Posts Tagged ‘Networking Groups’

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Promote Your Chamber the Right Way

Friday, May 27th, 2011

A friend of mine took me to a Chamber event this week. The Chamber has an excellent reputation, but I hadn’t been to an event yet. And now I probably won’t go back.

It wasn’t a bad event, a little crowded, but that’s more of a good thing than a bad. The reason I’m not planning to go back is that I spent most of the event fending off fairly hard sell “join the Chamber” conversations.

I use the word “conversation” sarcastically. I didn’t actually have any conversations that evening. Few people I spoke to asked much about me beyond a superficial “what do you do?” One person actually spent about 10 minutes trying to talk me into joining. And made it difficult to gracefully leave the conversation (yeah, I tried the advice I gave on Wednesday, but she didn’t take the hint).

So enough about venting. How can you promote your Chamber or other networking organization in a positive way?

The short answer is to promote your organization the way you’d promote your business. Ask questions. Listen for needs. When you hear them, position your group as a way to address those needs.

Selling an organization is exactly the same as selling a product. If you do most of the talking, you’ll blow the sale.

We know when you are sincere and when you are just going through the motions. Find some common ground. Perhaps talk about why you’re in the Chamber and specifically what the benefit to you has been.

Then ask if the other person would like more information. If he or she says no, back off. I told every person that night that I wasn’t interested in joining because the location was bad for me. They all tried to talk me out of thinking that way by telling me about other events (all at equally bad times.)

You need to realize that your organization isn’t for everyone, but if you leave a good impression, they may refer others to you. Ironically, I have referred a number of people to that Chamber. Not so sure I’m going to continue. Don’t leave that impression with other people about your organization, please.

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Your Changing Networking Needs

Friday, May 6th, 2011

It’s likely that your networking needs will change over time. Perhaps you were looking for a job and landed it. Or your business has grown over time and you are targeting a different market. Situations like this can lead to you needing to reevaluate your networking goals and sometimes your groups and venues.

It’s not a comfortable decision to leave a group, but it might be the right thing to do.

First, you need to be certain about your decision. Look at the contacts you need. Is this group or venue providing them? If not, check your message. What are you asking for? Have you changed your message? If not, try that first. Maybe your group didn’t realize your needs have changed.

If a change of message doesn’t work, it might be time to leave. You need to be careful. The group may not meet your needs, but you have built relationships, and you don’t want to lose them.

Consider what you say when you leave. Telling them they can’t introduce you to the right people might sound harsh. You might want to look at phrasing it a different way. It might be prudent to give a more complete explanation to key people and send a more general message to the group as a whole.

The most important time is right after you leave. If there are relationships you want to maintain, it’s your responsibility to reach out. The group will likely move on to the next new member, and without any malicious intent, you will slip in their thoughts. Identify the key relationships you want to continue and look for ways to stay in touch. Referrals are always good. Keep referring someone, and he or she will be happy to stay in contact.

Moving on from a group can be done, if you are careful and sensitive. Do it well, and you’ll keep them in your network. Do it badly and you’ll burn bridges you might need later.

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Who To Refer?

Wednesday, February 16th, 2011

I recently heard something very disappointing at a networking event.

Three of us were talking. For ease of writing this, we’ll call the other two people Jim and Jane. Jim expressed a real need for a service. I knew Jane had a good relationship with someone (Bob) who offered that service and I turned to her and said, “I’m sure you’ve already referred Bob to Jim.”

People, this should have been a no-brainer, and I was so certain Bob had been referred that I almost didn’t say anything. Good thing I did. Because Jane said, “Oh, Bob isn’t in my networking group anymore.”

Don’t worry. Bob did get the referral, but I kind of felt like I was guilting Jane into it.

So what’s up with this? If someone provides a good service does it matter if you’re not in the same networking group anymore? Remember that networking is about building relationships. Relationships last (or should) no matter what group you belong to.

The situation would have been different if Jane had said, “No, I didn’t refer Bob because someone new in that position has joined my group, and I referred her instead.” That would have been fine. At least someone would have been referred.

But to hear about a need, know someone who can fulfill it and say nothing? That’s counter to every principle of good networking.

This must be a common problem because I’ve had so many people tell me, “When I left that group, I never heard from any of the members again.” Regular networking meetings are a way to stay in touch. They aren’t the only way.

