How to Build Relationships at your First Networking Group

Is it time for you to branch out of your first circle of friends and family and build new relationships? This usually happens after the first 90 days of your business. This means having the courage to attend or join a networking group to meet new people.

It is essential if you want to grow your business and make new contacts. Your friends and family are great to practice and share your products because they love you and want to support you. But, it’s time to add new contacts! This is ONE OF THE FOUR important areas in your business. And when you follow the Direct Sales Planner system, you are adding new contacts every month. There’s a section in the “Make it Happen” action page called “New Business Activities” to write down tasks to make sure you’re building new contacts, new customers every month.

I recommend you visit many networking meetings as a guest to find out which is the right fit for you. When I moved to Colorado, I didn’t know a soul in this big city of 3 million people. So I set I put my “big girl panties” on and set out the door to make some contacts.

I chose to attend a Chamber of Commerce “Women in business” mixer event! I had never belonged to a chamber before, and they always accept guests for the first time before you decide to join. My goal was to collect as many new acquaintances as possible and find out about them and their business. I love Chambers because they are full of business people who want to do business with other business people.

When you network and meet people for the first time, it’s really important to be interested in other people. Being interested in others takes the pressure off you. Just focus on them!

One of the first people I met as I walked through the door at this event was what I call an “attack dog.” This woman handed me her card, and in the most monotonous unpleasant tone, told me she was a massage therapist and where she was located and what she could do for me. She didn’t ask me one question. She was an immediate turnoff, I didn’t want to learn more about her because she only wanted to TELL me about her.

At this first event, I made 5 solid connections.

One was a publications specialist from the local newspaper. I found out she was a wealth of information about the chamber and the South Denver area. She was a great connection to find more events and she shared her business card so I could contact her about future happenings in my immediate area.
Another contact was a small business specialist who had a nanny agency all over the country. We agreed to keep in touch and after my follow-up in meeting her she booked a private appointment with me.
A woman called Julia, shook my hand, immediately looked at my name tag and asked me about my fashion business. When I told her I could save her money in her closet she was intrigued. After asking Julia some more questions, I found out she was an executive in a hotel chain in Denver. She was definitely interested in my fashions, so she was a definite follow-up.
One contact I made was a lovely woman who was a top sales person for a retirement facility. We clicked right away. She was fun, had a great smile and she seemed to be asking me more questions than I was asking her. When I shared my wardrobe solution she said, “I have to talk with you. I really need help in my wardrobe.”
As I was leaving, the event, a realtor asked me how I liked the event? We got talking and it turned out this was her first event too. We decided to have coffee together the next week and we became firm friends and eventually she became one of my first recruits in Denver.

This first networking event with 5 new relationships was the beginning of building my million-dollar team. After this event, I immediately put them into my NEW CUSTOMER work smart worksheet, to follow-up and invite them to my upcoming showcase party at my home.

Then I put these TASKS into the “New Business” Activities square in my “Make it Happen Action” Page, and after making those follow-up connections, I had my first THREE people make appointments with me to see my fashions.

Notice that I said THREE people not FIVE! Two people said “no.” Well, actually they said “no, not now.” So they are on my list to follow up later.

The point of this story is to share with you two things..

Make time to work on joining networking groups to grow new acquaintances and introduce them to your products and expand your customer base.
Schedule your activities in your Direct Sales Planner, because “What gets scheduled get’s done!”

What PLANNER SYSTEM are you working with?