Networking, a Must for Every Marketing Plan

Endless Referrals written by Bob Burg is one of the best books ever written on networking. It is a complete networking reference book for both the novice and practiced networker. His book starts from networking basics and builds to networking professional. You will find this book provides a great plan for using networking to put leads in your sales funnel.Top take away points -

In this book Bob defines networking as an arrangement of people crossed at regular intervals by other people, all of whom are cultivating mutually beneficial, give-and-take, win-win relationships with each other. This is reflected in the fact that we are all interdependent on each other. Networking helps you to begin to establish the opportunity for people to know you, like you, and trust you. People like to buy from and refer people they know, like, and trust.
It's your questions that will make you a successful networker. Your questions open the door to establishing a relationship. Ask questions about the other person: how they got in the X business, what they enjoy about the X business etc. The most important question to ask is, "How can I know if someone I'm speaking with is a good prospect for you"?
Networking is work. You are there to meet new people and connect with them. Spend your time talking about the other person not you. Get the other person's business card. Remember their name. Don't let wall flowers suffer the sidelines. Act as the host and introduce them to others.
Follow up your contact by sending the person a thank you note. Then keep in touch every few months. The best way to get business and referrals is to give business and referrals. Follow up on referrals with a thank you.
Superstar networkers are givers and connectors. Genuine networkers are constantly referring business. They give actively without expectations of receiving.
Help others to help you by helping them to understand and recognize when someone is a good prospect for you. Be able to communicate your benefit to the person using your services in 7 seconds or less. The best way to ask for referrals is to help the other person realize where they may be regularly encountering the people you work with and then ask them to help you connect with that person.
The internet provides several opportunities to expand your network.
Position yourself as the expert and only logical choice in your field. Go where your clients go. People are usually involved in activities based on their work (associations, professional societies, unions etc.), what they do for recreation (clubs, activities, leagues, events etc.), and their special interest activities (charities, family, religious, ethnic).
Buddy up with someone focused on the same target markets as you and cross-promote each other.
Ask your clients for referrals and get testimonials.
The 6 rules of networking etiquette: don't ask for immediate repayment, be respectful of mentors, be respectful of others time, follow through on your promises, handle referred prospects with care, and thank your referral source.
Start building a know you, like you, trust you relationship through an attraction marketing system. The 7 steps of the attraction marketing system are: determine your markets, craft your message, select your market's media outlets, launch a multi-step marketing system, measure your results, maximize your outcomes, and maintain your new sales machine.
Start your own networking group.
You must truly care about others needs so they will in turn want to care about your needs.
Don't wait until you have your skills perfected, start networking now.
The author does a great job providing the skills, etiquette, and knowledge needed to become a proficient networker. He helps you to realize that networking is yet another tool in your marketing and sales tool kit that has a huge potential. He also helps you to realize that networking isn't an immediate pay back tool. It takes time and you need to network with the right philosophy to obtain the long term potential that this tool provides. Finally, he does a good job of helping you to understand how networking fits in your marketing and sales funnels and how to pull it all together.There isn't anything about this book that isn't good. There may be some parts that are a little above your skill set if you are a beginner, but that is a great thing as you can refer back to the book as you grow in your abilities and keep on growing. The only not so good thing is that you may not take action on the information that has been provided to you. That is an unfortunate truth about readers. Frequently you read a book, get all excited and motivated, and then fail to do even one thing that you have learned. Don't make that mistake. Make a commitment to yourself to take action on at least one thing. Get that skill down and then come back and pick another thing. Continue this process until you are a networking machine. seuss book collection sets cat hat