Monday, May 07, 2007

 

The Key Difference Between Networking and Selling

Having a good network is a vital resource for any business person. For many people networking is their primary source of business. Yet most people get very little benefit from their efforts. They attend networking events and collect dozens of business cards from people who are not qualified prospects. This feels like progress, perhaps it even feels like work, but unless these contacts are likely to become prospects it's pretty much a waste of time.

As a result, this kind of networking yields modest results and is usually cover for a broken or non-existent marketing process.

To network effectively you have to fish where the fish are. Where are you likely to meet prospects for your business? What do you want them to do? Once you know the answer to these questions focus your attention on relevant venues where you can find people who can move you toward your goals.

When you find people you want to do business with, you had better not network with them, this is the time to start selling.

Networking is far more passive and does not generally put bread on the table. Selling is understanding peoples problems and offering them a solution that they will pay you for.

If you confuse networking with selling you will almost certainly end up earning less than you should.

Source: Submit Articles at ArticlesBase.com

About the Author:
Michael Hepworth is the StreetSmart Marketer and a Toronto strategic marketing consultant , you can receive his free marketing advice at http://www.streetsmartmarketer.com/.

Comments:
Alex,

We at Sales Benchmark Index have been following your Asian Selling Game blog.

We would like to offer some content your readers might enjoy – a ‘movie trailer’ for the book Topgrading for Sales, which is going to be released on June 16. To view it, please visit www.topgradingforsales.com. Feel free to post a link to it or, if you want to host it locally, we can send you the rich media file.

Thanks in advance for considering the piece. Let us know if we can return the favor.

Cheers,
John Drapeau
www.salesbenchmarkindex.com

P.S. A portion of the profits generated from the book will be donated to Sales and Marketing Executives International, otherwise known as SMEI. You can learn more about them at www.smei.org.
 
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