Unleash the Power of Networking Meetings

Business networking meetings provide an opportunity to establish relationships with other business owners.

Anyone you meet at a networking meeting could be the source of hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue for you, even if you never sell anything to that person.

When a business owner enters a networking meeting with the objective of selling to the people in the room, they limit the scope of what they might otherwise achieve because they’re...

• Relying on someone in the room being in the market for their product or service.
• Focussed on themselves and their business, rather than the other people present in the room.
• Overlooking who the people in the room might know.

My point is that establishing a referral partnership will provide vastly more opportunities to market a product or service than a few minutes attempting to secure interest from someone unlikley to be in the market. at that point in time.

What is a Referral Relationship?

A referral relationship is a collaborative partnership between business owners who serve similar clients but do not compete with each other.

For example, an IT Support Company that doesn’t offer a web design service has similar clients to a web developer. These two businesses serve the same clients but don’t directly compete.

Every business has a wealth of potential referral business partners, and it’s well worth identifying them in advance of attending a networking meeting.

The Objective

The goal of a referral partnership is to create a steady stream of quality leads through these strategic partnerships. This activity takes place outside of and long after the networking meeting.

When a business owner seeks referral partners, the objective of networking meetings changes from seeking new business to identifying and beginning a relationship with referral partners.

I’ll have more to say about this on LinkedIn in the coming months, outlining a simple four-step process that anyone can follow and build a profitable network of referral partners. Connect with me on LinkedIn to make sure you don’t miss out.

Reimagining Business Networking

The city of Auckland in New Zealand offers business owners many opportunities to network and a referral partnership approach works anywhere you care to try it.

There is one business networking group designed from the ground up to support referral partnerships. Their meetings focus on facilitating the first step in the four-step process I mentioned above, and they provide free online training to their members that explains how to go about it.

That group is Bx. They're new to Auckland and new to New Zealand, currently meeting in South Auckland, Central Auckland, and on the North Shore. Contact me and ask about attending one of their business networking meetings.