Читать книгу Knockout Networking for Financial Advisors and Other Sales Producers - Michael Goldberg - Страница 32

More prospects, more referrals, more business! That's probably why most of you are reading this book. Networking is absolutely one of the best ways (if not the very best way) to grow most businesses, especially if you're a financial advisor or looking to sell some other product or service. It may seem obvious to you, but when attending events or even posting on social media (if growing your business is your purpose), you have to be clear about why you're doing what you're doing.

Growing your business can mean a lot of different things.

If growing your business means more sales production, it's important to be clear about what that means. What are you selling? Is it a product or service? Are you retail or wholesale? Are you selling directly to individuals you're looking to meet or looking to be referred to through some other channel? Growing your business could mean growing your staff. You might be in the market to recruit financial advisors (or other types of sales producers) to your firm. That's a different type of sale. In fact, I'm surprised that more sales managers don't put more of an emphasis on networking to grow their sales teams. It's what I would be doing if I was serious about growing and keeping my sales team. (I'll be discussing best practices around recruiting in a later chapter.)

There are other mini reasons for networking that I would put in this category. Activities and initiatives around fundraising, participating in an event or a race, lobbying for an important cause, and volunteering your time to lend a hand are very rewarding and fulfilling. These are, of course, great things to do. Not to take anything away from doing something nice like raising money and volunteering your time, but if your reason for helping is to get more visibility to ultimately sell more of your product or service, you're putting forth your effort to grow your business. This is not necessarily good or bad, right or wrong. It is what it is – just context.