You want people to remember and refer you, no matter what group they are in, right? Then stay in touch with everyone in your network, no matter what groups you do or do not share.

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Sell Your Networking Group Well

Monday, January 24th, 2011

I was at an event a couple of weeks ago, and I was approached about joining the hosting group.

I was interested after talking to the first person who approached me. It seemed that the group had synergy with me and might lead to some excellent contacts. I was mentally working out how it would fit in with my overall networking plan when member number two butted into the conversation.

He asked what I did. I told him I was a networking and social media coach. He asked if I were a member. I said, “No, but I’m thinking about it.” His response? “Shame on you. You should join right away.”

He then launched into a lengthy explanation of why I should join, starting with “we don’t have anyone in your profession who is already a member.” He went on for almost five minutes on the benefits of networking. (Did he miss what I said I did for a living?)

What all did he do wrong? More like, what didn’t he do wrong!

Attempting to “shame” me into joining. Obviously not listening to what I said I did and thinking I needed an explanation on the benefits of networking. His manner was generally obnoxious, and he didn’t shut up until (finally!) they asked us to sit to listen to the speaker.

Oh, did I mention that he tried to embarrass the speaker during his presentation?

Before you ask, no, this was not a BNI meeting or any similar type of group.

I’m sure none of you would be this obnoxious to a potential member of your networking group or professional organization, but I tell the story to remind you to always be aware when you are asking someone to join. Hard sell, obnoxious techniques don’t work. Listen to the other person. Find out his or her needs. Show how your group can address those. And then shut up and let the person think.

It’s too bad. I think the group would have been worth joining. But the thought of having to deal with him every month has definitely put me off.

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BNI Isn’t Networking

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

I’m expecting some flack on this post, and I’m ready. Bring it on!

Before I start, let me say that I was a member of BNI for 5 years, and I still recommend people join chapters. It’s a great way for some people to grow their business.

For those of you who don’t know what BNI is, quickly, it’s an international organization of chapters of business people who meet weekly with the goal of referring business to each other. Follow the link above if you want more information.

But it doesn’t really teach networking.

What it is VERY good at is teaching how to do business by referral, which is a part of networking, but there’s more to networking than referrals, and some of what you learn in BNI can actually hurt someone who is new at networking.

What, you may ask?

1. BNI encourages closed-group referrals

BNI chapters are made up of individuals, with one person per profession. Members are strongly encouraged to refer the members of their chapter. So, if one of your clients is looking to buy a house, you are supposed to refer the real estate agent in your chapter.

Why is this a problem? Because the agent in your chapter might not be the best fit for your client. In networking, you want to make the best connections to develop a relationship. BNI has systems in place that make it difficult for members to refer outside their chapters.

2. BNI encourages keeping score

Keith Ferrazzi in his book, Never Eat Alone, says, in networking we shouldn’t keep score. And I agree with him. There are people I refer without hesitation who have never referred me back. They make me look good with my clients, which is good for business. But BNI chapters usually have some method of tracking who is referring and bringing guests and who is not. Because of the score keeping, members often feel pressured to refer the members of their chapter, fearing that otherwise they won’t be referred in return. When I was still in BNI, I heard members frequently say, “I’ve referred so-and-so lots of times, but he still hasn’t referred me. I’m not going to refer him anymore.”

That’s not good networking.

3. BNI members tend to network too much within BNI

Although BNI says they encourage members to network outside BNI, many members don’t. They visit all the local chapters, one at a time, and say “I’m doing a lot of networking.” When I ask, “Are you giving and receiving referrals?” the answer often is, “No, but I’m having lots of one on one meetings.”

Yep. That’s effective.

4. BNI has a huge focus on inviting guests to chapters

This is probably my biggest pet peeve. BNI members who don’t quite get it attend other events like sharks, looking for members to invite to their home chapter. Often they pop the invitation without asking anything about the other person. It’s almost like the sales person who walks up to you at an event and says, “You need to hire me,” without knowing anything about you or your business.

Networking is about meeting new people and building relationships. That doesn’t happen when members cruise other events looking for “fresh meat.”

As I said earlier, BNI is an excellent place to learn the basics of doing business by referral. If you are considering BNI, by all means investigate your local chapters and see if one might be a good fit for you. But don’t think that BNI is networking and fall into the trap of just working BNI. There’s a lot more to effective networking than attending an endless series of BNI chapter meetings.

Anyone want to agree or disagree?

