We've had to quickly adapt to different ways of doing business. The feedback from our virtual meetings has been really positive and several of our members have had business enquiries and leads following the meetings. So please don’t just assume that people have stopped buying at present.
Let's remind ourselves why we network...
1. To make business contacts
2. Build relationships
3. Learn something new such as "how to..."
4. Share news and information
5. Reduce isolation and build community
If you attend a networking event expecting sales on the day, you'll probably be disappointed. There's no better way to create a big exclusion zone around yourself than pushing a hard sales technique at a networking meeting. This applies to virtual meetings too!
It's a longer-term investment. Helping people to understand what you do, how you can help them, that you're a professional person to deal with. And that approach works. Over 60% of DBN members do business with each other and over 80% recommend members to someone they know. Like any relationship, it takes time to develop.
Virtual networking still enables you to make new contacts, tell people what you do and follow-up afterwards. And as our members are reporting business enquiries after virtual meetings, they seem to be effective. You don't even have to drive to get there!
As we all adapt to different ways of doing business we'll learn to overcome the camera shyness and master the technology. It's a learning curve for all of us at present. Please give it a try, join in, relax and be yourself and learn to love virtual networking - we think it's going to be around for quite a while!
Our next virtual networking meeting is on Wednesday, 29th April (10:00 start). CLICK HERE to find out more.
Gary, David and John.
