19th Nov 2007
Who needs an introduction?
In business you are personally at one of two levels:
- You are well known within your industry, profession or generally. And your company is a household name. You need no introduction because people already know you by reputation. People such as Bill Gates and Richard Branson fall into this category.
- You and your company are known by the people you deal with (suppliers and customers) and the people you target in your marketing (maybe). If you attend a business seminar or business networking meeting there is every chance you will meet people who don’t already know you and don’t know you by reputation.
If you fall into category 2 (as most business people do) then you owe it to yourself to know how to market yourself and your company as effectively as possible at meetings and events.
Meeting New Business Contacts
Business networking is a very popular way of spreading the word about what your business offers, finding new suppliers or even companies you can join forces with in your marketing campaigns. And, like any marketing activity, it needs to be properly planned if it is going to be effective.
Over the next few weeks, interspersed with other posts, I’m going to explore how to get the best results from these meetings and, if you are at all nervous, uncomfortable or just new to business networking, I’ll give you some tips on how to make it less daunting as well.
Here’s some of the posts you can look forward to:
- 9 tips to take the sting out of business networking meetings (specifically for newbies and people who are nervous).
- 8 rules for making business connections.
- Creating rapport with people you meet.
- You met new business people - now what? Getting organised.
- Refer, refer and be referred - the referral matrix - who warrants your valuable time?
These posts will include some useful tools to download, which I will be gifting to you, my blog reader. Make sure you don’t miss these posts because even if you are experienced at business networking there are some copywriting gems and other valuable insights you can apply.
Make sure you get the email announcements about these posts; pop your details in the boxes top right to subscribe.
And pass the word about this blog to your business contacts - they’ll appreciate your thoughtfulness.
This blog is one month old on Friday 23rd and I’m planning a special ‘Thank you for your support’ gift for you, as my regular blog reader - more details later in the week.
~ Carol Bentley
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