Dear Ms. Marketing: Why Should I Network?
Dear Ms. Marketing: Why Should I Network?
Dear Ms. Marketing: How important do you think networking is to my dental laboratory business? We can’t market to the general public, so I don’t see were networking will work for me.
First of all, networking is very important to your business. It can make sales for you. If you connect with the right people you will become more successful.
Let’s start with an info commercial about NADL meeting in Las Vegas. Those who attend are the who’s who of our industry. If you don’t attend another meeting every year you should try to attend this meeting. Networking is going on all over the place. You can meet and greet people that you see and hear about in the magazine and share with them the one thing you have in common, dental technology. You can hear the good, the bad and the ugly from all over the country. You can leave knowing you are doing things right and you can know you are not in this by yourself.
Networking is mandatory if you are in sales or if you an entrepreneur. If you take life skills and social skills and combined them you have networking.
What are the important parts of networking? To get more prospects, to build relationships, to help advance my career and to get known by the ones who count.
If you do all of the above, you will be one of the ones that count.
Where can I go in my community to become more effective with my networking?
I would join the Chamber of Commerce and attend their events. Or have an eye opening breakfast once a month and a happy hour event at least once a month.
Join and be a part of your professional association at the state level as well as the national level. This is a great place to learn about your competition and your customer at the same time. If you can be a seminar presenter not just an attendee will help you to get your name out there.
Attend a cultural event. The theater - large or small - attracts people with class and money. Take your family and meet these people.
Network at dinner. I know you have a favorite restaurant where you know the owner - take a prospect to dinner and introduce them to the people at the restaurant. Make a big deal about the place and the food. This will impress your prospect and hopefully seal a deal.
Health clubs are an opportunity as well. People who are healthy are also wealthy. Join the club and be a part of the morning group if you are a morning person if not after work which could lead to the happy hour meetings.
Sports events are also a great place to network. Who ever invented tailgating was a marketing genius. You don’t even have to have tickets to the game to be a part of the networking that goes on out side the gates. Sometimes outside the gates is more fun.
What ever you decide with your networking be ready to network once you get to where you are going. Woody Allen says 90 percent of success is just showing up. You have to be ready with the other 10 percent. Have your personal commercial and your business commercial ready. Once again, even though we can’t market directly to the public we can get our names out there for the people who we can market to. It’s all word of mouth, or like I like to say word of smiles.
