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B2B: Moving Beyond Business Cards to Creating Actual Business
By Robyn Henderson
The number one reason why many people do not convert business cards into actual business is that they never follow up, and they don't measure their R.O.I.: Return on Investment.
Effective systems make or break good networkers. Master networking goes way beyond just giving out business cards. Granted this is one of the first steps in actually making new contacts, but returning to your office with 15 business cards after attending a Chamber of Commerce meeting is totally useless unless you do something with them.
One of the keys of growing your BNI chapter is cross-fertilizing outside your network. This means attending networks other than BNI, places where you will meet new people, potential prospects, members and customers for your chapter members.
Once you have decided which additional network you are going to visit, also consider the cost—door to door—for you attending this event. Calculate the number of hours from when you left your office or home to the actual time you returned. While you may have only been at the function for two hours, door-to-door time may have been closer to four or five hours. Now consider your charge-out rate for five hours, which is almost a full day. Include the cost of your registration ticket and any parking charges, and you have now come up with the actual cost for attending that event.
For ease of calculations, let's say that your charge-out rate is $100 per hour, the parking another $25 and the cost to attend is $75. The total is now $600. For the self-employed BNI person this may equate to considerable cost. For the employed, it's another cost to be absorbed by your employer—no wonder employers expect results! Then if we allow another hour for follow-up after the event, be it sending information or just recording the contacts, we are now looking at an investment of $700. Who wouldn't want to see a return on that?
How to Increase Your R.O.I When Attending Networking Events
1. Prepare before you leave the event. What outcomes do you want? Whom would you like to meet? If you meet the ideal BNI prospect, have you remembered your business cards? At least one third of people attending networking events for the sole purpose of doing business forget to bring their business cards.
2. Change your focus. Rather than thinking you stop work and then go to the networking event, consider the networking event an extension of your work day; you are just changing locations. Conversely, if you attended a BNI breakfast function, you started work at 7 a.m. With a work focus at this event, your priorities will be quite different. Basically you are building trust through communication. If you don't talk to people, you cannot build trust and rapport with them.
3. Become a connector at networking functions. Practice linking people together. Ask questions like, what were you hoping to achieve from tonight's function? Did you have a specific objective in attending tonight? Get people talking about why they are there and then if possible connect them with the people they are looking for. If that is not possible, then at least connect them with someone who may know someone. This is an invaluable skill to master, and in this information age when information is currency, your role as a connector becomes invaluable—during and after the event.
4. Always remember the best connectors make the best BNI members: they constantly think beyond their immediate needs. And they live by the Givers Gain philosophy. Non-connectors are constantly amazed at their achievements. Yet anyone can be a connector; it just takes preparation, thoughtfulness, constantly moving out of your comfort zone and tracking your R.O.I.
Global Networking Specialist Robyn Henderson has authored seven books, including four on networking and business building. To receive a complimentary networking ebook, email her at inetwork@ozemail.com.au or visit her website www.networkingtowin.com.au.
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