By Dave Clarke UK Bureau Chief
Over the last couple of months the question of RoI - return on investment - has cropped up more often in conversations within our Network and in other networking groups that I belong to. I guess that is inevitable given the blanket coverage of the Economic Climate on every News Channel you turn to and with the BBC reporting today that the UK economy is officially in recession. Andy Lopata discusses the cost of networking in the latest edition of his excellent newsletter, Connecting is Not Enough;
"When you consider any networking group, ask yourself what the cost of membership is. I don't just mean the published cost, what is it really going to cost you?
You need to include the price of regular meetings and travel. What's the opportunity cost? In other words, what would you be doing with the time and budget otherwise? And what's the cost of all of those additional meetings with fellow members. Anyone for coffee?
If you know the real cost of your networking you can work out what return on investment you need to justify your membership. That's the start of making your networking work for you."
I am fully in favor on focusing on what you want from your networking and then planning your activity accordingly. The most proactive networkers here in the UK are experiencing no downturn at all and are proving that organized networking is an essential activity for developing their business.
To help you budget for networking in the UK here are a few comparisons for groups where the primary activity is business networking;BNI and similar groups are about £500 for the first year membership and about the same amount again for the breakfast meetings so about £1000 per year. Add to that the travel and other costs especially 121s and you might easily double that.
4networking's passport membership comes out at about the same as does NRG-networks membership with the networking lunches.
In the last survey we did of NRG members the average return after the first year was over £10000 of business for that investment. Of course the real investment is the time you put into developing the relationships.
All things considered joining a Networking Group is a pretty smart investment. What other marketing gives you a return of between 5 & 10 to 1?
Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success
business networking | business networking events | business networking podcast
_____________________________________________________
Posted to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER. To subscribe for your free newsletter, go to www.TheNationalNetworker.com. For the complete National Networker Relationship Capital Toolkit and a free, continuous RSS feed (available either by traditional RSS or by direct email), go to: http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com. You are also invited to click our buttons:
Forward/Share This Article With Colleagues And Social Media:
4 comments:
Sometimes you cannot quantify things. Often people, for obvious reasons, want to know if the spend they make on networking is worthwhile. But there is another, non-financial and non-quantifiable benefit to networking that people should not ignore.
Networking makes people happier, more confident and therefore more productive at work. The emotional benefit of networking is substantial. If we could calculate it, I'm confident it would be worth much, much more than the specific financial returns - business done due to networking.
The reason is that those who network will be more efficient and effective in everything they do due to the hidden emotional support that networking provides. That means that ALL of their work will be affected by networking - not just the business they do with people they meet at business lunches, for instance.
Calculating the ROI on networking is helfpul - but it's not the whole story.
Graham
Thanks for your comments. You are absolutely right about the other non-financial and non-quantifiable benefits to networking. It would be great if we could measure the value of this 'social capital'
Dave
Hi Dave,
Graham is right on the button when he says that there are other benefits. We can also meet people who become our friends and supporters opening up other avenues of business.
Personally I believe you have to be selective about which events you attend. You need to visit each event and decide if the people and what they do are compatible with what you do. Many networking events are now almost social event, but if that is what you want then fine, but if you are looking to get new business, you need to go to events that support that.
Great advice Dave & Graham as usual.
Thanks Jim
Visiting different groups to experience whether there is a good fit is really important.
Dave
Post a Comment