You've probably heard that Your Vibe Attracts Your Tribe. When networking, that's exactly what you need to look out for: vibe. But do you have what else can happen when you network for your business? In this episode, I'll share with you the 4 main reasons why networking is so valuable for you and your business.

Listen to the Episode below:

In this episode, you'll hear about:

Why networking is Important
Higher closing rates for in-person meetings
Your vibe is your tribe
Networking opens doors
Your network is your NET-WORTH

It has been a really long time since our last episode — I think it’s about one month now. What happened was that we took an earlier mid-season break to refresh and come up with new content and new ideas for you.

Today’s episode is really interesting because it’s timely and it happened just after I’ve attended two key networking events that attracted about 300 people last week and I found that a lot of the woman entrepreneurs that I was speaking to asked me why networking is so important and why I was there.

So let’s start off today’s episode:

Networking and why it’s so important for your business

Okay, so like I shared earlier, I went to two key networking events last week and one of the events attracted about 100 people and the other event attracted about 300 people.

Out of these two events, I managed to collect 30 name cards, so about an average of 10 to 15% of the total attendees. And I’ve formed in person connections with about seven of them. Out of the seven I am meeting with, three of them I’m meeting this week.

So today I’m going to share with you the
5 reasons why networking is really important for your business to grow.

And I want you to know that regardless the technological advancement, human to human interaction is still very important today. Having gone for networking events since I was 16, I know first-hand how important it is to bridge and foster strong relationships for your business.

#1: Higher Closing Rate

So the first thing that you need to know about why networking is so important for your business is that the closing rate for in person meetings are higher than when you are doing it digitally.

So according to data compiled by Hubspot, the closing rate for in-person meetings is about 40%. This means that out of 10 people you meet, four will become clients.

Imagine this, you meet 10 people found through the networking events that you attended. Four will become your clients. If you go for one networking event in a week, you will be able to collect maybe 10 to 20 name cards. And out of those 10 to 20 name cards, perhaps only 5 of them agree to meet you in person. If you manage to meet 5 persons in a week, that means you get to meet 20 people in a month. The chances of you getting 8 clients would have just shot up!

So there’s a higher closing rate and it is very important for your business. Don’t you think so?

#2: Your vibe attracts your tribe

The second reason why networking is important is because you can get someone’s vibe from that face to face interaction.

You know about how your vibe attracts your tribe.

Well that is entirely true because the more you meet with people, the more you would have experience about what kind of people and personalities there are out there, you would have a better understanding or a better feel of vibe on who are the types of people that you would want to work with or do business with.

72% of people say that your first impressions are impacted by how someone appears and particularly your handshake. So ladies, I know a lot of us — you know we are a little bit conservative and we don’t really do handshake for religious or for culture purposes. But if you can’t do a handshake, be sure to explain to them why you can’t do it any way. **Make it like a conversation starter. **

Now the other thing is that if you don’t already know, there is a technique called the neuro linguistics programming or NLP for short.

A lot of salespersons use NLP techniques to convince you through their body language, through their language as well as through your experiences. You engaged in a blend of processes, language and behavioral patterns learned through experience into your actions.

The more you meet with people, the more you have this vibe that someone is better off for you to work with or someone who we should completely avoid.

Networking gives you that opportunity. When you meet more people, it increases your experience. And when you have network with so many people, you have an idea of whom you can trust and whom you can’t. So that’s really important when it comes to networking because it helps to establish what you really are looking for in your business and whether or not this person will be suitable for you to work with or do business with.

#3: Open Doors of Opportunities

Number three, networking can open doors for opportunities in your business.

Nearly 100% of people say that face to face meetings are essential for long term business relationships. There are so many examples of how businesses can succeed because of networking opportunities. Let’s look at Eloqua for example. This is a marketing automation and intelligence platform, which was sold to Oracle for $871 million in 2012. This deal wouldn’t have been possible if Eloqua’s co-founder Paul Teshima didn’t build strong relationships with Oracle in the first place. You can read more about this in the show notes.

Even locally, networking has opened doors for my business and as a result of one key network I got, I was nominated as the Most Compassionate Womenpreneur in March 2019.

If you look at it this way, sometimes it’s not about the dollars and cents, but the potential future it will bridge for your business. Indeed, networking can open so many doors of opportunities for your business.

#4: Your Network is Your Net Worth

The fourth and most important factor, your network is your net worth. Believe it or not, there’s so much truth in this saying. You probably heard of this saying over and over again, but let me tell you that this is true.

The people with whom you associate and spend time with influences who you are and what you have become — and more of like what you can become. This in turn influences you towards achieving success that you need for your business. It also increases your status because people want to get to know you for the people whom you know in your life.

Imagine if you know someone who is really popular or someone who is like a celebrity in your industry and people and know that you are affiliated with this person, wouldn’t more people want to actually get to know you so that they can get in touch with this particular celebrity in your industry?

So, networking provides you with a great source of connections and opens the doors to highly influential people. That can be a great addition to your business.

Often just having a networking relationship with certain people, enhances your standing and credibility, which definitely helps your business in so many ways. That influential person will already have a network that you can tap into as well.

So in one of the episodes that you’re going to hear in the future, a lady that I had interviewed locally named Shahirah — she shared with me that her biggest breakthrough was when she was affiliated with a celebrity in the community, Aida Azlin.

So Shahirah was affiliated with Aida Azlin and as a result she, it became a breakthrough for her business where a lot of people started asking her about wellness and health related matters.

Having said that, it simply means that indeed it’s true, that your network is your net worth and on top of saying all these things.

#5: Builds Your Knowledge and Reputation

Above all, the most important value that networking can give you is that it helps to build your knowledge and your reputation.

So imagine that you are speaking to someone that you’ve never heard of or you’ve never known before and they happen to be in an industry that you are not familiar with. So when they share a little bit about their industry and about what they do, you start to have a better idea of what the industry is and it helps make you more knowledgeable when you are going out and network again in the future.

When you go out to network, you’re not just pulling for your business, but you’re also pulling to add your knowledge bank. And when you continuously go on networking, all this knowledge bank is going to come in handy when you meet someone. Let me give you an example.

There was one event that I went to a networking event and I met someone who is in aerospace technology. This is something so unfamiliar to me and I have no clue what aerospace technology is all about. To have the opportunity to speak to another woman entrepreneur who is all for aerospace technologies is really interesting and it opened up my eyes to better understand what aerospace technologies is all about.

Even when I manage to actually speak to someone who is in this industry, I opened up by saying about what I knew about aerospace technologies. So it’s really interesting about the pool of knowledge that you can gain from networking and you can reinvest the knowledge into your networking. Again, when you meet someone who is involved in a similar field.

As you all probably know, I run a digital content marketing agency based in Singapore and networking is my all-time favourite strategy to bring in revenue for my business. Networking alone has to 60% of the businesses I’ve owned since we started five years ago.

Remember this ladies: your only limitation to achieve success is your thought.

So stop thinking and start doing. I challenge you to go to Eventbrite right now and look for a networking event that you could benefit from. Purchase a ticket if there’s a fee, and make sure you attend prepared with your elevator pitch and your name cards.

If you’re not sure how to craft your elevator pitch, listen to podcast episode number 17 where I shared how you can craft the perfect self introduction.

Speaking of networking, if you haven’t already do, follow us on Instagram at @FempreneurSecrets and Fempreneur Secrets on Facebook. We can’t wait to connect with you on our social networking platform.

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Keep learning and keep believing in yourself because the one and inspiration and just like you, and I’ll see you in the next episode of Fempreneur Secrets.

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