Will you marry me?

Imagine the scene: Saturday night down at the Disco, the girls are dancing around their handbags hoping the dishy guy they’ve got their eyes on might come and ask them to dance. The guys meanwhile are debating who is going for which lady. The DJ slows down the music and it’s time for the guys to make their moves, what’s the first question they ask?

Will you marry me??No! More likely ‘would you like to dance? ’or ‘do you come here often?’

You get on well but at the end of the evening there’s still no marriage proposal! However you do swap phone numbers and if you’re lucky he’ll call you in a couple of days to arrange the first date.

And so the relationship begins. More dates follow and you get to know and understand each other better. Maybe love grows or maybe you decide that the chemistry isn’t there and you should be ‘just be good friends’.

How long did it take to get to that marriage proposal?

Attending a networking event is much the same as going to the disco on a Saturday night. Or perhaps it’s more like connecting on Tinder, will we swipe left, or right? You go to make connections.

It’s about building relationships not asking for someone’s hand in marriage, or the sale, at least not yet.

Ultimately, we’re hoping for a strong relationship that will lead to our business growth but we’re unlikely to get that the first time we meet. The bigger the commitment in money, time or other resources the longer we’ll have to wait and the harder we’ll have to work.

What next?

Arrange the next date. You should have contact details for the people you’ve met, so follow up.

Send an email, connect on social media or arrange a one to one. Think about the requests for help others at the event made and see if there is a way you can help.

Have you integrated your networking into your marketing plan? It’s very easy to plot the time to network into our diaries without mapping the time for follow up.

We need to make the follow up personal but if it takes even just 10 minutes to follow up and there are 20 people in the room that’s half a day’s work.

Having a standard email which you can top and tail with personalised first and closing paragraphs will save time.

Booking a one to one before you leave a meeting will save you time. How about a private message in the chat? With a Zoom call or similar you don’t even have to account for travelling time.

Connect on social media so you can quickly comment and share each other’s posts and build a relationship that way.

Grow the relationship

If our guy only ever takes the girl he met at the disco to his local pub for a date the relationship is likely to be a bit one dimensional and unlikely to lead to marriage.

It’s the same if the only contact you ever have with a prospect is at networking events, you’re unlikely to develop a wider understanding of each other’s businesses.

Our couple will get to know each other better over shared meals; it’s the same with prospects. Leave your phones behind and concentrate on a proper conversation over lunch.

Our girl would love the occasional floral gift and your prospect will love a sample or maybe a copy of an interesting article. Think what they would value.

Before my time couples used to write love letters to each other, now it’s texting or similar. Think what sort of regular communication your prospect would like to receive. Be careful though because Facebook messages can be really irritating as can unsolicited emails etc.

When the time is right pop the question

Hopefully the relationship is developing nicely and we’re now moving towards that marriage proposal.

Remember she can’t say ‘yes’ if you don’t ask the question! Your prospect is unlikely to buy if you don’t ask for the sale or the referral. So think how you will do that in a way that would be hard to refuse. Few guys would pop the question, especially publicly, if they don’t know the answer so make sure that you only ask when you know how your prospect is ready.

Most girls would love a unique and romantic proposal and every prospect would like to feel special and valued. So here are some proposal ideas that I found when researching for this article, perhaps you can take some marketing ideas from them:

1.??????A series of signs along a busy road

2.??????The front page of the Guardian magazine

3.??????Score boards at big sporting events

4.??????A diamond ring in the champagne glass

5.??????Will you marry me spelt in rose petals on the bed

6.??????A personalised firework display with the question

7.??????A private capsule on the London Eye

8.??????Flashmobs

9.??????A pop-up art expo with photos and art of the couple culminating with one of the guy on bended knee.

Sadly I never got such a romantic proposal!

And if he’s not the one he might introduce you to Mr. Right!

Many, many years ago I met a guy on an 18-30s holiday. He wasn’t my type, but he lived in Ealing and my sister had just moved there and was struggling a bit to make friends. When we had a holiday reunion I asked to bring my sister along. The guy I met in Elounda has now been my brother-in-law for over 35 years!

Please don’t forget that the relationships that you are building at an event may not be with your future customers but with people who can refer good business to you. So think what you can do to make it easy for people to refer you.

Develop your marketing plan to lead your prospect to your altar and if you would like to practice your chat up lines and build relationships with other business owners we’d love to meet you at Fabulous Networking.

#businessnetworking #smallbusinessmarketing #relationships

Glenda Shawley is MD of Fabulous Networking and a keen advocate for business on your own terms. She would love to meet you. If your preference is to connect with people who will support you on your business journey then a warm welcome awaits you at Fabulous Networking. Our business networking meetings are more dinner party than big bash and we have other ways of connecting. These include our book club, our writers group and our co-working sessions. Visitors are welcome to attend three events to try us out.?Click here?for details of our upcoming events.