Networking 101 - Selling Through Networking

Networking 101 - Selling Through Networking

By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting CC. April 2010

I feel the need to explore the whole ‘selling’ thing a little more – so following on from last time and the idea of ‘selling through networking’ – I honestly understand that networking is not for everyone.  I understand that for some it is really difficult and for those, there are obviously other avenues such as (but not limited to) cold calling.

Let’s have a look at the numbers for a minute,

Irrespective of whether you are cold calling and/or networking (or any other form of selling that there is) there is a set of numbers in terms of what you can expect.

Statistics show that around 20% of the people that you approach, will buy from you and 20% of the people you approach won’t, regardless of whether they have the budget or not – it’s just the way things are.

Here’s the thing though – that still leaves 60% of the people that you can really focus on and herein lies the challenge.

With Networking, I will always have the advantage over the person who is cold calling in terms of turning that 60% prospects into sales.  Here’s why – the person who is doing the cold calling, still has to develop relationships with those people – because of Networking, either I have already started building those relationships or in terms of referrals, those relationships have already been built and cemented in.

With Networking I will always have an added advantage (or as some say, an unfair advantage).  As long as I look after those relationships and I continue to maintain them (long after the first encounter) I will always be able to sell easier and I will always have referrals.

With Networking and the resultant referrals, I will never have the constant negativity that is a given when cold calling as all my calls will be, at the very least warm and generally very hot!

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za  or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za