When is networking selling? - by Ron Bates

When is networking selling?

All the time? Never? It depends?

Some might think that this depends on what you mean by "selling".

There certainly are different approaches and styles of selling - such as "consultative" selling, which focuses more on someone's needs and how your offering's value proposition maps into their need-set - versus - "transactional" selling, which focuses more on your offering's bells & whistles being better than the competition's. There are certainly different sales cycles as well as far as the time it takes to "close" a deal, and they can range from seconds to years.

Some people think selling is a word with a negative connotation (e.g., "used car salesman"). The fact is we all are unconsciously and consciously attempting to sell our ideas, perspectives, positions, or concepts every day when we engage in conversation. Selling can be as simple (or complex) as attempting to communicate a point of view in a way that attempts to precipitates agreement. It can be as simple (or complex) as convincing someone to take action. It can be attempting to capture a moment of another individual's time for the purpose of learning some of their "best practices". It can be when an unsolicited candidate is attempting to get time from an executive recruiter to discuss his/her career. It can simply be attempting to find out who or what someone knows in hopes this might be knowledge you can leverage at some future date (e.g., at a "networking event").

What many people either don't realize - or forget (including those that come from a sales background) is that an alarm goes off in someone's head when they are being sold to. The alarm that typically goes off in someone's head is: "What's in it for me?"

If you keep this in mind when you are networking, you are much more likely to give the impression you are open to and care about the individual's needs you are trying to network with and not solely focused on your own - regardless - of your actual ability to address their needs. As a result, you might find more doors are left open to you that you'll be able to walk through at some point in the future.

When I taught strategic sales training, I would tell sales executives: "It is easy to get a meeting with an executive. The challenge is to get invited back."

Happy Networking.

Ron Bates
Managing Principal
Executive Advantage Group
rbates@executive-advantage.com

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