Wednesday, July 23, 2008

For the Love of Networking

How much time do you personally spend networking? How much energy do you put in following up with potential clients and customers? How much time do you spend each week following up and reaching out to your customer base? How much time do you spend finding ways to improve your business process and methods to retain customer/client loyalty? Business professionals and entrepreneurs spend a lot of time fostering and developing key relationships for business growth. Many are finding out that the latest software for marketing and advertising are not as beneficial as meeting a client and discussing business affairs face to face. Several business people are extending themselves to become more visible and available for business to appease their clients/customers.

Business people can find easy and unique ways to network with their clientele and customers though networking which can be beneficial for both parties. Listed below are helpful tips and tactics for networking like a pro!

It's Better to Give

A great way to stay connected and develop relationships after the networking event is to give a gift or give back to your business counterpart. Gifts can be big or small, depending on the nature of your relationship with your business counterpart. Gifts can be very simple or elaborate depending on the nature of the business relationship. All gifts should be well thought out before they are presented to the recipient. Professionals should keep in mind, gender, age, ethnic background and personal preferences before purchasing the gift.

Out of the Blue

Spend fifteen minutes each day talking with one of your business counter parts or customers on non related business issues. This might go against typical business tradition, but this tactic is an excellent way to stay in touch. Professionals have the ability to make a deep and favorable impact by surprisingly reaching out to their network. The receiving part will probably be shocked by your random act of kindness and be more apt to doing business with you. In the phone call, the professional should be friendly and talk about non related business issues for the customer/client side. This can also be applicable with correspondence letters and emails.

Word of Mouth

A great way to network is to refer your clients to other business colleagues, friends and family. This type of gesture will benefit the relationship of both parties and creates a higher level of trust and accountability. Your customer/client will be impressed with your willingness to believe and grow their business

Chi Chi Okezie is owner/producer of SIMPLEnetworking, LLC in Metro-Atlanta, GA. Newly published author of "SIMPLEnetworking: Creating Opportunities ... The new form of success!" View excerpts of the book and polish your professional approach: http://www.snseminars.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chi_Chi_Okezie

Chi Chi Okezie - EzineArticles Expert Author

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