Business Referral Groups
There are many benefits related to attending networking events. As a business person, you may consider joining some type of local business referral group or networking group. Your purpose would be getting referrals that will lead to new clients. The problem is that if you join a networking group thinking only about what you’ll get then you may not get much.
You can benefit the most from joining a business referral group by helping others in the group. For example, when you go in with the idea of referring business to others in the group. Consequently, the law of reciprocity says that when we help others, they want to help us. In fact, we make others feel obligated to help us if we have helped them. If I join a networking group because I want people to refer people that they know that might need a website, it would help if I referred someone to them first.
For instance, maybe at one of the local networking events a new member joins, let’s say it is a CPA. I refer my friend to the CPA and now because of the law of reciprocity the CPA starts thinking about all of her clients and who she knows that might need a website. There may be 30 or 40 other people in this business referral group but the CPA is busy thinking about who needs a website because I referred a client to her and now she feels obligated to help me out by sending me one of her clients. We’ve all heard the old saying, “It is better to give than to receive” and we have found that the more people you help to get what they want, the more people there will be that will help you to get what you want.
Benefits of Attending Networking Events
Getting
- Increased
self confidence - Collaboration with other business people
- Practice public speaking
- Practice giving a sales presentation
- Increased
self esteem - Improve your communication skills
- Expansion of your social network
- Looking more knowledgeable to your clients
- Training in how to obtain better results at networking events
Networking Group Training
When we attend networking events everyone expects us to approach them and begin speaking with them. This is very different from social settings where we don’t know people and it can feel very uncomfortable to start speaking with strangers. For example, you don’t know people at a bar and it can be
The training will also include specific instruction on how to interact with