Networking Skills: Giving For The Sheer Pleasure Of It

Sometimes research backs up what you know as the blindingly obvious, so you've never really thought about it ...

Networking Skills: Focus On Your Gold Dust

It makes sense to focus on your gold dust and spend your networking time with people who will bring you a return on your investment ...

Referral Marketing: Rejection Sucks, Ok?

Anyone in sales knows that rejection is part of the process. Not everyone you approach is going to buy from you ...

Networking Skills: Can I Outsource My Networking?

I got asked a question the other day about networking skills and I must say that I've never been asked this before ...

Networking Skills: It Pays To Be Patient

This series of blog posts is all about learning networking skills from the front line. Here's a lovely one with a very happy ending ...

How To Choose The Right Networking Events

We Brits love a good moan, it's what we do best. Here's one I hear all the time and have been guilty of thinking myself ...

Networking Tips. Spend Time On Your Support Network

As anyone who runs their own small business knows, being ill means no work, and no work means no money ...

How To Achieve A Spectacular Life!

Asentiv has a mission statement. Our intention is to build communities that generate amazing business and a spectacular life ...

Nurturers: Loyalty, Trust And Plain Good Manners

Two managers I worked with had fallen out after working together amicably for many years. One was a Go-Getter, the other a Nurturer ...

Some Thoughts On Talking To Strangers

As you can imagine I hear lots of stories about how people won great clients through chance encounters ...

Avoiding Misunderstandings When Networking

Some stories from networking are just sad. None more so than when a little misunderstanding damages a relationship ...

Understanding Referral Marketing

Not all stories I tell are true, some can be metaphors to get across a key concept. This one combines both ...

Referral Marketing: Sometimes You Can't Make A Recommendation

It's no surprise that many of my clients have the same dilemma about referral marketing. Here's a common one that arose recently ...

Engineers: Do You Hate Networking?

It's rare to see engineers at general business networking events as they supposedly hate networking ...

Business Networking Skills: The Signals We Use To Judge

The signals we use to judge someone come from our unconscious mind. Although they're useful, sometimes it's best to ignore them ...

How Trigger Words And Images Can Get You More Referrals

A favourite expression I saw on a Royal Mail advert. It was an unexpected gift arriving with a message, ''I saw this and thought of you'' ...

Closing The Sale: The Impact Of Decision Fatigue

I recently had a breakfast conversation with Natalie Pewsey (virtual PA to many consultants), about decision fatigue ...

Does It Really Take 10,000 Hours To Master Networking?

If you want to master networking, do you really need to put in 10,000 hours. Many believe that to be true ...

Networking Tips: Come Out Of Your Comfort Zone

Most business leaders know that in order to develop their business they need to develop their own skills ...

Referral Marketing: Getting Back In Touch With People

If you want to be successful at referral marketing, surround yourself with people who know your ideal clients ...

I Don't Need Training, I Know How To Network!

I recently spent the day with my Asentiv colleagues from around the UK. We meet every quarter ...

Not A Natural Networker: Lessons From The Wild

An insight into the power of camouflage came from wildlife researchers tracking herds of zebra on the Savannah ...

Referral Marketing: It's A Numbers Game

Whenever you talk to trainers about sales and marketing, sooner or later, they will tell you that it's a number's game ...

Networking Skills: Save The Detail For Your Private Meetings

''I hate networking, it's so artificial and superficial.'' I often hear that, and I do wonder why they are there if they dislike it so much ...

Networking Skills: Don't Waste My Time

One of the most precious commodities we have always seems to run out when we need it most. I'm talking, of course, about time ...

Is It Better To Work From Home Or Rent An Office?

After 15 years of working from home, I moved into my own training room this weekend. It feels like a time of new possibilities ...

Business Networking Skills: Getting To Know You In 4 Minutes

I'm indebted to Phil Burton for inspiring this blog post on business networking skills. We were practising a bond building exercise ...

The Difference Between A Novice And An Expert

The difference between a novice and an expert comes down to experience and how they change your perceptions ...

Business Networking Tips: Get Referrals Quicker!

The inspiration for my topic this week came out of a conversation with a participant on my workshop last Saturday ...

Business Networking Tips : Who Wants You In Their Network?

Been in business for a while or still new at it? My business networking tips this week are about who wants you in their network ...

How To Get Referrals When You're Not a Natural Networker

Trust is vital for anyone who is not a natural networker. What's even more important is rebuilding it if it gets broken ...

Two Great Tips To Market Yourself As A Consultant

John had a successful career, reaching financial director of a mid-sized company and was then made redundant ...

Networking Skills: Invite People To Join You

Networking skills, as you know from your own experiences and in what you've read on my blog, are about building relationships ...

How Referral Marketing Works

Does referral marketing work? Unequivocally yes, it can! it is a chain of activities by people who may not know each other ...

Networking Skills: Have It All, Change And Constancy

I'm sure you've noticed that nearly all business writing is about change; doing things differently, innovation and evolution ...

Networking Skills: 3 Tips To Answer ''What Do You Do?''

The most common opening question at a networking event is ''What do you do?''. Answering is a basic networking skill ...