Business Networking

One of the most important tools in your business is networking because without it, your business is not going to develop a customer/client base for it to be successful. This is especially true in a business that requires a constant flow of customers, as in a retail business. Some businesses only require additional networking to replace customers who have left as with the type of business that is project-related such as home improvements, tutoring, car repairs, and other similar businesses. With these types of businesses, the work is not ongoing as it is with a retail store or some types of service businesses (physicians, for example), so you need to always be on the look out for new clients to replace the ones whose contract is complete.

Networking is the biggest investment you will make in the early days of your business, but it is always the most important one, and the single most important one in determining the success or failure of your business. Networking can evolve into many different things, not the least of which entails advertising in all of its many forms. Of course, business networking involves more than simple advertising, and in effect, goes beyond that. Networking takes many different forms including the conventions, seminars, training sessions, and other types of events that bring together business owners in one central location. Business networking brings together people from many different places to allow them to present their ideas to others, some of whom may be vendors or competitors. There is a sense of friendship and bonding among people who otherwise may be in direct competition with one another.

Many people think of advertising when they think of business networking, and truthfully, this is one of the major parts of networking, and the single most important aspect of making your business a success or failure. No matter what business you perform, you need customers or clients who buy your product or service, and that includes those who are in one of the creative fields such as acting, writing, painting, or otherwise performing. Regardless of how you look at it, and what kind of a business you have, there is a need for advertising. Certainly, within the arts, it’s much easier to draw in customers because or service sells itself for the most part, but you do need to advertise yourself as an individual performer in order to draw the crowds in rather than depending upon an agent or venue to promote you.

As a part of advertising comes the need to develop a plan of attack, for lack of a better word. What this does is help you develop a scheme with which you will work in order to know where to direct your networking. You know where to reach out for new customers and clients in reference to the location of those you already have, with the intent of retention of those that are important to the line of business in which you practice. If you have a business that has a consistent turnover because of incoming/outgoing projects and services, you want to be cognizant of where the majority of your work is based so that you can continue to target that area with your advertising campaigns.

Every business, whether selling a product or service, has a target audience. What you target audience is depends upon the product or service you are selling and how unique the product or service is. For example, , if you’re in the business of selling snow blowers, you are not going to be very successful with an advertising campaign in Southern California or Florida, and likewise, you will not have much success selling lawn care in Alaska in the middle of December. In order to have a successful business, it’s important to know your target audience and when they are likely to buy the product you are selling.

How do you find out what your target audience is? When you begin in business, it may be somewhat difficult to determine, but you can get a general idea by researching other products or services of the same type and getting a feel for the type of people and geographical area that are interested in that particular product or service. Of course, once you have your initial customers, you will have a better feel for those who have an interest in what you are offering, and thus will be better able to target those groups and spend your advertising budget in areas where it will be the most effective. Learning who your target audience is requires a great deal of research before going into business and in the first five years or so after you start a business. It’s crucial to your business to learn your target audience so that you don’t find yourself expending all of your efforts, time, and energy in places where it will be ineffective.

One of the best networking tools a business can have is the conference and seminar where great deals of people come together in one central location to share ideas and plans. Some may be competitors, but in these settings, everyone is there for one central purpose, to learn from each other. In addition to learning from others in the same type of business as you are, conferences and seminars also expose you to potential customers as well. What this means for your business is that you can come together with an entire group of people who are either selling a similar product or service and those who are potential buyers or your product or service.

Conferences and seminars are designed specifically to bring together large groups of people into one room, and companies who send representatives do not send just their salespeople, they also send their buyers, purchasing agents, and any other key people who will benefit from the many training sessions and speeches that other companies’ representatives give. Everyone has a chance to learn from each other in a more relaxed setting that they would if they were visiting in each other’s offices or within the confines of a company conference room. , it’s difficult enough to encourage people to get together with representatives from other companies, but to do so on precious company time when so much more pressing issues are at hand is asking too much for most people. These sales meetings, which is basically what they are, allow everyone to get together informally and discuss what works for them and what doesn’t, and if the opportunity arises, allow them to share ideas over dinner and drinks at the end of the day.

Trying to decide what kind of methods are the best for your business can be a difficult chore in itself, and more so if you are new to the world of business networking. Keep in mind that no matter how many years pass, word of mouth is always the best tool for advertising. Bearing that in mind, perhaps you can understand why conferences and seminars are so helpful in bringing people together and creating an atmosphere where everyone can share ideas, communicate, and discuss what works for them and what doesn’t. In today’s world of highly technical communications, it’s easy to pass off a personal contact in lieu of email or fax, but the truth of the matter is, that phone call or meeting will work much better for you than the email or fax. It’s difficult to really know the expression on someone’s face or understand what they are thinking unless you have them nearby, which is not even possible with a telephone call.

