June 3, 2019

10 Network Marketing Tips for Guaranteed Success

Are you struggling to create business connections and find customers that truly understand your company?

Networking with like-minded people can help spread the word about your awesome brand and help you create conversations AND relationships with future customers.

Most entrepreneurs are reticent to network as it seems a bit intimidating at first. How many of us actually want to spend the day talking to strangers? What happens if no one wants to talk to you?

We’ve put together some of our tips and advice to make it easier for you to get out there and start capturing the benefits of business networking.

Why is Networking So Essential?

If you don’t understand the purpose of networking, it can be hard to be motivated. That’s why you probably consider network marketing more as a necessary part of owning or working for a company — rather than a valuable business and career building opportunity.

Most successful entrepreneurs we know swear on networking to bring in new leads and drive sales. After all, word-of-mouth is one of the most effective and cheapest advertising methods.

Some of the other awesome benefits of networking

• Make new business buddies and expand your support network
• Have thought-provoking conversations that spark new ideas
• Receive valuable career advice & support for FREE
• Advertise your business without spending a dime
• Raise your profile and boost your confidence
• Test and refine your elevator pitch
• Get the inside tip on upcoming job opportunities

10 Professional Networking Tips for Entrepreneurs

1. Focus on Relationship Building. Whether you’re attending an event or networking online, the focus should be on building relationships and making new friends. Like when you meet someone at a social event, you want to ask lots of questions about the other person and genuinely appear like you’re enjoying the conversation (instead of wishing you were somewhere else). Who knows, this connection might turn into your new business partner or help connect you to a future client?!
2. Channel Your Inner Social Butterfly. Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee…wait that’s boxing. Like boxing, you want to approach networking gracefully and with some tact. No one likes the ‘bull in a china shop approach’. Instead, channel your inner social butterfly to naturally lead the conversation towards talking about your business.
3. Get to Intimately Know your Ideal Customer. Create a customer avatar and play detective by thinking about the books they like, their values, and how they spend their free time. Once you have a good understanding of their likes and dislikes, you’ll be able to encourage conversations and relate to them on a more personal level.
4. Get Ready to Fail. We’re taught that failure is only for unsuccessful people. The best business leaders know failure leads to success. If you’re too scared to take risks, then you can’t achieve the greatest goal and won’t open yourself to new, exciting opportunities. Rejection is mentally hard and creates barriers so set yourself a goal to find and receive 5 rejections. The aim is to help lessen the fear, after rejection doesn’t physically hurt, and slowly this could help you overcome this barrier.
5. Use a Social Calendar. Dates are hard to remember. Penciling something into the diary helps you remember upcoming networking opportunities and psych yourself up, so it’s harder to back down.
6. Set an Objective. Before you start networking, you’ll need a road map. It’s important to know where you’re going so you don’t get lost. Goals might include a mixture of factors like monetary and opportunity gains. Establishing objectives will help you stay focused and motivated when networking.
7. Forget about Money. Yes, we said it — sometimes money isn’t everything. Money shouldn’t be your primary aim of networking. Networking won’t work if you try to place a value or ROI on it as networking helps you create conditions to generate new leads and drive sales consistently.
8. Set Small, Achievable Goals. There’s nothing more demoralising than watching your goals fade into the distance. So, set small goals and realistic targets that lead you towards your bigger goal. This will also take the pressure off you so you can relax, enjoy your chat and watch the benefits roll in.
9. Be Consistent. It’s normal to get overly excited about new opportunities. And, we often see business owners enthusiastically start their networking journeys only to stop engaging in a few months. Over time, networking, like most things, loses its novelty and easily becomes old news. It’s important to keep up your good efforts if you want to see the results.
10. Use a Mobile App. Get down with the cool kids and use mobile apps, like Collude, to make networking easier and build business connections on the go. With a mobile app, you can stay connected to your network at all times and never miss an important business opportunity. Find out more about our platform and how it can help here.