The majority of people I know hate going to networking events. I’m one of them. Unless you are with a group of friends the entire experience can leave you feeling like you’re in sixth grade again and nobody asked you to dance at the party. And of course, if you’re with a groupyou’re NOT SUPPOSED to hang out with them because you’re supposed to be meeting new people and making new contacts.
I came up with a solution a while ago that has really helped me a lot in these situations. I reach out to one of my referral partners and suggest we attend the event together. It is always someone that is very knowledgeable about my services and I with hers (or his). When we arrive at the event, we take a stack of each others’ business cards. Then the contest begins.
My job is to work the room to find possible connections and “suspects” for my colleagues business. Her job is to do the same for me. For some reason, I have no fear going up to a group of people and starting a conversation when I know that I’m not doing this to promote my business, but my colleagues. Naturally, the first part of the conversation is all about them. Then I ask some pointed questions that help me identify whether this person might be a good 
introduction for my colleague. If it makes sense, I act as a referral, talking about the great service, wonderful products, or great network my colleague has. I get the card of the person I’m talking to and give him one of mine and one from my colleague. I point her out (if possible) and if it is a very hot lead, I walk him over and make introductions.
The person with the most referrals (for the other person) wins the contest. The prize can be a cup of coffee at Starbucks. Quite often I end up explaining what we’re doing to the group I’m speaking with, and the reaction is always fantastic. “Oh I’m going to do that,” I hear a lot.
The best lead is a referral, and this is a way to get quite a few of them and and fun at the same time.
a reference on my services. I’ll also provide you with their contact names and phone numbers, but because of your busy schedule I will ask them to reach out to you and hopefully you’ll avoid playing phone tag.”
When developing marketing strategies for clients, one of the first things we do is learn about the company’s sales process. This includes going on sales calls, sitting in on sales meetings, viewing the pipeline reports, finding out how the sales cycle works — basically absorbing everything we can about the sales function within the organization.
