Each month we will be sharing with you some networking hints and tips to help you become an effective networker. This month, it's all about careful planning and going with a goal in mind. We hope you find it useful and we welcome your feedback and comments.
Planning is key
Network with a goal in mind If you’d like your time spent networking to be more effective, the first thing you need to do is to decide what exactly you’d like to achieve. To gain true results, wouldn’t it make sense for these to be measurable? In order to do this, you need to have a goal in mind – for both networking in general and for each individual meeting you attend. So what would you like to achieve? Is it a certain type of referral? Valuable contacts? Help and support? A combination of these... or something else entirely? You need to be clear and specific with your networking goals in order to achieve real, measurable results.
Affinity Another thing to think about is the types of businesses which share an affinity with your business. Which industries or professions do you already work alongside? Which other industries or professions would you like to work alongside now or in the future? Many of our members who have found they share an affinity, decide to pool their resources together to work on larger projects. They are also able to pass work to one another on a regular basis.
Understand your business Although this may sound obvious, understanding your business isn’t just about knowing what you do – it’s about being able to communicate this in a clear, concise manner without using technical terms or jargon. So, in layman’s terms, what exactly do you do? Why – and for whom? How are you different from your competitors? It is important to think about how you will communicate your business to others if you’d like to get the best from your networking experience.
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