Sales and Selling – The Importance of Connecting
When I first moved to Edmond, OK and decided to begin a business, I knew that the first thing I needed to do was to meet people. I was blessed to have a great neighbor (who is also a fantastic real estate agent) who wanted to introduce me to people. Every time an opportunity came along to meet someone she knew, I jumped on it.
The next thing I did was join the Chamber of Commerce. Now, I am not an extrovert by nature, meaning that being in large groups of people and extending my hand in blind greeting is not something I am good at naturally. However – I knew that in order to build the kind of referral-based business I wanted, I needed to start sticking out that hand as often as possible.
Armed with the will to “network and connect”, I:
- Went to Business-After-Hours
- Joined committees and volunteered to do something
- Offered to speak to groups on topics in which I was well versed
- Developed connections with business owners and bank presidents
- Asked people if I could buy them a cup of coffee to spend time learning about them and their business
- Attended “speed dating”-type events for networking
- Joined two other Chambers
- Sat on boards of directors
- And the best thing I did was join a networking and referral group
How are you currently “connecting” in your community?
Do you need to make some changes to your method of connecting? What would you change and how?
Looks like you may be the first to leave a comment here!