If you really want to succeed at networking, take a look at the following tips and insights: Notable Networkers are people who are skilled at networking and committed to the idea that givers gain. By helping other businesses get new clients or customers, they get new business sent their way. The key to building a word-of-mouth-based business is mutual support, not necessarily friendship. Organizations that network effectively provide opportunities to develop and exchange quality business referrals. Being a member of...

We now live in a fully global society, and referral networking has become a prominent marketing strategy in this global society for one reason: It works. The idea of growing your business through word-of-mouth marketing is a concept that crosses cultural, ethnic and political boundaries because we all speak the language of referrals, and we all want to do business based on trust. Referral networking is a cost-effective way to get in front of new clients worldwide, and it’s a much better way to keep a business p...

As a small-business professional or entrepreneur, how do you: Get advice and help when problems arise Gather the information you need for making important business decisions Identify your markets and locate potential clients? Unfortunately, most people get help in times of need from individuals or businesses they don’t know well. Instead of anticipating and planning for needs and emergencies, they are forced to react to every situation. They search the internet or ask friends and associates to help solve probl...

I recently ran across a very good definition of what a company “brand” is all about. It was written by Tilka Design. I really loved it, and I share it with you below: A brand lives in the imagination.  Intuitively, we all know what a brand is. It’s far more than a logo. And it’s much larger than a product, service, idea or institution. A brand finds its home in the minds and hearts of individuals; it’s made up of stories and experiences that, over time, create feelings. When en...

I was at a big networking event with more than 500 people in the UK this summer, and the person who spoke before me asked the audience: “How many of you came here hoping to do some business–maybe make a sale?”  More than half the people in the audience raised their hands. He then asked, “How many of you are here hoping to buy something?”  No one raised a hand–not one single person! This is the networking disconnect. If you are going to networking events hoping to sell somethi...

An old friend of mine, Don Osborne, shared with me some material he wrote many years ago about how many of us use the “I’m different” syndrome to simply avoid doing something we don’t want to do. I’ve revised it a bit and am sharing it with you here today.  I hope you find it interesting. When it comes to ourselves, we’re always the exception.  Everybody else should do what’s been proved to work. Personal development works as soon as we stop treating ourselves as the excepti...

Yesterday, I received a rather disturbing email message from someone berating me for sharing what he felt were some aspects of my success via my FaceBook Fan page (mostly relating to discussions about my business travel and corporate meetings I did from my lake home over the summer).   I have to say it brought me down a bit so I went to my library and picked up a book I wrote about 7 years ago called Masters of Success.  I read a piece in it that I wrote called “Success is Not an EntitlementR...

Smart, enterprising businesspeople know the importance of networking and how it is a huge opportunity to increase word-of-mouth and gain business referrals. However, one of the biggest mistakes people can make is failing to follow through. One of my employees recently told me a story that should serve as an important lesson to all of us on how networking without follow-through is nothing more than a waste of time. Note: The names in this story have been changed to protect the innocent . . . and the guilty. My emp...

In 1998, my wife Elisabeth and I co-founded the BNI-Misner Foundation, a nonprofit program supporting charitable causes. We created the foundation because we truly believe in the philosophy of Givers Gain, on which we founded BNI, our worldwide business networking organization. Simply put, Givers Gain means that if you help others, others will want to help you in return (think “what goes around comes around”). Now, thanks largely to the generosity and kindness of BNI members and directors around t...