THE POWER OF NETWORKING - PART 94

THE POWER OF NETWORKING

PART 94

By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting CC

Today I am going to share with you, one of the most effective ways to educate your networking partners about what it is and who it is, that you are looking for in a client.

Actually it’s awfully simple – you have to share! Yes it is actually as simple as that, you have to share with them the qualities of your current clientele.

Paint a visual picture or even a virtual picture of the people who you currently do work for. Tell them the top five things (you can tell them more next time to you know) that you do for those particular clients and why those clients need you do to those things for them.

If you can, arrange for the client to come and talk about the difficulties that they were having, how what you have done has made such a big change to their business.

Give some examples of measurements that been made to illustrate your point – for example, Ann said that she was closing one in forty five deals before she had some sales coaching by Tom and now she is closing four in five deals.

Try and do demonstrations where possible, when you can show people something it often has a far more profound effect than just talking about it. Have a power-point presentation done or bring a flipchart.

This kind of ‘show and tell’ interactions really help to ensure that your networking partners really understand the type and calibre of the person that you would like to have referred to you.

The more you show your ‘circle of influence’ the type of referral and the calibre of client that you desire, the more that you will find that the referrals that you begin to get will be of a much higher calibre than you currently (perhaps) have and the more chance you will have of closing the sale.
I have found that if I ‘enlighten’ the people that I want to get referrals from rather than trying to ‘sell’ them what I have, it makes it easier for them to understand what it is that I want.

So change your mindset when you go to a Networking event, don’t try and sell anyone anything, rather try and educate them on how what you do and/or sell can make a difference and then watch and see how the quality of your referrals will improve.

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za