Not getting Referrals, yet you feel you’re doing all the things you were told?
I’ve met many people who know that networking works for them, and works well. It works well for me too. I know exactly how much work (to the penny) it delivers; but some people say it doesn’t work.
A member recently told me that BNI wasn’t working for him and he would be leaving, after only a few months of networking. I was talking about this to his BNI chapter Leadership Team and the consensus was that “after seeing him 12 – 16 times, and listening to his 60 seconds, they still didn’t really understand what he did”. That got me thinking, so I asked a couple of other people from the chapter to tell me honestly what they thought about him.
“Has quite an overbearing attitude”
“Has started to seem almost aggressive, I don’t really like talking to him now”
“Wouldn’t refer him, he seems to change what he’s offering regularly; not sure what he does or how to refer him”
Faced with those comments I’m sure that you can see why he was getting no business; in fact if he is reading this he’d probably say the same – at the same time as thinking “I’m not like that”.
This information is crucial to understanding how to be a success at Networking. Just think about how hard it was for you to learn how to sell yourselves and your products, I guess it took many months before you mastered a technique that was right for you worked it out and once you’d done it a few hundred times, it became easier. Now the important part.
People that are selling on your behalf don’t have that luxury; they’ve only known you a short time and their main role is selling themselves, not you. Ask yourself this: “Do they know how to recognise potential interest signals in my product or service, do they then know how to respond? Your job in BNI is to teach them these points, for a small, simple part of what you sell. It’s your job to make it simple, not theirs.
So if you change your offering, widen your net every week or ramble on in your “60 seconds” members of the group won’t understand, or will switch off. Information overload leads to not understanding how to hear and respond. Even when they know how to hear and respond, they need to be in the right place in front of the right person (and motivated to do it for you). You’ve done all that hundreds of times, they haven’t; think how you felt when first selling your product. It may be simple for you now, but not then, and not for them.
If you’re not converting the referral to a sale, it’s your fault, not the networking group’s fault ; if you are converting, remember where you got the business.
Three point action plan
1: Ask 2-3 people to be wholly honest with you and get them to tell you what they think you sell, and be humble. DON’T correct them or stop them from talking, just listen and learn. Communication is all about what the other person hears, not what you said. If 2-3 people don’t get what you sell or do, change your message.
2: Ask a couple of people that you know well enough to tell you the truth; how do you come across? If they include things like “You sometimes appear negative”, “occasionally overly assertive”, “you’re a really nice person, but…”. You have something to learn and change – fast.
3: Think about how you felt when first selling your product. What started to make it easier, what phrase did you hear to indicate potential interest, how did you learn to respond? That’s what you need to teach people in the chapter. Check your message is getting through, ask 2-3 people.
After a little research you can find out a lot about the way you’re coming across and how well you are doing. You might not like the results, but don’t blame the people you talk to.
You may now be armed with some things you can do to change, and keep networking. You might still think networking isn’t for you, but you’ve got some fantastic research, which is valuable when you’re in front of real prospects too. That for me is a tremendous, uncounted benefit of networking – the research and learning is invaluable.
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