10 Networking questions that work!

1.  How did you get started in the widget business?

2.  What do you enjoy most about your profession?

3.  What seperates you & your company from the competition?

4.  What advice would you give someone just starting in the widget business?

5.  What one thing would you do with your business if you knew you could not fail?

6.  What significant changes have you seen take place in your profession through the years?

7.  What do you see as the coming trends in the widget business?

8.  Describe the strangest or funniest incident you’ve experienced in your business.

9.  What ways have you found to be the most effective for promoting your business?

10.  What one sentence would you like people to use in describing the way you do business?

 

Source:  Endless Referrals by Bob Burg

Commericals and Taglines

 You want to meet people and help them to understand what it is you do. 

In doing that, you need a catchy “commercial”.  You need something easy to remember, yet repeatable.  Why repeatable?  Because you aren’t trying to sell to those you will meet at the event itself.  The more concise, memorable and repeatable your commercial is, the more likely it is that they will tell somebody they meet looking for your services/products.

 This is an example of how it should sound:

“I’m [your name] and I’m with [your company name]. I provide [list briefly the products or services you offer] so that [the benefit to your client]. A good client for me is [your ideal client].”

If you were to say something like this for example:

 ”I’m Sally and I’m with Mary Kay Cosmetics.  I provide skin care and color cosmetics so that my clients can feel great about themselves.  A good client for me is anybody with skin.” 

Sorry, but much won’t come from that.  Saying “anybody with skin” doesn’t leave an impression on people.  It doesn’t make them think of anybody because really that’s everybody. 

Here is an example of something that may work:

I’m Sally with Mary Kay Cosmetics.  I provide anti-aging skin care as well as color cosmetics so that my clients can feel confident about how they look without the surgeries.  A good client for me is somebody that is looking to look and feel younger because how old you ARE is your business, how old you LOOK in mine. 

Make sure you attach a Tag line with something catchy at the end that they will remember.  Here are some examples of Tag Lines:

We love to weave your web – Web site Designer 
If you just need inches, I’ll give you my foot. – Commercial Real Estate 
We don’t cut corners, we clean them. – Cleaning Service 
When you need me, I knead you. – Massage Therapist

Let us make you a guest at your own party – Caterer
Wireless service above and beyond the call. – Wireless Communications
We take the ravel out of travel that suits you to a “T”. – Travel agent
I’ll put you in your place. – Realtor
Together we make great impressions! – Printer

If you invest with me, you’ll sleep stress free! – Financial Advisor
How old you are is your business, how old you look is mine – Mary Kay Rep
We meet our customers by accident. – Auto body repair
We are always primed to paint. – Painter
Be current with “Forde” Electrical Service. – Electrician
We’re the last one to let you down. – Funeral Director

Get the idea? 

As we approach our Speed Networking Event

I’d like to give a few tips during the next few days to those that may be either attending our event or going to be attending another networking event.  Do you know what networking really is?  This is what networking is NOT.  You’re in a room full of other networkings and you try to approach as many as you can in those short couple of hours.  I mean you only have 2 hours and 100 people to get in front of.  How will you ever finish the entire room?  So, you walk up to each person, handing them your business card and saying, “if you ever need yada yada, I’m the person you call”.  Or something to that effect and walk away.   That my friend, is hard selling.  You don’t want to “sell” your product or service to any of them.  What you need to do is find that few that you feel you could do business with or refer business to.  You will be wasting your time and energy trying to hard sell.  As soon as you turn your back your business card will be tossed right into the garbage.  Start up a conversation, ask what they do, why did they get involved in that company, how do they like it.  Get my point? 

How we started

I’m Bridget Goudelock, the founder of Women In Networking.  I started WIN back in March 2005 after I was tired of waiting for a group to be developed for me from a local Chamber.  I am in the financial services arena and as some of you may know that category fills up fast in networking groups.  I had already had about 10 people, who just happened to be all women who were also interested in a group.  So I decided to form a woman’s networking group.  I wanted to not only have a group where we could pass referrals, but an educational portion too.  I wanted our group to be encouraging to woman and to grow friendships.  We’ve had our bumps and bruises along the way, but we are under a restructure, which is very much needed.  I went on bedrest last year for 7 months plus after the birth of my son it took me a few weeks to get back on track.  During that time the group lost it’s umphf.  So now, we are rebuilding, reconfiguring and moving on . 

We are looking for woman to join our group who have a passion for their business and to help other woman to grow theirs.  If you’re not already a member, I encourage you to visit us and check it out.  We do only allow one person per category so please email me at bridgetg03@gmail.com before you decide to visit.  You can also check us out on the web at www.winofmacomb.com.  You can also join our web community at http://winofmacomb.collectivex.com/main/summary