The primary goal of attending networking meetings is to educate your fellow members about your business, enabling them to refer you confidently when opportunities arise. Just as schools have curriculums to ensure students learn essential subjects, your presentations at networking meetings should focus on the core services or products your business offers.
Avoid sharing irrelevant personal anecdotes or political opinions during your presentation; instead, provide concise, useful information that members can use to refer you. For example, in my networking group, MoreBiz, I follow a structured curriculum covering topics like presentations, visitors, attendance, referrals, recons, and our online system (www.refur.com). I use a spreadsheet to plan presentations every Wednesday night, ensuring a systematic approach to educating members on the core activities of networking.
I recommend adopting a similar strategy to effectively educate your group about your business. Remember, failing to prepare is preparing to fail. By having a coordinated subject list and using props to illustrate your points, you increase the chances of getting referrals when opportunities arise. Additionally, conducting one recon per week can further enhance your effectiveness as a networker. So don't leave it to chance; plan your presentations and help others help you by providing clear, educational information.
If you think about it, and you should, the reason you attend networking meetings is to educate your fellow members, to teach them about what and how you make money, to help them understand so they can refer you with credibility when the chance arises.
Schools have curriculums they use to ensure that pupils are taught the core things that they all want to know, and it is the same in Networking Meetings. You need to tell the group why people should come to your business and what you can offer them make their life easier.
Most businesses offer three or four core services or products. These subjects should form the core of your presentations.
The people at the meeting are not that interested to hear that you have been at the bi-monthly regional meeting of the national federation of cheese knife stackers & bookbinders, or that you think the communist party stand a good chance of buying themselves back into power, keep that for the open networking discussions and the bar.
The group want to understand the snippets of information they can use to help get you a referral.
To give you an example, I have a curriculum of subjects that I write the education slots in my own networking group MoreBiz, they may appear random but they're not.
The weekly sequence is Presentations, Visitors, Attendance, Referrals, Recons, and the online system (www.refur.com).
I have a spreadsheet can I use every Wednesday night in order to prepare presentations. this way I hope rather than cover random subjects I am using a repeated curriculum to educate on the core activities of networkers
Can I suggest you do something similar in order to effectively educate your group about how they can know you and refer you?
The old adage of failing to prepare is preparing to fail is very true. If you have a coordinated subject list and prepare presentations and illustrate those using props you have a better chance of your fellow members being able to refer you the opportunity arises. (Add doing one recon per week to the mix and I think you will find that you are an even more effective networker).
So don't wing it, plan it, and help people to help you by educating us effectively.