It does amaze me that some people just don’t want to talk to others unless it comes with a sale guaranteed, they ask why I spend time every week speaking and meeting new people — the truth for me is that I actively make space and time every week to meet and have conversations with someone new, it’s my fuel, its what drives me on and its what has helped grow and develop the Exeter digital marketing business and the business networking group that I run.
Consequently, during the lockdown, I spoke to the widest variety of people possible, through the networking group I’ve made time to contact every member and I’ve also tried to contact all past attendees where I can, just to touch base with them. These calls have had no agenda, they’ve simply been about making contact and keeping that relationship we had when we could meet face to face alive as well as we can in the unknown Covid times we found ourselves in.
So how do I plan this you may ask? Well, I keep a schedule in an online calendar that blocks out time for me every week — clear time when I can make that effort to call a group of people one after the other. This way I know that I have time in my day blocked out for the task and if I have a list I can work as far through that in the time before I stop and move on to another business task. As for any agenda or plan, for me I try and keep this as simple as possible, really I want to have a conversation with no agenda or plan. I ideally want to learn more about who I’m calling, what’s happening with them, and also if can learn more about what makes them tick, I’m aiming to build a bond. It’s quite simple, I believe that the world runs on relationships — so I take time to build some.
Let me summarise, in easy and simple terms people buy from those they know, like, and trust so I spend some time every week on building that relationship as I know if I do this then the referrals and sales will follow…
