Turning Networking Into Net Worth

On any given weekday there are dozens of networking events in the tri-state area. While thousands of businesspeople attend these events, the truth is most of them do not have a strategy for maximizing the benefit from their time spent. Here is the inside scoop on turning networking into profitable business development.

With the right strategies, networking can have a powerful impact on your business — it can greatly expand your professional contacts and dramatically increase your sales. We’re not just writing about it, we experienced it firsthand: As a VP of sales for a company that did a roll-up of 30 businesses within a span of three years, Jeff Bauman focused his business development on networking, with a goal of increasing sales and creating name recognition in cities where the company was not known. Within two years he was the founder of a new networking group in each of his 10 new markets, and he went on to become the top salesperson at his company for 17 out of 18 years.

Sue Fredericks, who started a consulting practice five years ago after more than 20 years as a corporate executive, focused on developing diverse networking groups with decision makers at all levels in a variety of industries. That strategy has been the source of her company’s success and growth over the past few years, resulting in strong referrals and repeat assignments with satisfied customers.

The key to turning networking into solid business relationships and then into sales is to have a strategy (and no, showing up to networking events with a pocketful of business cards is NOT a strategy). The first steps in this strategy are to ensure that you invest your time wisely by:

1. Planning your networking events based on the amount of time you can dedicate to building business relationships.

2. Choosing the networking events/groups that will help you meet your goals.

Time commitment
Most networking events are two or three hours long. But that is just a fraction of the time required for business development. If you are expecting to close a sale at a networking event, not only are you wasting your time, but you may also leave a bad impression on the other attendees. Networking is about building trusting relationships that, if nurtured properly, will generate sales for years to come.
You need to make sure you are sincerely committed to making introductions, offering assistance to people you meet and following through on your promises to help.
Of course, building strong business relationships requires a significant time commitment. The chart above will help you choose how many events you can attend based on the number of hours you can dedicate to business development.