Welcome to NetworkingCity.
This site and project has been in development since 2007.
We are now open to a public Beta in preparation for a launch in summer 2011.
please pardon our dust, and daily changes, however feel free to use the site to your benefit as an early adopter.
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I was at a networking event in Europe last year where more than 500 people were in attendance. The speaker who was on stage just prior to my presentation asked the audience: “How many of you came here hoping to do some business today–maybe even make a sale?” The overwhelming majority of the people in the audience raised their hands. He then asked, “How many of you are here hoping to buy something today?” No one raised a hand—not one single person!
This is the networking disconnect.
If you are going to networking events hoping to sell something, you are dreaming. Do not confuse direct selling with networking. Effective networking is about developing relationships. I know, I know . . . there is always someone out there who says, “But, Ivan, I’ve made a sale by attending a networking event!” Okay . . . I am not saying it doesn’t ever happen—it does. I am just saying it happens about as often as a solar eclipse. Face it, even a blind squirrel can find a nut. Any businessperson can stumble on some business at a networking meeting from time to time. However, when you have most of the people at an event trying to sell something and virtually no one there to buy something, you are crazy if you think the odds are in your favor to “sell” at a networking event.
So why go to a networking meeting? You go because networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. It is about developing relationships with other business professionals. It is not about ‘direct selling.’ This means you need to move the relationship through the VCP Process®. Visibility leads to credibility which, with time and effort, leads to profitability.
With many people, there seems to be a significant disconnect between intent and reality relating to people’s expectations at a networking event. This kind of disconnect leads to poor results, which then leads people to exclaim that “networking doesn’t work.” Well, from what I’ve experienced myself over the past the past twenty six years, along with the results I’ve witnessed with hundreds of thousands of people around the world – networking works just fine. However, one’s intention must be in alignment with the reality of the particular circumstances. If nobody at an event is looking to buy something and you are there trying to sell something – you have a disconnect. If you are there to meet people and move through the relationship networking process, then your intention and the reality of the situation are more likely to be in alignment.
Sometimes you go to a networking event to increase your visibility and to connect with people you have never met, sometimes you go to establish further credibility with people you know, and sometimes you may even go to meet a long-time referral partner and do some business. In any case, the true master networkers know that networking events are about moving through the relationship process and not just about closing deals.
I had someone recently say to me, “I’m still amazed at the number of people I run into at networking events that still don’t understand it’s not a sales event, it’s a networking event! They come to the event, try to sell, don’t get any sales, and then they’re disappointed!”
Another person told me that “There is a great opportunity to be found in connecting with people and getting to know them. We need to start seeing each other as interesting human beings as opposed to a potential sale!”
I find it ironic that so many people are disconnected relating to a process that is supposed to be all about becoming connected.
There is a paradigm shift that needs to take place before you can make your networking efforts work. That shift is to move from a ‘direct sales’ mentality to a ‘relationship networking’ mentality. If you go to networking events looking to meet new people and move through the relationship process with people that you meet and get to know, then you are working the process correctly.
Here are five things to remember when attending networking events:
Remember, networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. So, the next time you go to a networking meeting, think about how many people are there to ‘buy’ something. Then, remember to stop ‘selling’ and start networking.
Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization. His newest book, Networking Like a Pro, can be viewed at www.IvanMisner.com. Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company.
The end is near! No, not the end of the world, I’m talking about the end of the recession. According to a survey of over 5,000 businesspeople released in January at BNIBusinessIndex.com business is starting to look up. The survey involved businesses all around the world and included people from every populated continent.
The survey found that almost 68% of the respondents said that business is growing or growing substantially compared to this time a year ago. Preliminary results for the first quarter of 2011 indicate that roughly 58% of businesses say they plan on hiring over the next few months. Both of these findings indicate that small businesses are finally growing again. What the survey doesn’t explain is why those businesses are growing.
Based on personal interviews with business people around the world I may be able to shed some light on how businesses are building their companies during these trying times and also provide insight into how you can grow your business:
The BNI Business Index survey looked at retail, service, and manufacturing businesses. All three areas had very similar results across the board with service and retail being incrementally stronger than manufacturing. In addition, business appears to be looking up consistently around the globe. Solid growth was claimed in all parts of the world. Australia/New Zealand and Asia showed the strongest results with 74% and 79% respectively stating that business was growing or growing substantially.
Although the trends looks good, there are some things that business people seem to still be struggling with. One respondent to the current survey says that while “business is growing the comfort zone for retaining clients is non-existent.” He went on to state that there is a “continuous feel of uncertainty for what is going to happen in the next quarter.”
Another respondent said that “there are many opportunities, but there is still not enough cash reserves or financing from the banks to take advantage of these opportunities.”