For the best business networking technique, use the telephone only to make an appointment to see a prospective client, at least for the initial meeting. In fact, your initial meeting may be more productive if you meet in an informal setting such as a restaurant for lunch or over coffee in the morning or early afternoon. This method works better because the prospect does not feel pressured, and it gives the two of you a chance to simply develop and feel for what each of you needs from the other. You can slowly work toward the purpose of the meeting instead of feeling rushed because one or both of you has someone else waiting to see you or you have to deal with issues with the company that can’t wait, thus interrupting your train of thought. Off-site creates a more relaxed and personal way or communicating without the pressure.

In addition to conferences and seminars, another effective means of business networking is the local sales presentation. These can be held onsite in a conference room or auditorium, or if a larger crowd is anticipated, you can rent a meeting room in a hotel. If you choose a hotel for your meeting, oftentimes the sponsoring company provides a luncheon of some type as part of the cost of the presentation. As with other types of informal gatherings, the breaks in the presentation allow the attendees to mingle over coffee and learn what is going on in the industry on their end. They can sit down over lunch and discuss all of the things that appealed to them about the presentation up to that point, and discuss their thoughts with other attendees who may be seated at the same table.

Another advantage to the local sales presentation is that it brings together those from the regional area, and thus allows everyone who is interested in the products and services to discuss what they feel is the target audience and to share ideas about reaching more of the target audiences. In these informal settings, the company representatives are more likely to be willing to talk to other representatives without worrying about time or giving away any company secrets. You’re not there to steal each other’s customers, but rather to share ideas and build a relationship based upon mutual respect. In the real world, salespeople should be able to talk about what work for them without having to be concerned about someone stealing their customers, but in some cases, that is exactly what happens, thus the reason some sales representatives become fearful of attending sales presentations where competitors are present.

With the changes in technology, the Teleseminar has become a very popular means of bringing together many people to one central location using the telephone and telephone conferencing technology. Once thought of as only the means to bring together employees from various locations for meetings, teleconferencing has come a long way. Today’s technology allows thousands of people to be part of the same call and for the presenter to use real time to present video presentations. Once the Teleseminar has been scheduled the presenter will usually email a package to those who have signed up to attend including the agenda for the presentation and perhaps some other related information that they can review prior to the Teleseminar.

Although the Teleseminar is not as personal as the in-person conference or seminar, it brings together many people at the same time and presents the message in a more personal way since each person, in essence, is on a one to one with the presenter. Certainly, there may be thousands in on the same teleconference call, but the fact that only one person is capable of speaking at a time makes it more personal than a conference where you may find thousands of people trying to ask a question at the same time, leaving the speaker to attempt to divert their attention to what he is saying and save their questions until the end of the presentation. If the Teleseminar is conducted using an operator, the questions can be given to the operator who will then pass them along to the presenter to answer as it fits into his presentation. The Teleseminar is also popular because people do not have to leave their offices, and if they are unable to attend, handouts and perhaps a video are available so that they can still receive the important information that the speaker presented.

Combined with networking, advertising plays an important role in promoting your business, but the question is what method works best. Most people think of business advertising in terms of advertisements in trade journals and the Yellow Pages, and although these are both popular and effective methods for getting your message across to clients and customers, they are by no means the only methods available. The media gives us many other methods of advertising that may work better than trade journals because they reach a greater audience size than others, such as radio and television advertising. Of course, radio and television advertising may be costly, but if your business is in a position to afford to utilize those two means, you will certainly reach a great many more potential customers than with trade journals and Yellow Pages advertising.

Newspaper advertising is also somewhat effective, but it may not work as well as the use of the visual media or even trade journals. Of course, you also have the Internet, and if you have a website for your company, you have the best means possible of visual advertising because you can present a catalogue of your products on your website, and if you sell services, you can create some content promoting what you do. Of course, the choice of how to advertise your business is a personal one and must be determined by many factors including budget, target audience, and other means of communication that you feel are effective and pertinent to your cause.

Business networking is a pertinent and highly effective method of getting out the word to potential buyers about your product or service. No business can exist without the use of networking, whether it is conferences, seminars, local sales presentations, or advertising of some sort. There must a means to reach the potential buyers and let them know that you are looking for their business and to let them know just what you can do to improve over where they are buying the same product or service at the present time without speaking negatively of their current vendor. You want to present new angles that will put a favorable light on you and shed a bad light on the current vendor without doing so deliberately. For example, if you know that the current vendor will not deliver products any day but Thursday, simply tell the potential buyer in your initial presentation that you can deliver on Tuesday or Thursday, and with enough notice, you can arrange a different day in an emergency. This way you have given them a reason to use you instead of their current vendor without coming out and making it appear that you are speaking negatively of the other company.

The key is to gain their trust and win them as a potential buyer with as few words as possible. Promote your product or services without suggesting that you can do a better job than the vendor they currently use. The key is to use the positive approach to gaining them as a buyer, not the negative.