Did you think that was a little manipulative?

C’mon, admit it! Did you?

If so, you completely missed the point.

If you were to try to manipulate your contacts using this Swap & Drop approach (“swap” your business cards with them, then “drop” a special kind of a greeting card in the mail), you wouldn’t be able to get far. People are quite savvy and can see your plot right through.

The reason this method worked for me was because of what I call The Referral Intent. Simply put, I really did want to find out more about them and find a way to help them.

Zig Ziglar says that you can have anything you want in life as long as you can figure out a way to help other people get what they want.

Well, that is absolutely true.

Business owners and professionals attending networking meetings want referrals. This is obvious: They all do. That’s why they invest their time and money to go there. And most of them leave these networking meetings disappointed by the lack of results.

If you can find a way to plug them into your own network — however small that network may be at the moment — you will start building a relationship of trust, which will eventually result in more referrals for you. And how can you refer them if you don’t know that much about them or their business? That’s why it’s critical that you meet with them in person or on the phone and get to know them.

Alas, the technique that I gave you last time can be used to manipulate people. And some lowly life form of a salesperson may try that only to discover that this approach backfires and ruins their business — and rightly so.

I suggest you use it to add value to your network.

It’s your intent that defines the outcome.

I gave you the tool. Now it’s up to you to decide how you are going to apply it.

Business networking is something a lot of people love to hate: It is time-consuming, expensive, and in most cases very inefficient.

I can bear the “time-consuming”…

I can even live with the “expensive”…

If – and it’s a big “if” – it produces results!

…

Which it typically doesn’t.

Most people who attend networking meetings are only interested in themselves. They don’t care about your product or service; they just want to pitch you theirs.

Now, for the record, I am not opposed to networking: I am a member of the Rotary Club, I am a Toastmaster, I visit various Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade. I have and still do belong to several business networking groups. I also go to a number of industry shows and events.

So I am not anti-networking.

What I am is… anti-networking-with-no-results-to-show-for-it.

Here’s how I went from networking with no results to networking that produces a constant, predictable and measurable inflow of prospects for my business.

I attended a breakfast meeting at the local Board of Trade. They had the usual: 30-second presentations by all businesses in attendance, the cookies and the coffee, followed by “natural” networking.

I met 13 new people at that meeting. I came back to my office with 13 new business cards in hand. Once I entered all these contacts into my list, I sent them a simple greeting card that said this:

Dear [name of the person],

If was nice meeting you at the networking breakfast earlier today.

I really enjoyed our conversation about [topic we have discussed]

I’d like to learn more about your business so as I could know who is a good referral for you. Please call me at (000) 000-0000 when you receive this card.

Thank you & I look forward to speaking with you.

One week later, 6 people called me to thank for the card I sent them.

Let me tell you something important about my business: It DOES matter who calls whom first. In this case, they called me, something that has never happened before! 6 people out of 13… that’s 46%! Not too shabby in my books. With such a response rate, this is serious business.

And as of the time of writing this, out of these 6 people, 2 became clients and one has referred a number of other businesses to me. 2 out 6 is 33%! Any way you slice it, it’s a fantastic ratio.

I met a lot of people who think that these 3 words mean essentially the same thing. And they don’t.

If you have ever been confused by all this, I’m about to make it all clear for you.

The only thing common about these three is the fact that they all give you a way of getting more business without advertising. That’s it. That’s where the similarities end.

Networking is a way of establishing new contacts by meeting people where people congregate. There are business functions (networking meetings, conventions, trade shows, exhibitions, seminars, workshops, association annual general meetings, etc.) and social functions (parties, outings, church events, hobbyist & enthusiast events, etc.) that you can attend. To me, this is hard labour. Sweaty, unpleasant grunt work which you still do because that’s the quickest way to expand your network. (You may have figured out by now that I’m not a naturally-born networker. You may like networking a lot more than I do, which is a good thing for you.)

Word-Of-Mouth is an “organic” process of turning your customers or clients into raving fans and ambassadors for your business. It’s a great thing when this happens. The issue with the word-of-mouth is that it’s hard to control or to influence.

Referrals, on the other hand, are typically the result of having the right referral system in place that automatically attracts qualified referrals to your business every day of the week. A good referral system doesn’t happen by chance. It needs to be engineered, tested, and put to a good use. And once it’s in place, it’s like having a referral tap in your office: Open the tap and the referrals pour in, credit card in hand, wanting to do business with you.

Both the Networking and the Word-Of-Mouth can be made a part of your Referral Process:

By implementing a Networking Referral System in your business, you can become a much more effective networker.

By creating special incentives for your customers or clients to refer your business, you can stimulate and control the word-of-mouth.

Referral systems go far beyong just networking or just word-of-mouth. This entire site is devoted to helping you engineer a system that will attract an endless stream of referrals to your business.