Despite the lingering concerns, the numbers seem to indicate that things are changing and changing for the better. One respondent summed it up best when he said: “I’ve changed my target market to one that has both a greater need and a willingness to do something different.” These kinds of changes along with having the right attitude, being innovative, looking for emerging opportunities, and being creative are the ways businesses around the world are pulling out of this long and difficult recession.
Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization and the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute. His newest book, Networking Like a Pro, can be viewed at www.IvanMisner.com
There are three trends in business networking that I foresee over the next several years. They relate to:
Integration
Many business people have said to me: “I have thousands of connections on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites… now what?”
“Now what?” seems to be the big question. How do people turn these connections into business? There are many social media experts out there with suggestions – many of them very good. However, the question still lingers. How do business people turn their social media contacts into real business for their enterprise?
First, let me be clear. Although I am mostly known for my face-to-face networking expertise, I love social media. I’m definitely a fan. I don’t believe that it is an “either/or” scenario regarding social media or face-to-face networking. I believe that it is a “both/and” scenario. I think that they will not only co-exist, I believe that co-existence will be one of the many ways that social media can have a direct pay off to business people in the future. This pay off will, among other ways, come through the integration of social media with face-to-face networking.
The phrase – ‘think globally and act locally’ may no longer have the relevance it once did. We are increasingly living in a global economy. Businesses are doing business across greater geographic areas. Many local businesses want a global network. Those who don’t actually do business in another country may still want to communicate with people in other areas just to improve their own expertise in order to lead to greater sales. Technology flattens the communication hierarchy and allows people to do business or talk business anywhere in the world.
I believe that forward thinking networks will effectively integrate technology and social media systems directly into their face-to-face operations.
This will be particularly powerful for networks that have strong shared values and a clear cut mission of participation. Many networking groups are seeing their memberships gradually convert from Baby Boomers to Gen Xers and Millennials. This transition to a younger membership will dictate the need to integrate technology more effectively into a face-to-face model.
I believe the technology piece will take place by having ‘walled-garden’ communities accessible only to members of that group. This will not only apply to traditional types of face-to-face networking groups but also to other types of networks. For example, it may also be effectively utilized in professional associations, communities for users of specific products or services, alumni associations, and much more.
These communities will be more than simply groups under existing social media networks. I believe they will be groups of people with highly controlled access based on a membership database that allows participation from the top of an organization. In effect, they will be mini-social media sites that are niche oriented but in some cases, potentially global in perspective.
The integration of online communities accessible to limited individuals linked with the establishment of face-to-face interactions will be increasingly popular over the next decade. The attraction to groups like this will be the niche orientation and the shared values and/or mission of the organizations. The technology will allow greater connections and the face-to-face will allow deeper connections.
Education
Don’t hold your breath for colleges and universities of the world to begin teaching networking and social capital. The college and university systems are behemoths of bureaucracy that are so far behind the curve of small business development that I’m beginning to despair that they will ever catch on. Most full-time professors have never owned a business and are completely out of touch with what is happening in real life, especially in small business.
Only one or two universities in the world have a core-curriculum university course on networking and social capital and I don’t think that will change anytime soon. Full-time university professors (who have complete control over the curriculum) view business networking as a soft science and not something that can be taught. They are—quite simply—wrong on this point. Networking can be, and is, taught around world, just not in school.
In the same way that sales and closing techniques are taught outside the university environment, I believe that networking will be taught more and more outside the university environment.
I think the current trend in networking and social capital education will emerge in the form of many private professional training organizations; in much the same way that private industry has controlled the educational market on “sales techniques” (another area where many colleges fail miserably).
The downside to this is that the consumer needs to be well informed about a training company’s real knowledge in the area in which they are claiming expertise. I’ve seen many people who think they know how to network but aren’t really qualified to actually teach the process. I met a man recently who had utterly failed as a business coach and subsequently decided to try his hand at teaching networking courses. His only substantive qualification was that he had previously attended a networking course by another training organization. He figured that since he could pass the course, he was qualified to teach one. I watched him network one evening; he wasn’t.
Buyer beware. If you want a course in business networking, look over the qualifications of the company that developed the material and check the qualifications of the trainer. More and more of these types of trainings will be offered by independent organizations in the coming future and it will be important for the consumer to do their due diligence.
Association
I believe there will be attempts to create an association of networking groups over the next several years. I also believe they will fail and/or greatly struggle to succeed. There is a genuine need to codify the ethics and education of a business networking curriculum. As I mentioned above, there are virtually no university level courses on the topic and I sincerely doubt that will change in the next decade. There are many associations that exist for many purposes. One might assume that WOMMA (the Word Of Mouth Marketing Association) fits the bill for what I’m describing but it does not. WOMMA seems to be a very good organization from everything I’ve heard (they have good word of mouth J). However, their focus is more on buzz marketing and social media than it is on the type of face-to-face networking that I am describing here. WOMMA works for many reasons and it’s important to note that one of the most important reasons for its success is that its members represent varied companies from many non-competing arenas (such as: AT&T, Coca Cola, Intel, Sony, and ESPN).
