Meeting The Right Network Marketing People

Network Marketing: Contact vs. Connection

Effective network marketing is not simply about meeting a lot of people for your mlm business. And it’s certainly not about seeing how many business cards you can hand out in a ninety-minute time span. More importantly, it’s about meeting the right people at the right time for the right reason. Ultimately it’s about knowing the difference between a “contact” and a “connection.”

In this context, a contact is someone you know, but with whom you haven’t fully established a strong relationship. A connection is someone who knows you, likes you, and trusts you, because you’ve taken the time to establish credibility with him.  Top networkers know that a good contact isn’t necessarily a good connection. One of the most important things I’ve learned is that it’s not what you know, or even who you know—it’s how well you know them and how well they know you that really counts in building a powerful mlm network.

This means that your network marketing must not only be broad; it must also be deep. Unfortunately, most people focus more on broad than on deep. They concentrate on making more and more con­tacts, hoping to find that one special person who’ll solve their mlm busi­ness needs this month. These people collect a lot of cards, but they never fully understand the true meaning of networking.

Have you ever felt that the time you spent networking was wasted? If you have, it’s time to make a change. Most people who feel this way are approaching network marketing for all the wrong rea­sons. They expect that if they invest time and money at a network­ing event, they’ll inevitably leave the event with a new client or two. I hate to be the bearers of bad news, but that expectation is unrealistic and will eventually cause those people to give up on network marketing altogether. Don’t be one of them!

A networking event is not—I repeat, not—designed to bring strangers together for the purpose of referring themselves to one another. Why would you refer yourself to someone you barely know? A typical networking event is designed to have people who don’t know one another meet and mingle.

Network Marketing: Meet and Mingle

Meet and mingle? What does that actually mean? It means meeting new people and mingling (going from person to person). But for a networking event to be fully pro­ductive for you, you must meet the right people for the right rea­sons. Meeting the right people will make a positive impact on your mlm business and give you a high return on your network marketing invest­ment.

If you’re networking to expand your network, to develop a reli­able and effective network, it’s important to keep in mind depth as much as breadth. What do I mean by this? When you need to rely on others to help you out (promote your program to their client base, or cross-market your products), you need to have already done the work of strengthening the relationships with your con­nections, well in advance of expressing your need or request. This is critical.

So, at networking events, who are the right people to meet? Consider two types of individuals: those serving your preferred cli­ents and those who have the potential to help you meet your network marketing business goals.