First let’s clear away some confusion. Networking is not a group of people from disparate industries meeting for the sole purpose of generating business leads for each other. Neither is it a club for the like-minded to meet socially. It is often a practical self-help group but is definitely not a sales opportunity. The term ‘networking’ is sometimes used to describe all of these things, but it is actually much more – and much more difficult to define.
A network is like a reference library made of people. We may not know all the individuals, but we have enough contacts within the framework to be referred to the right person to meet our needs – and, incidentally, to have people referred to us. We ‘network’ when we make friends or turn up at the office. We’re even born into a network of relations (not that it’s always an advantage!). It’s only fairly recently that people have become conscious of the importance of networking and formalised it as a valuable business asset.
No networking is a waste of time, but concentrating on making contacts with colleagues within your industry and profession is most helpful. Richard Gibson, commercial director of RSA Direct, says: “Marketers should network at trade shows, seminars, conferences and through trade bodies such as the DMA.” Who are the right people to have in your network changes over time depending on where you are in your career.
Duncan Cheatle, founder of The Supper Club says: “Absolute start-ups tend to need volume, while established SMEs need fewer contacts of greater quality to help develop the business. It’s also important to differentiate between networks and clubs.” Networks are a much more diverse group of contacts, while clubs have much greater cohesion and can be more tightly focused. Networks are good for making contacts; clubs for building relationships.
Why do it?
Networking can be useful for monitoring your competitors, looking for a career move, launching your business or simply for meeting contacts you would not normally meet in your day-to-day role. Gibson of RSA Direct says: “Networking events specifically for marketers could be about sharing best practices, channels, creative lists, good suppliers, researching, recruitment or simply gaining background knowledge.”
Networking happens naturally all the time, but you can speed the process up by using one of the several forums available. Conferences and exhibitions are excellent for networking as the context provides a fast track to like-minded individuals. As Simon Burton, managing director of Exposure Communications, says, “Networking often works better if you have a reason other than purely networking for being at the event.”
Careful consideration
More and more events are organised purely for the purposes of networking and need careful selection and thorough vetting. As with everything else, word of mouth recommendations are best for sorting out good networking forums. Checking the list of speakers and attendees is a good way to determine whether the event will furnish likely contacts.
Once there, you can use the event itself to assess it and others for networking prospects. Ask people you meet whether they do a lot of networking, what they think about the event, where else they’ve been and why. And meet the owner or manager of the network; if they’re doing their job they’ll introduce you to the best contacts for your purposes.
Speed networking events, where each contact is supposed to average a minute or less, are often too superficial to be of much use. Cheatle of The Supper Club comments: “Be wary of networking events which meet too frequently. Once a week is far too often to network with the same people.”
Online networking has grown exponentially but is generally not as good as networking in person, particularly in the B2B arena where so much of the business relies on personal relationships – it’s difficult to make any sort of personal assessment online. Gibson of RSA Direct says: “There are two categories: those such as Ecademy with onsite advertisements, blogs, request for contact and details of members, and those which are essentially online address books like LinkedIn and Ryze.”
Organisations such as Business Network International and Business Referral Exchange tend to be more concerned with generating leads, particularly for people who rely heavily or exclusively on local businesses and services. The major disadvantage with such online networks is that members have far less control over whom they network with.
Benefits
Networking takes time, which is something no marketer has a lot of. Nevertheless a good network can be an efficient way of getting your name known among like-minded people and a means of securing client leads. It can also act as an informal working party or think tank where you can discuss problems and get help or advice. Duncan Cheatle of The Supper Club says: “Networking builds confidence and acts almost as free training. You have to explain who you are and describe your product/service; this in turn can help with marketing as you refine it over time.”
Apart from the expenditure of time there are very few disadvantages to networking. Some events might need financial outlay but they’re likely to be conferences or exhibitions, where payment is inherent in the business decision to attend. Some marketers worry that networking would demand that they be prepared to divulge business contacts and that this would put them at a disadvantage, but such should not be the case.
Simon Burton of Exposure Communications says: “If you introduce two people, be prepared to take a back seat, but don’t worry about it. Networking operates on the assumption that everyone is behaving fairly. If they’re decent people and the contact is useful they won’t forget who made it possible.”
Introductions happen all the time and so your network is constantly changing. As you work on it you become part of your contacts’ network. The two interlink so you get the benefit of a whole new network because you know someone in it. Very quickly your range of potential contacts becomes vast.
Networking know-how
Building up a network relies almost entirely on personal communication skills. Preparation is essential. Think about why, what, whom and how: why you’re networking; what you want to accomplish; whom you want to meet and how you’ll introduce yourself? If you’re at a networking event, consider whether you could do business with each new person you meet.
If you’re networking at a conference or seminar, do your homework and make sure you know who’s likely to be there and what relevance they have to your own field. If you’re reinforcing contacts with someone you already know then check the details of your previous meeting.
For networking to be productive it is essential to keep meticulous records of whom you’ve spoken with, where, about what and when. With each and every subsequent contact you should update your records – it’s surprising how much confidence such records can give you when contacting people.
If you’re meeting someone for the first time and think the contact is useful, tell them so. Once you’re back in the office contact them to refresh your memory (and remind them who you are!). Only about 50 per cent of people respond to a follow up contact so it takes patience to build up a useful network. Don’t worry about getting in touch though. As Gibson of RSA Direct says: “The concept of networking presupposes that people want to do it.”
Just as friendships can fade if you don’t see someone for a while, so a network can become dated if you don’t keep in touch every few months and send brief news about what you’re doing. As Burton of Exposure Communications says: “If you exchange business cards with someone you have given them permission to talk to you about work.” So do so.
Networking is not a substitute for marketing but an extension of it. Cheatle of The Supper Club is emphatic: “The key thing about networking is that small businesses – particularly in the B2B arena – can’t afford not to do it. The business will simply die.” Marketers have always walked a fine line between contacting people enough to convince them that their business, products or services are the best and pestering them to the point of irritation. Networking does something similar. If you had a problem and knew or knew of an expert who could help, would you hesitate to get in touch? Would you mind being contacted by someone you liked whom you met through business and who hopes you can help them? Whether you’re actively networking or not, you’re already part of someone else’s network. As that is the case, why not build up your own?
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