Think strategically about your networking

These days, evangelists for various methods of marketing will always insist that their way, or their technology, is the best way to get results and communicate with as many people as possible, faster… They forget that the essence of marketing was coined by Dale Carnegie in 1936, when he wrote that our goal should always be to connect with people.

Being a marketer myself I’m not knocking marketing. But good marketing is always based on a good strategy and a mix of different tactics, with an end goal to connect with your audience.

The trouble with most high speed, mass communication is that it is about you, rather than about the recipient. That makes real connection difficult.

Dale Carnegie summed up the reason for that best in ‘How to Win Friends and Influence People’: “You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you”.

Clearly the best way to make connections with people is through networking (particularly the BNI way) because of its one-on-one nature – by taking a real interest in the people you meet.

But, while networking is the most effective form of marketing, it is also a hungry consumer of time and resources.  In reality, unless you learn to network strategically (and most of us do not), networking is not the most efficient form of marketing (note I said efficient, not effective).

Before you lynch me, let me explain…

Earlier I said good marketing is a mix of tactics. It is possible to communicate (efficiently) with masses of people very quickly using modern marketing methods such as social media, the Internet, blogging, public relations etc. All of them very valid for making lots of sales.

Networking, on the other hand, is very useful for building connections and strengthening relationships, but it’s slow and inefficient.

Therefore, instead of an inefficient sales focus for your networking efforts, consider refocusing on making high value, strategic connections – build relationships that will enable you to tap into high value customers and markets.

Once you’ve accessed those high value markets through strategic connections in your network, you can look to launch your cheaper, more efficient tactics such as newsletters and public relations.

In summary: Connections versus Sales

Networking is good for building connections that open high value markets to you. Once those doors open… then is the time to make sales with a mix of efficient marketing tactics.