As per the saying “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” in today’s competitive business environment, it’s imperative to build and maintain relationships with other people. Networking is an effective and low-cost way to do just that. By taking the time to meet with other business people and discovering both how you can help them and they can help you, you develop relationships that will provide great return on your time and effort.
Networking is a critical strategy for business development, as it’s a great way to gain market information, build visibility for business and create prospects. Therefore, it’s important for business owners/developers to understand how to use networking to gain visibility and credibility in their target markets, and build and maintain relationships for long-term growth. For people who do not own a business or in the sales profession, good networking skills help them easily connect with other professionals and find the latest information on resources, trends, and best practices. Therefore, it’s important for them to develop strategic networking skills and practices.
Now that we’ve touched on the importance of networking, some people may say, “I have tried going to networking events, but it really didn’t do much for me.” Based on their past experiences, they’ve come to the conclusion that networking is not really worth the time and effort. In this case, it’s worth pointing out that networking involves more than just showing up for a networking event or having one conversation with a business prospect. Just like it is unrealistic to expect that one could play a successful game of golf after just playing one round, successful networking takes a particular set of skills and consistent practice to master it. However, if you take consistently effort towards it, you will be rewarded with significant benefits, some of which even go beyond your initial expectations.
Are you wondering how exactly to create, cultivate and capitalize on networking relationships and opportunities? Would you like to connect with key people, keep yourself top of mind with your clients, get more referrals from your network, and raise your profile for business or career success? Well, we have some exciting news for you— upon popular request, Growth Path is planning to host a professional networking workshop in the coming months!
During the workshop, Kevin will talk about different networking strategies for introverts and extraverts, what to say during networking events, the mechanics of engagement, how to establish a networking plan, how to measure networking success, etc. There’ll be some roleplaying exercises, also let’s not forget this workshop itself is an opportunity to meet and ‘network’ with some of your peers. It’ll definitely be an awesome workshop, and we hope to see you there. If you’re interested in signing up, stay tuned!