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You Are Where You Network

Monday, November 15th, 2010

You know how they say, “You are what you eat”? After this weekend, I must be a chocolate chip cookie. (My husband baked!)

But it’s also true that where you network will influence how people see you.

I was in a class last Friday, and there was a networking event next door. In the bathroom, I met someone I haven’t seen in a while. I had a neutral opinion of her based on my prior interactions with her.

However, the event she had been attending is frequented primarily by people who are more interested in socializing that networking. I attended the event once and left half-way through. Many of my clients have attended and quit because, while it is billed as a business networking event, few serious business people attend, and little business is passed.

My impression of the event is that it is attended by hobbyists who are not interested in growing their business or referring others.

This contact indicated she attends the event frequently. How do you think I view her?

On the other hand, there is a well-regarded monthly networking event I attend in DC. I recently had someone say, “Oh, you go to that event? You must be serious about networking.”

Music to my ears.

Can impressions be incorrect? Of course. Which is why I recommend you are careful where you network. Look at where you want to be in 5 years. Where do people at that level of success gather? Go there. Their success and reputation will rub off on you.

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I Won’t Use Your Service. How Can I Refer You?

Tuesday, August 17th, 2010

All last week I wrote about social media. Time for a change back to face to face networking for a few days.

I was meeting with someone last week who was thinking about joining a networking group, and she asked my advice. I knew the group well, and I said, “I don’t think it’s going to work for you. The people in that group aren’t going to need your services, and I think you’ll be frustrated.”

She very correctly called me on my statement and said, “But I thought the point was to work through them to their referrals, not make them clients.”

Of course I agree with her, but that wasn’t quite my point. As you network, you need to know your audience and your product or service. Some groups are made up of more savvy networkers than others. This group isn’t one of the savvy ones.

Some people can envision how they would refer someone, even if the service is something they will never use. For example, I personally have no use for someone who does corporate mediation. But I know the kinds of people who would need that service, and I can refer it.

Some people can’t make that leap. They are generally the smaller business owners who are new to the concept of business by referral. When they are still trying to get their message right to generate referrals and keep in mind easy to refer businesses, they aren’t quite able to get their heads around more complicated to refer businesses.

You need to keep this in mind when joining a networking group. Is your business something the members of the group will understand and use, even if they don’t use you? If so, you’ll have an easy time educating them on how to refer you. If not, you’ll have a bigger challenge.

Am I saying you shouldn’t join such a group? No, I’m just warning you that you’ll have to work harder than say, someone who sells gift baskets. Everyone can see how to refer that business. Everyone may not instantly see how to refer you.

That’s the “bad news.” The good news is that tomorrow I’m going to write about how you can educate anyone about how to refer your business, even if you fall into the “hard to refer” category.

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Networking: When the Magic Has Died

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

A friend of mine, Jason Alba of Jibber Jobber wrote an excellent post earlier this week on when to leave a networking group. His points were so good that I asked if I could reprint it here.

Take it away, Jason:

I’m not talking about when it’s time to leave a networking event, I’m talking about permanently leaving a group you are in.

A few years ago I networked in a Yahoo Group (an excellent place to network). This group was run by someone with a beautiful smile and a seemingly helpful persona, but I had a different experience than most.

My contributions to this Yahoo Group, with a lot of job seekers, were sincere and helpful. When someone asked a question that I could (or should) answer, I spent a fair amount of time constructing a response that was encouraging and had enough meat that the person would be able to move on.

At least half of my messages never made it to the group. They were flat out rejected by the moderator, who sometimes would construct her own response that had a lot of similarities to my response.

One time, she responded saying that it was HER group, not the Jason Alba group…. by this time I was just about done having all of my free help and thoughts slapped down.

I didn’t want to leave the group for many reasons. This was a large group that was very active and I got as much value as I put into the group (and I put a lot of value into the group). I struggled with leaving for months, and finally I did.

I left the group. I left the opportunity to be known, be helpful, keep my ear to the ground on issues, and get reactions to my ideas.

I was saddened to get to that point, but something unexpected happened.

When I left the group I became liberated. I was elated. Seriously, I was so happy to be out of the control of the group owner, and not have to worry about my contributions being slapped down more than 50% of the time.

No one really knows why I left… I STILL get emails from people that were on that group, wondering where I went. I do wish I could contribute to that group… but being free has been so liberating.

