Episode 179: “The Networking Disconnect”

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Synopsis

More than half the people at a 500-person networking event raised their hands when asked if they had come hoping to sell something, but not one had come hoping to buy something. This is the Networking Disconnect.

You don’t go to networking events to make sales. You go to develop relationships. To develop visibility and credibility. To teach people how to refer you. BNI’s VCP process is chronological. You have to start with Visibility and work your way through Credibility to Profitability.

If you meet a person at a conference rather than a regular networking meeting, make an appointment to follow up. Try connecting on an online network to maintain visibility and develop credibility.

Read Dr. Misner’s complete article on this subject at  Entrepreneur.com.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 179 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the Founder and the Chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello Ivan. How are you?

Ivan:
I am doing great today, Priscilla, and I have a fun topic.

Priscilla:
Great. Tell us about it.

Ivan:
Well, as you said, it is called the Networking Disconnect. I wrote about this in my blog, NetworkingEntrepreneur.com. Podcast listeners, if you have a chance, go visit my blog from time to time. It’s NetworkingEntrepreneur.com. If you can’t spell “entrepreneur”, go to dictionary.com. I wrote about this after I went to a big event in the UK. There were over 500 people. It was a networking event and seminars. A good friend of mine was speaking there, Frank De Raffele. Frank is working on one of my future books, along with Hazel Walker, on the gender book that we are working on.

He was there, and he spoke before me. He asked the audience a couple of questions, which I thought were just brilliant. The first question was, “How many of you in the audience came here today hoping to do some business, maybe make a sale. Raise your hand.” There were over 500 people. Well over half of the people in the audience, a large number of people, raised their hand. He then said, “Okay great. Thank you. One more question: How many of you here, raise your hand, came here today hoping to buy something.” Not a single person raised their hand. Not a single person.

That, Priscilla, I believe, is the Networking Disconnect. People all too often come to networking events hoping to sell something, but they never come hoping to buy something. So if you are going to a networking event hoping to sell something, you are dreaming. Don’t confuse direct selling with networking. Effective networking is about developing relationships.

Now, I know, there is always somebody out there who says, “But Ivan, I have made a sale out there while attending a networking event.” Okay. I am not saying it doesn’t ever happen. I am just saying it happens about as often as a solar eclipse. I mean, even a blind squirrel can find a nut. You can stumble on a business. Any business person can stumble on some business at a networking meeting from time to time.

However, when you have everyone at a networking event trying to sell and no one there trying to buy, you are crazy if you think that the odds are in your favor to sell something at a networking event. So why go? You go because networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. It is about developing relationships with other professionals.

Sometimes you go to a networking event to increase your visibility. Sometimes you go to establish further credibility. That is what BNI is about. There are many different kinds of networking events. What I have been talking about here are networking events in general, Priscilla. But when it comes to BNI in particular, you shouldn’t be going to BNI meetings thinking, hey, I’m going to go today so I can sell something. The idea in BNI is to further increase your credibility to teach people how to refer you. That can lead to business, and you may get a referral that day, but that is different from trying to make a sale that day.

Priscilla:
I see what you are saying.

Ivan:
Really, master networkers know that networking, including BNI events, is really about moving through the VCP process and not about closing deals. I have not talked about the VCP process in a while and we probably have some new listeners to the podcast. So let me just explain a little bit about VCP and then we’ll come back to the Networking Disconnect and wrap up.

The VCP process is a registered trademark of ours. It basically says that it doesn’t matter what business you are in, you have to go through visibility to credibility and credibility to profitability. It’s a chronological process that begins with visibility. People have to know who you are and what you do. But then you have to establish credibility, where people know who you are, what you do, and that you are good at it. Only when you have gone from visibility to credibility can you move to profitability. People know what you do. They know you are good at it, and they are willing to pass you referrals on an ongoing reciprocal basis.

It is truly the foundation of any successful networking process- understanding that you must first be visible. When you are going to particularly large events, like a chamber, you are there, really, to create that visibility. You create credibility when you see people that you have seen in the past and you talk to them again or when you sit one to one with those people. You are setting credibility in groups like BNI where you are going week in and week out. That is what leads to profitability because when people trust you, and they trust you enough, they are going to start referring you.

The Networking Disconnect is when you are looking to get business at a networking event instead of looking to develop relationships. Make sense?

Priscilla:
Yeah, only I have one question. All of that makes a lot of sense when you are going to a regular weekly meeting, or maybe once a month. But what happens when you go to a conference and you are meeting people for the first time, and you may not see them again for, at the most, another year?

Ivan:
That is a great question. There are things that you can do to move that along. That would be to stay in touch after that conference. Find people whom you feel you have something in common with, and if it appears to be mutual, set up a time to talk after the conference. Otherwise, you connect with them on your own.

Now, I have gone to many, many conferences, and have met people where it was obvious that there was something that we had mutual interest in. And I have said, “Hey, do you mind if I connect with you in a couple of weeks?” Generally, they say yes, absolutely. That contact helps to move it from visibility to credibility. It doesn’t happen immediately, but it helps to start with that credibility. That is the beautiful thing about technology today.

I really believe that technology allows us to flatten the communication hierarchy and to speak with people much more effectively. Some of the ways that I have done that is by asking them if they would like to be connected on Facebook, LinkedIn or ecademy, so that now they are seeing some of my other stuff, and they are becoming more aware of BNI, and the same with them.

At the very least, with people that I maybe didn’t have a chance to have an agreed upon follow through, but that I am interested in, I will drop them a note or give them a call and say that I’d like to talk further. Is it okay if I send them some information on some of my articles or something, not trying to make a sale, but to send them some basic information about what I am doing so they can move from visibility to credibility. Does that make sense?

Priscilla:
Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, great. Well, what do you think? Do you have anything else to add?

Ivan:
I think that’s it. BNI members, in the BNI context, remember that it is all about establishing the credibility. You are pretty much past visibility after a few months in BNI. Everybody in that chapter, other than new members and visitors, knows who you are. So you are past the visibility stage. It is really about going deep with the credibility. With some networking organizations that you might belong to, it might be the visibility stage, and it’s about pushing it from visibility to credibility. But it’s really about getting people to know who you are.

So you kind of have to figure out, you know, what is this network like and what are they focused on? Are they focused on visibility or credibility? With BNI, it’s about the credibility pushing to profitability. But it varies from group to group, and that doesn’t mean that it’s not a good thing. Chambers, I highly recommend chambers of commerce. But you are going to start from the visibility stage there.

So understand what you are getting into. Be patient. It’s not a get rich quick scheme. Networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. And remember the Networking Disconnect. Most of the people there at the meeting are not there to buy something from you. If you know that going into it, it’s about pushing through the VCP process in a very subtle, professional way. That’s it for today, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
Thank you so much, Ivan. That is great. Alright, I would just like to remind the listeners that today’s podcast was brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the net for networking downloadables. Thanks for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope that you will join us again next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.