Networking for a living

If there's one man or knows a thing or two about networking it's Mike Segall.

I met Mike last weekend, appropriately enough at a business event - the Growing Your Own Business Exhibition & Conference to be exact.

I've heard him speak before about the value of networking for business owners but I hadn't quite realised just how massively beneficial it has been for Mike. He makes a living out of it!

Segall, who runs The Business Resources Group, is currently on a mission to make entrepreneurs 'networking fit for 2009'. With CBI stats showing that almost half of income generated by SMEs coming from word of mouth marketing (what we know as networking), he tells me, your business is doomed to failure if you're not doing a bit of it.

Mike first got the networking bug in January 2003 when he informed his wife he was going to earn a living out of the activity. But 18 events later he had made nothing. He gave it another try and went to another 25 dos but by the end of February had only made £600. Ever the optimist, he committed himself to another month and this time, when 1 April arrived he had made £36,000.

"This showed me that getting value out of networking takes time", he told me. The deals that came in in March resulted from contacts he had made in January.

How did he do it? But not over-selling that's how.

The best networkers don't thrust business cards into the hands of anyone who will, and even won't, take them. They build relationships, they develop trust, they listen, they ask questions, they connect people with other peple and most importantly, Mike says, they give unconditionally.

Remember, what goes around comes around so if you scratch someone else's back they're much more likely to scratch yours. Six years on from the point he dedicated his business life to networking, he says for every referall he gives, he gets three or four back. Not a bad rate!

Sounds simple eh? Well, ultimately it is but you have to be strategic about it.

Be proactive and reactive, Mike says. Find out where your target market networks and go there. You should also set your intentions before you arrive at the event and stick to them. Find out who's going to be there and contact key individuals in advance and if you set yourself a target to meet a certain number of people, do it! Don't just turn up at an exhibition, pick up a few brochures and then go for a coffee. What's the point of that?!

When you've got back home or to your office, the work isn't over; far from it. Following up is vital, Segall warns. Send your new contacts an email but don't spam everyone with the same message; it will be obvious. Personalise the messages with something specific about your meeeting. That will get them to remember you.

Networking has always been important but it's even more vital in the current economic conditions.

"Networking used to be about if you can't be better, be different," Mike says. "But in a recession, it's about being better and different." And if being a serial networker differentiates you from the competition, all the better!