How do I make money from networking?

Imagine that you get back to your office after a long day of meetings and networking.  You sit down to your desk and where is the first place you put the new business cards you just got?  Come on, be honest.  In the shoe box in the bottom drawer with the rest of them, right?  If you are like most business people, yes.

If you are among the avid networkers you might have a business card scanner or a secretary that inputs the data for you.  What then?  Do you send an email, make a phone call, or go so far as to send a thank you card?  In my experience, the average business person might follow-up with an email 1 or 2 days later.  They may or may not get a response.  The lead or prospect then goes to the bottom of the stack, never to be thought of again.

But surely some people are getting business from networking…otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it, right?  But how?

The answer is they have a system.  They have sat down and thought about who their ideal client is and who might have access to that ideal client.  With this in mind they go into a meeting looking for these specific people.  After the meeting they have a system for dealing with their new contacts, whether they do it themselves or they outsource it.  The new contacts are sent follow-up emails within 12-24 hours and thank you/it was great meeting you cards withing 24-48 hours.  If it makes sense, they then continue to follow-up and build a relationship with that contact.

Why all this follow-up? Doesn’t a good sales person make a sale on the first or second contact?  Not usually.

48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect

25% of sales people make a second contact and stop

12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop

Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts

2% of sales are made on the first contact

3% of sales are made on the second contact

5% of sales are made on the third contact

10% of sales are made on the fourth contact

80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

So, if you just follow-up on a continual basis, you are getting that much closer to a sale or a referral.  And that is how people are able to make money from networking.