Monthly Archives: July 2018

Great connectors are kings!

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I recently went to the Growth Gloucestershire conference and was thrilled to see the great Will Kintish was a key note speaker. He is the master of networking and re-enforced what I have come to believe (probably because I saw Will talk years ago at the CIMA MiP conference) about successful networking.

I am a great believer that effective networking is key to business success. This is particularly so for business to business services. However, it is often difficult to decide which of the numerous networking groups are best for your particular business. It is very easy to waste time and money doing lots of ineffective networking – by ineffective I mean networking which does not result in building ‘real’ business relationships.

I believe that successful networking is less about the format and the networking organisation and more about the individuals in the group. Are they the type of people who are moving in the same markets as you? Are they talking to the people you want to talk to? Can you see yourself building great referral relationships with them? If the answer is yes to any or all of these questions the chances are you have found a netwoking group which may well work for you.

So how do you get the best out of networking meetings?

Having a plan is an excellent start. Some groups provide a list of people who have booked for the meeting so look at who is going and decide who you want to talk to. Groups with a sit down meal often give you the opportunity for you to request to sit next to a particular person – or at least on the same table as that person. So use this facility.

If you have been invited to a group by a member discuss with them in advance who in the group would be good contacts for you. If they can introduce you to each other through LinkedIn or by email in advance you will be happier approaching them at the meeting.

After the meeting FOLLOW UP! However, well you got along with the people you meet they will soon forget you if you don’t follow up with further ‘get to know you properly meetings’ (or 121s). Remember everyone in the room will be meeting lots of people all the time – you need to find a way to make sure they keep you in mind if you want them to work with you.

So, I would like to sign off by saying that it does not matter how many people you meet during your networking – what matters is how many of them you follow up and build a mutually productive relationship with.

Fiona 🙂

Good, Bad and Ugly

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I am not a football follower and this does not change when the World Cup is in town – just thought I would get that confession out in the open from the start.
But I would be very unobservant if I didn’t know that such an event is happening and that a good proportion of the population are fully absorbed by what happens to the national team over the next few weeks.

The mood last Sunday afternoon was euphoric, even in sleepy Wells, when the team resoundingly beat Panama. The whole country takes part in the celebrations when there is success – and falls into depresion when there is failure.

This phenomenon does not just happen when football is in town. Nearly every other major sporting event captures the nation’s imagination in a way that we don’t see in other walks of life.

The collective expectation can lead to unexpectedly good results – such as with the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics – or can put so much pressure on sportspeople that they cannot perform to their best abilities – such as iwth most World Cups since 1966.

As we all know business, and the economy in general, is driven by confidence. The economy grows if consumers are confident their jobs are safe and so can spend rather than save. If everyone is negative and pessamistic the spending reduces and the economy suffers.

The press has a big role to play in the national confidence but unfortunately it loves to concentrate on bad news rather than good.

Our business attitudes effect our chances of being successful in a similar way to the way consumer confidence effects the economy. If we believe that our business will succeed it has a much better chance of doing so than if we don’t. According to the news the economy is going to jump off a cliff with Brexit – not a great confidence booster for business.

Recently I have tried to avoid watching too much news – it’s just soooo negative. I find that I am much more positive as a result – and this helps me to have a more bullish attitude to business decisions.

So let’s resolve to follow the national highs and lows of following sport (and the economy) but reserve the right to be stoically optimistic – even in the face of apparent obsticles!

Fiona 🙂