Networking Survival Guide | DAVE CLARKE

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Networking Survival Guide | DAVE CLARKE

by Dave Clarke

Last month I attended a talk by Richard White who was speaking in the expert speaker slot at the end of a networking lunch in the City of London. The talk was entitled 'The missing piece of the networking jigsaw: how to make it easy for you to win more business'. Richard is founder of TheAccidentalSalesman.com and specializes in helping small technology companies to gain more sales from business networking. He is also author of the recently published, 'The Accidental Salesman - Networking Survival Guide'. The book is described on the cover as the essential hands on manual for winning more business and gaining new sales leads.

After the talk, I spent a few minutes chatting with Richard. He agreed to answer a few questions and share some of his insights (including his number one tip).

1.Why did you write the book?

"I have a lot of subscribers to TheAccidentalSalesman.com from around the world who kept asking if I would come and run one of my Lead Generation Master classes in their country. I was not able to do that so I decided to put the process into a book instead. I have included all the exercises and have added some extra things that such as how to maximize the sales opportunities and also how to generate sales leads from networking in a very time efficient manner."

2. What is your number one networking tip?

"There are so many small things that can impact the results you get from networking. I think you could sum them all up into an overall tip which is to make it easy for people to help you win more business.

I come across many people who are good at building up networking relationships with other people but they do not seem to get any business from their networking. The people in their network would be happy to help but for many reasons are unable or not prepared to help. Not everyone will be able to give referrals to our ideal clients but they may be able to help us in another way.

For example, they can introduce us to people they know well where there is a good opportunity for cross referral. They could introduce us to journalists or people who could provide us with PR opportunities. They could get us invitations to exclusive events where our ideal prospects will be attending.

Probably the biggest way to make it easy for others to help us is to be able to clearly articulate who we need to be connected to and why they would want be connected with us. This is not as easy as it sounds. Whilst we might think we understand our business inside out, making it easy for others to understand it is a much harder task. A key part of this is being prepared to truly specialize in our area of maximum credibility. It’s much easier for people to help us when we have a specialist niche and a proven track record."

3. What is next for Richard White?

"I am going to be bringing out a home study kit for my Advanced Lead Generation System and also develop more products and services for TheAccidentalSalesman.com. I will also be writing a sales manual for IT consultants and a range of products and services specifically for IT Consultants."

Until next time...
Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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