Post 12: Networking

“Your professional network of trusted contacts gives you an advantage in your career, and is one of your most valuable assets” http://press.linkedin.com/about

Having gained some really useful business insights from the workshops so far, and met some interesting people, our final workshop looked at Networking and how to market yourself – after all, it’s not what you know in business, it’s who you know!

Anyone can be an effective networker, but it helps to be outgoing and able to build that all important rapport. It’s said that effective networkers aren’t born, but created through practice - opportunities for this are everywhere. For example meeting someone new at a bar or chatting to the person next to you on the train.

Networking should be viewed as a life skill, and it’s a process which takes time and dedication to build strong, meaningful and profitable relationships – for the long-term.

Before getting stuck into some live practice, try asking yourself these questions:

Why are you networking? –

When trying to grow a small business, reasons may include: gaining support for a major project, finding funding, or searching for a new partner/company director with specialist skills. Networking is also a great way of meeting with other local businesses to form joint ventures or referral networks.

While networking on behalf of TEDA, it will be for many of the above reasons and specifically to enable meetings with key decision makers in local governments who may buy the product, and also attempting to construct the TEDA brand through word of mouth.

What’s your personal/professional goal? –

It is important to bear in mind not only your goal in networking, but also what the recipient’s goal may be, always go in with the attitude “what can I do for others, how can I be of help”. Going in with this attitude will create a ‘win-win’ situation as people are much more likely to respond to you.

While networking for TEDA recipients may need to meet educational objectives around diet for ethnic groups, and in helping to service their need I may be able to achieve my goal of making ‘the right connections’ while building the brand.

What are your strengths to help you market yourself? –

Never network from a position of weakness, always from a position of strength. Try to keep in the back of your mind something of value you have to offer (personally and for your company), or you could risk being seen as an annoyance. Knowing your strengths will also help you to feel confident, and market your offering successfully.

While speaking to companies who require products like TEDA’s to meet the objective of their organisation (schools, hospitals), then it puts TEDA in a position of strength as it has a valuable commodity in its unique VTAs.

What Events? –

Networking events are all around you, once you start to look for them you will be surprised at how many you find – take a look at http://www.ukinventure.com/, a site that I became a member of after the incubation workshops. Remember to keep focussed and attend events where you have something to offer the other delegates, or where there are likely to be ‘like-minded people’. Try searching for events through Business Link and the Chamber of Commerce.

The internet offers new capabilities for networking, in terms of finding networking events, and in its own right becoming a networking forum through sites such as www.LinkedIn.com. This site has over 38 million members in over 200 countries, with a new member joining approximately every second. This includes executives from all of the Fortune 500 companies, and can be used for:

• Recruitment
• Sharing ideas
• Finding industry experts
• Sharing industry news

Given our target audience, events where Primary Care Trust, councils, schools, and other members of the trade in the wider VTA market (other distributors), are involved. This is a very specific search criteria, however, I have already attended a number at Old Broadcasting House in Leeds covering topics such as ‘obesity and the NHS’, and ‘Social Enterprise in Leeds’. Maybe it’s beginners luck, or from learning the lessons of the workshops, but I met some valuable contacts with whom I still have ongoing contact.

How will you know when you’ve been successful? –

This is obviously specific to your goals, but for TEDA we are looking to develop an extensive contact list of decision makers within our target audience, along with manufacturers and other distributors. This will allow us to build our sales channels and gain credibility through association with influential organisations such as the NHS.

Marketing Yourself

When marketing yourself it is important to be aware of your USPs, in order to create ‘brand you’. Networking can be used to market ‘brand you’, and the company you represent. The key is to let people know what you have to offer in a professional manner, so that people buy into your company brand, but also ‘brand you’ as “people buy from people”. This again relates to the lessons learnt from NLP.

All of the considerations raised above from the workshop are reiterated in an excellent website for networking tips under the ‘laws of networking’:

http://www.aim.com.au/publications/bkchapters/influence_ch5.html

1) The law of abundance - There are plenty of opportunities for everyone.

2) The law of reciprocity - What you give out comes back tenfold.

3) The law of giving without expectation - You do something for someone not to get something back, but because you want to help them achieve their goal.

Conclusion

Hunt & Morgan (1994) have identified the importance of fostering successful relationships, internally and externally, and the link to strategic advantage. The workshop discussed the specific importance of networking and marketing yourself when part of a small business as a cost effective tool for sales generation and reducing business costs.

I thought it was an interesting event and have enjoyed practicing since, with some great outcomes. I would recommend that you practice networking in everyday scenarios before translating into a business setting e.g next time you are on a bus or train, try and learn 3 things about the person sat near you to build your confidence.

Recommended links:

• http://www.aim.com.au/publications/bkchapters/influence_ch5.html
• www.businesslink.gov.uk
• www.britishchambers.org.uk
• www.Linkedin.com