"Hi, I'm John, I'm a Realtor. I've been in business for 18 years and I'm committed to putting you and your family in a quality home. A great lead for me would be anyone who's buying or selling a house." If you've been to a "leads group," a Chamber of Commerce meeting, or any other formal business networking function, this should sound familiar. This type of meeting is a great place to meet new people, and you don't have to be shy about bringing up your business. After all, that's what it's for. When you attend the first meeting, you meet a scad of new people and you can only remember a handful of their names. You come back the following week, and half of the faces are new. You have some good conversations, you meet a few people for coffee, and you start to think that this networking stuff is great. After a month or two, you notice some relationships starting to develop. People are more than willing to sit down with you and hear about your business, since that's the protocol. Most everyone who attends these meetings understands that the intent and idea behind them is to support each other in developing their businesses.

But you may also have noticed that this sort of community tends to diminish in value over time. From a purely social standpoint, it's always good to maintain your relationships and get out to see people. But these meetings aren't designed to be purely social. They're intended to be an investment that you make in your business. That means that in order to get the maximum return on your investment, you need to treat it as a priority and attend consistently when possible. Here's the problem. The more you attend, the more you just keep running into the same people over and over again. Not that you mind seeing them, but time is money, and this is about meeting new people. After all, when it comes to the people you already know, either you're doing business with them or you aren't. Meeting them again next week is not going to change things either way. And let's face it; if you have a strong enough relationship with an individual that you make it a priority to see them, you can do that without going to a networking meeting.

Networking is taking on a new shape amid the rising cost of gasoline and the rising value of people's time. There is an ever-increasing number of things to do these days, and that's making each activity subject to an ever-increasing degree of scrutiny, particularly activities that are designed to bring prosperity into your business. There comes a point when business owners inevitably ask themselves, "What am I really getting out of all these networking meetings?" Social networks such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and countless others are making it possible to network without leaving the office (or house). That's a valuable thing these days. Also, you're no longer a captive audience on the internet, and you can network on your own schedule this way. People are slowly starting to migrate in this direction. The best place to start out is by setting up a few profiles and playing around, if you haven't already. See how the sites work, and watch what people are doing.

If you don't have time to do this, try doing it for an hour this week instead of going to a networking meeting.

Dave Baldwin is a staunch introvert who hung up his technical hat in 2007 in pursuit of his entrepreneurial dreams. He is known in the community of Raleigh, NC as "The Introverted Entrepreneur." He is committed to creating a "play for a living" business culture where every single individual enjoys the lifestyle of an entrepreneur.

Baldwin got his first experience in sales and marketing in 2002, when he took his first summer sales job selling kitchen cutlery. It was during those formative lessons that he began to see his own potential for entrepreneurship. His recent layoff from a manufacturing job had shown him what it meant to be at the mercy of someone else for survival, and he had decided never to put himself in this position again.



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dave_Baldwin

There has never been a time when marketing for the construction industry was so important. However, those of us who are involved in this crucial aspect of business development are acutely aware that the industry has been notorious at making huge blunders in its marketing efforts!

On of the top five blunders people in the construction industry make when trying to grow business, is in the way it deals with prospective and current clients.

Most business development professionals recognise that all marketing for construction begins and ends in one simple principle - knowing how to build relationships.

It is at least 5 times easier to win a new contract from an existing client than to go out and find a new one! That is not to say that we should not be extending our client base because this is essential for ongoing company growth and to ensure a healthy sales pipeline.

However, if you are producing good quality work, you should find that 70% to 80% of your turnover comes either directly from current or past clients, or from referrals and recommendations from clients you have worked for. You need to spend a lot of time developing relationships with these key people as they can become your best marketing tool.

Current and past clients are like gold dust to your business. Your existing client base also forms potential sales revenue for back end products and services.

If you have no track record with your potential client, you need to be able to demonstrate that you are trustworthy. Endorsements and testimonials from people you have built relationships with, are crucial to substantiate this. It is also important to be available to your prospects so that they can have a face to face meeting with you. This is crucial even at the highest management level of your company. This will build confidence and reassurance because they are dealing with a real person and not just a marketing consultant with an ulterior motive!

There are many ways that relationships can be built:

1. Run a Lunch Club for your project team at completion.
2. Hold Continuous Professional Development Training Seminars with guest "experts" in the industry
3. Promise less, deliver more
4. Make sure there are open lines of communication
5. Give you workforce "Customer Relationship" Training
6. Distribute a high content newsletter
7. Open a Social Networking forum



Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Steve_Flashman