How to get the best out of your networking group
I often hear people say that they need a large networking group to be able to justify the annual fee. Well as somebody that runs referral networking groups for a living I have seen it all, but I can tell you that the number of people in a room is not the important factor. When you really understand how membership groups work, you soon come to realise that it isn’t necessarily the people in the room that you are aiming to do business with; you are looking to build relationships with those people so that they are comfortable with recommending you to their contacts. Now that is the power of a membership group these long-term relationships, provide the added value that you will never get from attending open networking events, making acquaintances and collecting lots of cards.
Even if you walk into a new group with 6 members, each of those members are likely to know at least 100 people and once you build that relationship and they understand what you are looking for you will find that referrals come your way very regularly
By Joan Edwards of Business For Breakfast Leicestershire & Rutland
