Success Tip #20 - Create Your Own Business Networking Team

What if you needed one of your associates or employees to fill in for you at a business networking event? Are they trained well enough to fill your shoes? Do your employees and staff really know and understand your core marketing message? How effective are they at sharing that message? You might want to consider a system that will help you turn your entire organization into your own well trained, personal networking army.
Copyright 2006 Ike Krieger

Do your employees and staff really know and understand your core marketing message? How effective are they at sharing that message?

If you really want your business to grow… the people in your organization need to be taught the most effective way to network.

You’re pretty good at representing your company. You believe that networking is a powerful business building tool. You understand the value of creating new business relationships. You attend business networking events. You are personable, professional, and you know your stuff.

What happens if you can’t make it to a networking event? What if you want to expand your networking activities but don’t have the time or the energy to do it all yourself?

How effective would your people be if they had to show up in your place and represent your organization? Do they know the right thing to say and the right questions to ask?

Networking is the most powerful form of face to face marketing. What you say can make or break your networking effectiveness. Your ability to get your story across in twenty seconds or less is a vital key to your networking success... and may be just as big a factor in your overall business success.

Banks, credit unions, real estate organizations, financial services and  insurance companies, accounting firms, law firms, doctors, dentists, and other professional offices are all made up of people who, at one time or another, are on the frontline in the battle for business success. This networking army includes your employees and associates.

Do you know what your people are saying when asked about your company? Are they trained to deliver a brief and understandable version of your core marketing message? Are they capable of telling others what really sets your business apart from your competition?

In addition, networking is not always confined to a specific meeting or event. When asked about your company when they’re out enjoying an evening of, let’s say, bowling, or the theatre… what do members of your organization say?

Do their words portray your company in the most memorable and flattering way, or are they just kind of winging it and saying whatever comes to mind (positive or not)? Saying the wrong thing can leave people cold or, even worse, actually drive business away.

Learning the right thing to say and the right questions to ask is an overlooked area of business preparation. Lack of training in this area can prove costly.

The flip side to the equation is that with a relatively small amount of guidance you can increase your profitability… and distinguish yourself clearly from your competition. This is accomplished by a simple shift in the words you use… and the words you teach your people to use.

Do you have the time to teach your people the “right thing” to say? For most business owners, sales organizations and professionals… the answer is no.

I’ve been providing this most important training for over 20 years.

I’ve developed the Language of Success™ to provide you with a reliable system that will help you and your organization learn and remember the right thing to say and the right questions to ask when they network or sell. This is so important when your goal is to bring in new clients, create new customers, and develop long term referral sources.

What does having an easy to remember system for saying the right thing and asking the right questions do for you? For starters, you end up with increased confidence in an area that troubles most of us throughout our lives. I’m of course talking about opening new relationships.

Some people have the magic touch when it comes to creating these new relationships while others seem to struggle. To illustrate the challenge… here’s an analogy with which we all can identify.

Succeeding in business is a lot like succeeding in dating. If you say the wrong thing you probably won’t get a second date and you’re certainly not going to get a goodnight kiss.

It’s hard enough to establish a new relationship without having to worry about what you’re going to say. No one really taught us the right thing to say.

Here's the tip - Talk to your employees and associates and have them share what they say when they're asked about your company. If you take it for granted that what they say is in your best interest you may be in for an unpleasant surprise.

What you ask them to say should be simple, to the point and consistent. The Language of Success will provide you with an easy to use framework that will help you and your key players come up with the “right thing” to say when you network or sell.

The well known director, Spike Lee, made a film called “Do the Right Thing.” I guess we could call the film that we would make, “Say the Right Thing.”

To your success.