We are set up different from other networking organizations because of our events. We have them for two reasons; one, is to find referral partners throughout the entire organization. The goal of networking events should be to find people to work with on an ongoing basis as referral partners, not to sell directly to them. Any direct sale in the SNG, we tell our members to treat that as a bonus.
Most people joining a networking organization with the goal of making sales directly to the membership are generally disappointed because it is a one directional purpose. Eventually, they run out of people to sell to, then they complain that organized networking groups don’t work for them, and they are right?
Referral partners are two directional where both partners benefit from each other. Give me a good referral partner connection over a onetime sale, anytime! Our events give you a pool to swim in to look for those referral partners.
For instance, I had a staffing company representative ask me if we had anyone in our business networking organization in a hospital or medical facility who he could sell his services to. He was looking for a one directional sale. I explained to him, probably not, but we did have some high-end commercial Realtors who dealt with those kinds of companies all the time. We also had commercial insurance people that provided business insurance for them. Plus, we had a large linen company who serviced most of the hospitals and medical facilities in three states. WOW, what better referral partner could he have found?
Though the commercial Realtors, insurance agents, and linen service would not be customers for him, how much more valuable would they be by feeding him referrals, meaning multiple sales? Since the Realtors and insurance people were looking to sell and insure medical facilities, they could be getting steady referrals from the staffing company. The linen company could have been referred directly into accounts he didn’t currently service.
The second reason for events is most successful companies have client appreciation events, but the costs normally put that type of marketing out of reach for most independent businesspeople. Also, the planning of events is very time consuming. We act as your Event Planner, setting up events as an organization, but allowing you to invite your current and potential clients and claim the events as your own.
If you agree that most of your business comes from referrals from your current clients, we solve the problem by giving you a reason to continually reach out to them in a favorable way by asking them to join you at the events. Instead of asking them to buy from you, which is how most marketing is geared, we provide you with the information to send out to ask them to spend time with you. The request is low pressure and will keep you in the forefront of their minds versus the hard marketing selling material which they soon unsubscribed from.
What you pay monthly for the SNG, which includes the cost of the meeting meals when you show up, makes us the most effective and least costly marketing investment you can make.
THE BENEFIT OF BEING INVOLVED…the SNG works!
Micaela Miles, a single mother, is really involved with the SNG. She is an Ambassador of the Auburn Hills group as the commercial insurance member, on a bocce team, and attends as many Zoom and in-person events as she can get away with.
She sent this to me, “Last week at Bocce I got two leads from two fellas that overheard a conversation with someone else about what I do. One owns a roofing company, and one owns Sandman’s Pure Sleep stores!”
Business development, while having…FUN! It doesn’t get much easier than this, you just have to commit to being involved.