If you’ve followed our little blog for awhile, you’ll know that I’m a big believer in personal networking as a means of business development. Here at The Law Office of Brandon Woodward, P.A. we do almost zero advertising. Instead, we get out of the office as often as we can to meet and greet business owners and managers who might need our help. READ ON for our 3 tips for stepping up your networking game to find more (and better) customers in 2018!
Tip #1: Know Where Your Current Customers Are Coming From
My good friend, attorney Craig Goldenfarb, told me once that his most important business report is his monthly pie chart of referral sources. What does this mean for your networking? Easy. If your best clients all share something (anything) in common, use it to your advantage. Make sure you are putting yourself in front of groups of potential clients early and often. Here at The Law Office of Brandon Woodward, we handle the legal side of many business sales, so we try to introduce ourselves to business brokers and accountants as often as we can.
Tip #2: Cultivate and Appreciate your Referral Sources
New customers can come from anywhere, so you have to think creatively. For example, a local fitness club owner I know networks heavily at residential realtor functions. What’s the connection? Those realtors are often the first point of contact for new residents in our town; which so happen to be ideal target customers for the gym! These efforts have paid off extremely well for the fitness club owner: he got an abundance of high-quality membership leads, and in turn, he rewarded his realtor referral sources with discounted memberships!
Tip #3: Play The Long Game
Building a solid set of business connections does not happen overnight. Longevity and consistency are the keys to earning more (and better) referral business. Think about it: YOU probably wouldn’t hire a contractor (or a financial planner, accountant, or lawyer) that you just met yesterday at a free “speed-networking” event. However, if you regularly meet up with a consistent group of fellow business professionals over time (and I mean months and years), you’ll find out: (1) who you can trust, and (2) who trusts you. It is, undoubtedly, this second group (people that trust you) are the referral sources that will skyrocket your networking efforts to the next level in 2018.
If you have questions about business development, networking, startups or business transactions, please feel free to call us anytime at 772-497-6544. We’re here to help!