I know some of you go to network events, or network online in certain groups, where you feel quite unappreciated. Perhaps what you bring to the table is undervalued and you are essentially treated poorly (perhaps even abused).

Here’s my advice: leave.

Move on.

Leave the group.

Don’t stay for the others… they’ll eventually figure it out for themselves.

There are two reasons to participate in networking:

* To Give…. of your time, ideas, encouragement, etc.
* To Get…. moral support, ideas, encouragement, etc.

If there comes a time when the management of the group, or event, thinks that you are a threat, it’s better to go somewhere else and do what you do best than to stay there.

You’ll know when it’s time… when the stress weighs on you and you wonder why they keep doing things a certain way (which is wrong) and you keep getting slapped down… it is time to move on.

There were several things I really liked in his post.

1. Networking in a Yahoo Group. Yep, a great place to network.

2. Why we network. To give and to get. He’s completely right, and if a group stops supporting either of those goals, it’s time to leave.

By the way, Jason has a superb on-line contact management system aimed at job seekers. But it can be used by anyone who needs a good contact management system designed for networkers. Check it out for yourself.

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Evaluating Your Networking Venue

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Earlier this week I did a post on the Top 10 Networking Mistakes, and #6 was not evaluating your networking venues.

So how do you choose and evaluate? Glad you asked!

Asking for recommendations of good events from your network is a good place to start. Make sure to ask why they are recommending an event. Who are the usual attendees? Are they the kind of people you need/want to meet? Is it primarily a business or social event? If the event sounds like it meets your goals, give it a try.

Networking event calendars will sometimes give you similar information. I love it when an event listing tells me who should attend. That gives me valuable information on whether I should attend. The event might be aimed at people like me. Or it might be aimed at my potential market. Either way is fine by me.

But all the research in the world doesn’t help you out if you don’t actually attend the event. If you think one might work for you, check it out. As you network, evaluate the other people there. Are these who you expected? If not, ask some questions. Events are like people. They have good days and bad days. Check to see if this might be an unusual crowd.

If you made good contacts, then obviously you’ll want to list this one as one to try again. If it didn’t work for you, I still suggest giving it at least one more try. Might have been an off day.

Even if you think it’s a good event and you continue to go back, don’t hesitate to reevaluate after 6 months or a year. Your goals may have changed. The event may have changed. The same goes for an event you decided not to attend. If someone mentions it as being a good event, give it another look.

Don’t let peer pressure influence you too much. I’ve been told there are events I HAVE to attend. Then I go and realize they are a waste of time. Yes, it’s awkward to tell someone “thanks for the recommendation, but it’s not for me.” But that’s much better than attending an event regularly that wastes your time.

Just because your best friend loves it doesn’t mean you have to.

When you look at your networking calendar for a month, make sure you are using your time wisely. Time is too precious to waste on bad events.

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Don’t Do Anything You Really Don’t Like!

Monday, January 11th, 2010

This can be a dangerous piece of advice, so let me clarify. When you begin to make changes in your networking strategy, you are going to have to move out of your comfort zone. After all, if everything you are comfortable with is working well, there would be no need to change. Moving out of your comfort zone can be scary. It may mean doing things you don’t like. But as you get more comfortable with the new activities, you may find that the thing you hated at first ends up being a lot of fun.

For example, I used to hate evening networking mixers. I don’t drink alcohol, and the venues are often loud and crowded. But I needed to work them, if for no better reason than I needed to be able to advise my clients how to work them effectively. Hard to do if you’ve never done it yourself. So I forced myself out of my comfort zone and went to them. I did all the things I had advised my clients: set goals, talked to new people, etc. And guess what? They aren’t that bad. They still aren’t my most favorite or effective way to network, but I can do them. And I have made some very good connections at them. And I would have missed those great connections if I hadn’t talked myself into moving out of my comfort zone.

That said, I do them as little as possible. There are other ways of networking that I enjoy far more. And I pick the events that are most effective for me. I don’t just do them to do them because I “should.”

And it’s okay for you to do the same. Just because someone tells you “Hey, this is great. You should do it too” doesn’t mean you have to. Give it a fair try. If it works, continue it. If it doesn’t, stop. The minute networking becomes a “chore” is the minute you will give it up.

And that would be too bad. Networking is the best source of job security I have ever found. So stop worrying about the right or wrong way to do it. Do what works for you. Try something new every so often, but mostly just do it.

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