The Benefits of Networking - Sales and Business Development
Lorraine Garvie
Business Growth Network. Networking ~ Collaboration ~ Leverage ~ Referrals ~ Community ~ Growth.
The ability to establish and nurture relationships with potential customers and referral partners is a crucial factor in building a successful business. Business networking provides numerous benefits for anyone looking to grow and scale their business, as our previous blogs in this series have demonstrated, but let’s look at networking as an essential aspect of sales and business development, providing access to a wide range of contacts, referrals, and increased opportunities to close deals.
So, how can networking assist sales and business development efforts? There’s a significant benefit gained by being a part of a networking community, such as District32. As a trusted member of a group of like-minded business owners, all looking to collaborate, grow and scale their business, your circle of connection will see an increase in referral partners and give you access to a wider network. You’ll be able to leverage new sales and lead generation skills, while generating new pipelines and closing more deals.
There are many ways in which networking and being a part of a progressive and motivated networking community can have a positive impact on your sales and business development:
Networking within an established group, can provide professionals and executives with access to a much wider network of potential customers, suppliers, supporters and referrals. When you’re a part of a group of over 300 businesses all actively looking to grow and scale, you not only have access to that network, but to everyone’s extended network as well. This extended network can have a huge impact on your sales and business development and will see you getting to where you want to be much faster, by leveraging the power of the group. By attending networking events, you are continually meeting new people and building relationships with a variety of professionals.
Referral partners are your ‘fan club’.?For any business to succeed, you need customers, suppliers and partners who support you and appreciate what you are offering to the world.?These individuals or companies trust, know and like you and are happy to recommend your product or service to their clients, customers, acquaintances or family and friends. As part of a networking community, your network connections automatically become your referral partners by default, but you still need to show you can be trusted.?Once you have established yourself in this type of community, your referral partners increase exponentially. ?Networking with referral partners allows sales professionals to build relationships and establish trust, which can lead to increased referrals and new business opportunities, which then lead to increased sales and turnover for your business, much faster than you could achieve without your networking group.
Networking is an excellent way for business owners and professionals to improve their business management and sales skills. Having access to the knowledge of other professionals and experts in their field, you can keep up with new trends and learn new sales techniques, as well as gain valuable insights. With established networking groups, there is often a focus on upskilling and on-going events aimed specifically at improving your business knowledge in certain areas. ?Regularly attending networking events can also provide you with opportunities to practice your sales pitch, refine your messaging, and develop a better understanding of your target audience.
Use leverage with your existing relationships to gain new business opportunities. By building strong relationships with existing clients, referral partners and business professionals, you can tap into their network to generate new leads and opportunities. Additionally, leveraging your network can provide access to new markets and customers, which can exponentially affect the growth of your sales and turnover for your business.
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Building a successful sales pipeline refers to the process of identifying and pursuing business opportunities that could lead to future on-going revenue or growth for your company. The goal of generating a pipeline is to establish a steady stream of potential business opportunities that can be pursued and converted into actual sales or contracts. By building a robust pipeline, companies can reduce their reliance on sporadic sales or one-off projects and create a more predictable revenue stream.
This can involve a variety of activities, including lead generation and access to industry events and conferences, where you can showcase your products and services to generate new business leads.
Networking within an established group can have a hugely positive impact on lead generation, as well as support you to improve your skills in establishing new ways for successful lead generation. Keep growing your network and watch as your Sales Pipeline and Lead generation grows at a similar trajectory.
Nothing is more important in any sale than ‘closing the deal’.?A lot of work has to happen to get to this point and you must learn the right techniques to ensure you do indeed ‘close the deal’. However, by building strong relationships within your network with trust and credibility, you can make it easier to close deals. As a valued part of an established networking group, your leads are far more likely to be ‘hot’, as people are referred to you because they have expressed a need to purchase what it is you can provide. They have also been ‘recommended’ to you. So unless you don’t actually ask for the business, the generated lead/referral should basically be a shoe-in.?Additionally, referral partners in an established group are more likely to provide you with access to the decision-makers and key influencers who have the authority to close the deal.
So, as you can see, networking is an essential aspect of sales and business development, along with its many other benefits for you as a business owner, professional or executive. You really can’t put a dollar-value on how much of a difference networking can make to your sales and business growth.
If you are interested in discovering the benefits of networking for yourself, reach out to us at any time to find out more about our business growth community.
District32 is a networking group that exists to support business growth, exponential results and strategic shortcuts, to get your business from good to booming, faster, by leveraging The Power of Connection and building strong, lasting relationships. ??We’ve been supporting businesses with the platform to grow and achieve results faster, for over eight years now, but it’s our members who care about each other and want to do business with each other, that create such a successful and prosperous community.
Contact us by emailing [email protected]. You are welcome to attend any of our business growth events - we have networking platforms for businesses of all sizes, from multi-million-dollar organisations to entrepreneurial start-ups.