About a month ago I attended a seminar at a PR Company in London. The theme was "Grow your own business through effective, PR. This seminar also covered the usual topics of Sales & Marketing".
To be fair to the company it was a highly entertaining seminar with some good tips on traditional sales, PR & Marketing. Networking was not covered in any detail. Apart from mentioning that companies should have a page on face book and Linked in, the topic was fairly well avoided.
When I asked one of the presenters” if they saw face to face networking as an important business tool”, I was amazed at his answer.
He said “that face to face networking was OK if you were just getting started or if your target audience was one man bands but in the real world it was irrelevant”.
I don’t think I have heard so much twaddle from a so called professional in my life. It is difficult to underestimate the importance of Word of Mouth Marketing. Especially the potential of the technology with it’s ability to get down and serious about networking. What I call Networking for grown ups is where people generate business that runs into millions every day.
And no its not networking to have a package delivered, or a set of plug sockets moved or business cards printed. I have seen emails from people in my group where the level of business that has been passed runs into hundreds of thousands. Not a quick fix job serious high value business passed between people freely through a trusted colleague.
Get verbal and talk to people, the more information you can pass about your aims and aspirations the more likely you are of reaching them. Those who know me will also know my mantra. Never sell at networking events – Inform politely and you will be successful
Paul
And remember to put the work into network
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