An association of networking groups would have a substantial amount of perceived and real overlap and conflict. For this reason alone, an association devoted to the advancement of business networking will struggle or fail to get off the ground. I’m afraid it’s one of those good ideas that will be difficult to sustain.
There are many changes in this field. Technology is a big one. However, the biggest change is simply the recognition of the field itself. When I wrote my first book on business networking in the late 1980s, there were virtually no books or materials on the subject. When I did media interviews, the most common question was: “Isn’t networking just a fad?” After 25 years, I don’t get asked that question anymore. This is a field of study that is coming into its own. When I did my research for my first book, I could find almost nothing in the library on the topic. Today, I typed the words business networking into Google and got 150 million hits! Times are changing and so is networking.
Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization and the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute. His newest book, Networking Like a Pro, can be viewed at www.IvanMisner.com.
Have you ever purposely sought advice from your network members? If not, you are missing out on one of the secondary benefits of being involved in a networking group. Sure, you are networking primarily to get referrals, but you also gain access to professionals in almost every type of business. Every close networking group can actually become a type of “mastermind” environment if you think about it, and you should definitely take advantage of this opportunity. We all need advice at one time or another, and seeking advice from your network is a win-win situation.
You see, people like for others to listen to their opinions and advice. By inviting your network members to talk, you can get better acquainted with their knowledge, decision-making abilities, and attitudes. Receiving someone’s advice also gives you a perfect reason to contact her again, thank her, and let her know what you plan to do. This is a great way to keep your resources informed and, of course, to get their opinions about what you are doing.
Here’s a story about how a simple request for advice led to much more…
An owner of a small creative services firm relocated across country, from one state to another. She wanted to move her business entity to the new state, as it was a more favorable business climate. However, the complexities of her business set-up in her former state caused her plans to stop moving forward. Frustrated from her lack of success in trying to communicate with government entities in another state and two time zones away, her plans for business development in her new state literally came to a stand still.
The business owner decided to approach a CPA who had recently joined her networking group. She sat with the CPA briefly after the networking meeting, and gave a brief overview of the situation. The CPA turned out to be very knowledgeable in inter-state business, and in one or two sentences identified the very crux of the problem and what needed to be done for the business owner to move forward in her new state.
That sounds like a happy ending…but it doesn’t end there.
Because the CPA proved so very knowledgeable, the business owner enlisted the services of the CPA, who was able to take care of the problem in less than two weeks. Incredibly relieved of this burden, the business owner then transferred all of her financial and recordkeeping functions to the CPA’s firm, and referred at least three other business owners to that CPA, based on the wonderful help she had received. As an added bonus, the CPA, learning about what types of services offered by the business owner, referred her someone who ended up purchasing an array of services over a long period of time.
And all of this happened from one single request for a bit of expert advice from one member of a networking group to another!
When preparing to ask your network for advice, here are some important tips:
Ask your network member for advice or opinions on something she enjoys talking about, and to which you expect her to have an answer.
Asking someone in your network for advice on an issue or area that is not in her area of expertise will only put her on the spot, and make her uncomfortable. People don’t like being put on the spot in that way.
Listen carefully and respond appropriately, directing your questions toward what your network member says in conversation.
If you’re going to ask for advice, then make sure you are seriously going to consider the expert opinion you are seeking. If the person feels you are not really interested in what she has to say, she will not be enthusiastic about helping you in the future.
Have a logical reason for wanting the information.
If the person to whom you address your questions feels you are just using them as an excuse to promote your services, or for reasons that are not entirely scrupulous, she will not only be less likely to help you in the future, she will also be less confident of your ability to help her…or her clients!
Avoid potentially controversial and sensitive issues.
This may sound like common sense, but there is a limit to what you should ask someone with whom you are in a networking relationship. If you delve too far into the sensitive or personal, you might cause the person to feel uncomfortable, and could even damage the relationship in the future.
Don’t ask your network member to give you advice that she would otherwise charge you for.
A quick question or two in the area of the members’ expertise is fine, but be careful not to cross the line between advice and free service. In the case of the business owner we described above, notice she was quick to recognize when to switch from a quick-advice conversation, to enlisting – and paying for – the valuable services of the CPA.
Finally, remember this very important – and often overlooked – piece of advice: People are more likely to remember their own words than others, so if you want people to remember your conversation, let them do most of the talking.
Called the “father of modern networking” by CNN, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author. He is the Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization. His newest book, Networking Like a Pro, can be viewed at www.IvanMisner.com. Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company.
