How to have a good One2One meeting

I had a recent One2One meeting with another Business Owner who asked for some help with One2One meetings. He explained that he was following up with people from his networking groups and was having One2Ones with a couple of people each month. His problem was that nothing was happening afterward. He shared his experience from a couple of these meetings which revealed that he had no agenda and was setting no expectation for what might happen next.

When agreeing to meet someone for a One2One for the first time in a Networking context your aim should be to establish whether you are going to go forward & build a business relationship or not. You don't need a formal agenda, but there are some things that help in the long term when you agree them up front:

1. The amount of time you will both set aside for the meeting
2. What you want to learn about each others background and business.
3. Is there a fit between your business and theirs and could you see yourself being able to introduce them to other trusted contacts of yours. What would need to happen for that to take place?
4. What the next steps will be.

I use this simple mind map to make sure I keep these things in mind.



Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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Who do you already know, like and trust?

I have used this quote from Bob Burg before:

"All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to
— those people they know, like and trust."

I meet many business owners and professionals who end up constantly searching for new contacts when networking. It seems that it is very easy to forget those that we already have a relationship with.

I met with a partner in a consultancy firm last week who had carried out a business diagnostic for nearly 100 companies a couple of years back. What a great database of ready made contacts without having to meet anyone new!

In a recent podcast, 'How to start building your network', I spoke about identifying those people you already know or have worked with. A little bit of reconnecting can produce brilliant results.

Some of those people already know, like and trust you!

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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business networking | business networking events | business networking podcast

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Generating business through Linkedin

I recently reconnected with someone on Linkedin that I had done business with previously. We already knew, liked and trusted each other & are now doing business again. It has also led to us delivering some additional networking training business for business owners and professional firms.

It is worth using the Linkedin tools to find the people from your existing contacts that are already there and getting back in touch. People often forget their existing contacts when networking and I talked about this in a podcast recently, 'How to start building your network'.

The following article from the NRG Business Networking Newsletter by Will Kintish explains more about how Linkedin works;
'LinkedIn…your best online networking friend'.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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business networking | business networking events | business networking podcast

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A networking system gives predictable results

If you have set objectives for your networking then you can quantify the actions you need to undertake to achieve your results. This simple mindmap shows a four step networking system. The ultimate goal of this is getting other business people to recommend and advocate you. After all that is what networking is all about for many people.



1. Target Market
Identify the people you are trying to reach with your products or services. More in a previous entry, 'How to identify your typical customer' and this podcast, 'Your target market – Who is your right person?'

2. Proposition
This podcast, 'How to explain what you do', gives you some advice on how you can always answer quickly, confidently and effectively when someone asks, “What do you do?“.

3. Inner Network
This podcast, 'How to focus on the right people when networking', explains how to concentrate on building your Inner Network. Build close relationships with others who provide a complementary service to the same target market as you. This will help your networking to become a regular and reliable source of new business.

4. Advocates
This podcast, 'How to motivate your network to advocate you', explains how to set about motivating others in your Inner Network to advocate you.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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business networking | business networking events | business networking podcast

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