Networking Food for Thought
Making Contact for the First Time continued...
What matters most is how you act during the first 5 minutes with a new contact. Ask your new contact about their interests. Listen to their answers and ask follow up questions. Remember those interests and refer to them when you call or email your new contact a day or so after meeting them. Whether you are shy or love to gab, the key is to let your new contact do the talking.
Not every person you meet needs what you sell so don’t sell. Rather, connect with new contacts to learn about your common interests. Over time, you will know their capabilities, values and interests. You will know if they are qualified leads, potential referral sources and if you can refer business to them. Be the first to refer an opportunity and you will benefit. Referral sources leverage your own sales potential exponentially. Manage that first encounter and make this new referral source an important member of your expanding sales team.
Spilling continued...
In fact, spilling the drink and talking too much are not nearly as bad as selling. It’s much better to show interest and make a positive impression so when you follow up; you receive positive vibes from your new contact.
Selling is the last step in the process of making a sale. Relationships produce sales and building relationships are essential to build your long term sales pipeline. Learning about your new contact’s capabilities, values and interests are the first steps to convert a contact into a relation.
Once you know your contact, decide if you can you refer this person for the right situation. Referring business is a great way to generate new business and makes sense once you know your relations’ capabilities, values and interests. It can take many “touches” with the same contact to convert them into relations. Use BizConnect’s matching results as one of the “touches” to make “a cold call warm” and “break the ice.” You will be thrilled by the response you receive when calling another BizConnect member. Try it out and build new relations.
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