
In other words, life gets in their way.
So what can be done about this? Well, there’s something about human psychology that pushes us to not let someone else down. Because of this, people who invest in a personal trainer to help keep them accountable tend to achieve desired results much more consistently than they ever would by attempting to get in shape on their own.
It’s important to note that this same concept holds true for business networking and referral marketing.
Many people are spending a lot of time networking by just chatting away with others and maybe grabbing others’ business cards. By doing this, they then expect results; they expect that the people whom they’ve met and exchanged business cards with will eventually pass a referral to them. This mindset is called being reactive ( . . . and hoping for the best!). Being reactive is an employee mindset or mentality that, in my opinion, gets placed into the same category as punch cards, guaranteed smoke breaks, assembly lines, benefits entitlement, and cubicles. In other words, this mindset is something that isn’t really that viable anymore in today’s economic environment.
If you don’t believe me, look around and note which businesses are thriving and hiring. I’m confident you’ll discover that the businesses which are doing well are those that do not have a reactive mindset and, instead, maintain an entrepreneurial mindset.
An entrepreneurial mindset is one that takes ownership and focuses on being proactive versus reactive. Just like the “getting in shape” example above, being proactive and accountable in your business networking and referral marketing efforts is a sure-fire way to get results–plain and simple.
So, especially if you’ll be out attending holiday parties in the coming 30 days with your spouse, significant other, family, or friends, remember to be proactive with your networking efforts. Go to each event with a purpose (in addition to your goal of having fun). Don’t simply gather business cards, that’s not what I’m talking about. Instead, set relevant and realistic networking goals and ask the person you went with to hold you accountable to your goals.
And, of course, there’s a time and a place for everything. You need to respect the event you’re attending and if the environment doesn’t warrant you achieving certain networking goals . . . grab a celebratory beverage and some festive treats and remember, there’s always next year!
* TR Garland is a Referral Marketing Strategist for the Referral Institute® in Orange County, California where he is a consultant to top performers and entrepreneurs on maximizing their ROI/ROT from business contacts and networking. Starting in 2011, you can follow TR for his tips, tactics, and techniques on effective networking at his newly launched blog located at www.BeABetterNetworker.com.
Developing an effective word-of-mouth strategy that results in a strong referral-based business takes endless time, energy, effort and, above all, commitment. The actions and steps necessary to create a successful referral-networking campaign are simple, yet far from easy; they take tremendous dedication and drive, and results can be a long time in coming.
So why should you put forth the time and effort to develop a word-of-mouth strategy for your business? Because, if you commit to doing it right and don’t give up, the payoff can be unbelievably high.
In fact, many businesses have become so adept at referral marketing that they get most of their sales through referrals and spend little or no money on advertising — and they never have to place cold calls. Some of these businesses hire most of their employees through referrals, manage complex financing arrangements and even procure necessary products through referral contacts they have cultivated for many years.
But a referral-based business can reward you in ways beyond those measured in dollars. Dealing with people you like and trust is a better way to live and work than sparring with strangers all day long. You may even find the relationships you form with your referral sources more important than the dollars your new customers bring you. Such relationships are central to both the referral-generation process and the satisfaction you derive from your work.
So, the next time you find yourself doubting whether your networking efforts are really worth it, remember: If you don’t give up, and you continually devote yourself to working on making your word-of-mouth strategy better and better, the payoff can be enormous both financially and in terms of happiness in business and life.
When one of your business relationships passes you a referral, don’t assume that the prospect is ready to hear a presentation on your product or service. When an associate passes you a referral, say thanks . . . then start digging for more information.
You will want to determine whether what you offer is a fit for what the prospect needs. Taking the time to do this upfront saves a lot of time and energy–for both you and the prospect. Exactly what does the prospect do? What products or services does he want from you? Will your offerings truly fulfill his needs? What is his behavioral style? What are his business goals? How large is his company?
Even with the referral in hand, don’t skip steps in your sales process. Before you approach the prospect, decide on a strategy based on whatever you can find out about him–the same as you would when preparing for any sale. Although the prospect was referred to you, all you’ve really received is an opportunity to approach the prospect with a favorable introduction. (This is not a bad thing–a single referral can open the door to a prospect it may have taken weeks, months or even years to connect with–if you even could at all.) But whether the prospect becomes a client or not depends on how well you convince him that what you offer, at the price and under the conditions you offer it, will fulfill his needs.
It’s always a good idea to consistently hone your sales skills and strategies. If you need a good sales resource, look no further than Mastering the World of Selling. It’s a brand-new book by Eric Taylor and David Riklan, and it contains one of the greatest collections of sales training wisdom for the 21st century that I’ve ever come across. It features sales strategies and advice from 89 of the world’s top experts including Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, Tom Hopkins, Jeffrey Gitomer, yours truly and more. 🙂 To find out more about Mastering the world of Selling, click here.
Do you have any dynamite sales wisdom that you’ve picked up over the years? If so, I invite you to share it here by leaving a comment–there’s no such thing as too much useful information. Thanks!
Are you looking for a networking approach that will help you save time and money? Yes? . . . I had a feeling you’d say that. 😉
Source seeking is a great way to save time and money, increase your number of sources, discover some of your best sources and opportunities, and broaden your knowledge of your sources’ networks. It involves contacting your prospective sources to identify people they know who can help you achieve a particular goal. For example, you may ask a source to name someone who can help you with a problem, can sell something you want, owns something you want, knows someone in a certain area, or has been somewhere you want to go.
Here are some tips for source seeking: