Permission Marketing

I remember when I first started to attend networking events. I would force myself to go, fearful and hoping someone would want to talk to me. Then, if by some miracle I would manage to collect a few cards, I would congratulate myself and then I would go home. Sometimes the people behind the cards I collected were interesting, sometimes they weren't and usually I didn't know anything about them. Then the cards would start to collect. A stack here, a stack there. Soon I needed rubber bands to keep them organized. Then I had to replace the rubber bands with larger ones to hold the results of my efforts.

Results? The only results were the cards themselves. It was as though I was a business card trophy hunter. I should have mounted these cards on a wall somewhere. When I did call someone, rarely, I had no clue what to say. Commonly, I just procrastinated the whole calling back thing until I eventually threw away the cards. Might as well cold call out of the yellow pages, they would know me just as well!

Fast Forward...

I look forward to networking events. I know what I will be doing and why. I know that the networking will absolutely generate new business within the coming year. I have trained myself, really I have been trained by others, to be an expert communicator at networking events and most importantly, I end every new meeting like this:

"I love to do business by referral whenever possible. I like to send business to people I know and trust and I like to have business sent to me the same way. Would it be okay if we met and I learned more about your business. Enough that I could easily send you your ideal prospects and I could describe to them why they might want to work with you? Would that be okay?"

As you might expect, the vast majority of people I meet have never been asked this question and would be delighted to meet and tell me more about their business. No more call reluctance on my part and they are expecting my call when I make it a few days later to arrange coffee with them.

What about them referring business to me? Well, since they need to know me, like me, trust me before they will send business, this is still a great start. My turn will come in the conversation, but my focus, and yours, should be on them first.

Till next time constant reader...Jack