🖐 Hi!
Happy Wednesday from upstate NY.
Welcome to issue #39 of Solopreneur Doorway, your weekly insight and inspiration to turn your skills into solutions people buy.
This issue is a 3.75-minute read.
Does In-Person Networking Matter Anymore?
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⚡️ In this issue:
Discover if top solopreneurs network in-person anymore
Uncover why most networking events waste your time and how you can pick the right ones
Convert your in-person network events to sales
Do You Have to Attend Networking Events In-Person?
You want active prospects who buy your solutions.
This means networking.
Is it the same today as it was a few years ago?
Remember your network events pre-COVID?
😯 You had a name tag, a few drink tickets, and chats with interesting guests.
Then COVID gave you a long break from shaking hands.
Overnight, online meetings crept in and stole the show.
Today, you can sit at home and let AI handle 99% of the tasks to grow your network.
No need to go out, right?
Why take all that time to pack your stuff and travel to the event?
Top solopreneurs look at in-person networking with a different lens.
Yet, most solopreneurs fail to see how this lens creates leads and sales.
Here are the big challenges solopreneurs face with in-person networking.
The Top 3 Problems You Face with In-Person Networking
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👨 The first issue is your audience.
You can shake 23 hands, pass out 45 business cards (I hope they’re digital! ), and have 17 conversations.
When I ran my first solo business, I went to five networking events each month.
It made me feel great to interact with prospects and tell folks what I did.
The problem was that everyone was trying to sell their solutions to everyone else.
Does that happen to you?
I made one switch that turned those networking events into a huge source of new business.
🧠 The second issue is your strategy.
If you go to an event and chat about the Red Sox or recipes, you’ll regret it the next day.
And if you float from person to person, you lose time and money with opportunity costs.
This means you miss a chance to connect with an A+ prospect while you’re talking with a C prospect.
📲 The third challenge is your follow-up.
When the event ends, it’s easy to jump in your car and think about what’s for dinner or on Netflix.
You feel like going to the event and saying ‘hi’ means you did enough.
Here’s how to fix these 3 issues and make in-person networking work for you.
Boost Your Sales with the Right Approach to In-Person Networking Events
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Human beings buy when they trust you and believe you can fix their problem.
You can start to build that trust in 377 more ways with an in-person meeting than you can online.
Non-verbal communication and the right words are a strong, in-person combo.
Here’s how you put it all together:.
Your In-Person Networking Cheat Sheet
Build a schedule that fits with your work-life balance and go to events when you have the most energy
Book speaking events; network with your audience before and after your presentation (this was a big switch for me in my first business)
Try to get a list of the event attendees; research these folks and decide who merits your time and effort at the event
Spend no more than 5 minutes with each prospect; be funny, be direct, exchange information, and move on
When the event ends, carve out a few minutes to record notes about the ideal prospects and your chat
Send all the top prospects a text or email the next day; prospect leads go cold after 3 to 5 days
Keep a dashboard or CRM to track your networking events; track which ones to keep and which ones to toss
A final thought…
If you’re a bit of an introvert, I empathize.
Dip your toe in the networking pool and see where you can improve.
If you’re not a fan of group events, make time to have coffee in-person with 2 to 3 new people each week.
Yes, it takes more time and effort.
Your return from 1 great in-person chat is MUCH higher than from five online meetings.
Start local with face-to-face chats, and then expand.
You can do it!
📣 Business Article of the Week
The Red Lobster restaurant chain is cooked.
All major business outlets reported that debt and the pandemic pushed the restaurant chain into bankruptcy.
☹️ Sad.
I think tons of kids got their first taste of that yummy shellfish at a Red Lobster location.
🔑 Here’s your takeaway from Red Lobster’s fall.
Pay attention to your biz finances; you’ll have more outflow than inflow in the first few years. Watch your money trends.
Look for changes in your industry; RL lost customers when diners changed tastes; pay attention to the new problems your audience has to solve and adapt your solutions
Be bold and admit when a strategy is not working. Your strategy is a collection of ‘if this, then that’ statements; put them in motion, track the data and make your move
⛱ I plan to get to Newport, Rhode Island, at the end of the summer.
You can bet lobster will be on my dinner (and lunch) list.
Are you a lobster fan?
Stay curious and keep opening doors.
-Erik
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