Your network is your net worth. It is your greatest asset and can drive everything in your sales career, from referrals to incremental sales.While you may lose product, position or even price advantage, your network is something within your control. You develop it, nurture itand eventually cultivate its fruits over time. How do you grow it? By giving it away!
Too often though, sales pros mistake prospecting and brokering for networking. When you walk through a reception or meet-and-greet with a handful of businesscards looking for new prospects, you are not networking—you are prospecting for gold. While this is an important part of the sales process, it is not networking.
When you connect two people, then expect to be repaid for the effort, this is brokering, not networking. If you’ve ever had associates introduce you to a key contact, thenimmediately expect you to repay them, you feel let down. When done correctly, networking is when you connect two or more people who should meet. In other words, true networking is a gift you give to others. To produce surprise and delight (and long-lasting loyalty), you need to approach networking with no expectations of beingrepaid by any of the recipients. They will wonder why you are so generous, trust you more from the experience and do their best to repay you over time. By trusting them, youwill likely be surprised at what they’ll do to make it up to you over time.
This is &input a new person’s information, I also speculate about who they should meet....
Click here to read the rest of the article at SuccessMagazine.com