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 ...

Many of the people in your network will never refer you even if they know the sorts of people you want to meet. So it makes good business sense to focus your referral marketing time on the people who will refer you.

There are two reasons that influence whether people will refer you.

• WILL: Do they want to invest their time in you?
• SKILL: Do they know how to find and give referrals and in particular how to refer you?

If you plot the people you know across those two axis people will fall into one of four boxes. Then you can decide where to put your networking efforts. You can find out by watching their behaviours and asking a few key questions.

Do they have the skill?

• Skilled referrers give good referrals. Who gets mentioned in the thank you slot at your networking groups? Whose referrals turn into real business opportunities for you or others?
• Skilled referrers ask you the right questions. Who wants to know about you as a person? Who asks you about your business? Who asks who you want to meet? Who won't accept the "anybody" answer?
• Skilled referrers give you good information. Who can explain their business to you succinctly? Who can tell you who they want to meet? Who can tell you how to spot an opportunity and how best to introduce them?
• Skilled referrers spend time getting to know you well. Who initiates one to one meetings? Who invites others to events? Who has proper conversations at networking events rather than just delivering a sales pitch?

Do they have the will?

• Motivated referrers refer to you. Who refers to you right now? Who asks you questions to find out about you?
• Motivated referrers help people in other ways. Who is generous with their knowledge? Who introduces people to people?
• Motivated referrers are present. Who attends meetings and events regularly? Who turns their phone off when talking to you?
• Motivated referrers deliver what they say they will deliver. Who has a reputation for being reliable? Who follows through on their promises to you?
• Motivated referrers invest in their own development. Who attends training sessions offered to your networks? Who can tell you about workshops or courses they've been on? Who was on the last training you were on? Who can talk about books, articles or speeches that have influenced them?

On a grid, map out the people in your network who potentially could refer to you. Give them a score 0-10 for both will and for skill, with 10 being the highest. Then you can focus your precious time on your gold dust.

Assess which box others would put you in right now! The best way to attract gold dust people is to be gold dust yourself.

If you'd like to learn more about referral marketing then do give me a call on 0333 335 0416 and let's have a chat and see how I can help you.