80% of businesses do not network. They contain them selves inside their offices, shops, homes and schools and rely on traditional forms of marketing. Meanwhile their is a whole other world of opportunities to be tapped.
Social media is the buzz word in communication and electronic networking and fast becoming the norm in all businesses. Dispelling this form of communication as a flash in the pan or passing trend will only display an inability to accept change, similar to closing the doors to your shop because you don’t want to deal with demanding customers.
Online shopping took the traditionalists by surprise. The smart ones embraced ecommerce and quickly integrated with traditional high street shopping to capture larger audiences. It proved a worthwhile exercise for the balance sheet. And cash flow, less effort for greater return, low overheads, quick turn around and real time market research via google analytics.
In spite of new trends property developers are still investing in bricks and mortar, new shopping malls are sprouting up and make overs of old strip shopping are all driven by demand? People have not abandoned good old fashioned shopping therapy, browsing their Saturdays away, touching and feeling, or just window shopping, there is and always will be the kindling of romance associated with tradition, not quite the same as sitting in from of a computer screen.
So we can buy and sell and communicate via social media, ecommerce, or trudge the high street stores. But there is one more way of communicating and selling, no google, facebook, twitter online shopping, or trudging shop floors. It’s an age old form of communicating called networking, face to face. This is where you are totally exposed, no telephone, no computer screen, no secretary filtering calls, all the barriers are stripped away. There is just you and the rest of them, the playing field is levelled and you sit across the table from one another eye ball to eye ball. All of your fears about communicating, failing, public speaking are confronted, there is nowhere to hide, it’s an exhilarating experience, one that you will become addicted too and also rely on as a major channel for business development done the human way.
If you ever doubt the positive effects or longevity of networking then just think of the Commonwealth. This unique concept is in effect an international network that bonds more than fifty countries together and they just had a three day network event in Perth Western Australia.
A little history
After the end of the First World War, the Dominions began seeking a new constitutional definition and reshaping their relationship with Britain. At the Imperial Conference in 1926, the prime ministers of the participating countries adopted the Balfour Report which defined the Dominions as autonomous communities within the British Empire, equal in status, in no way subordinate to one another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations.
This definition was incorporated into British law in 1931 as the Statute of Westminster. It was adopted immediately in Canada, the Irish Free State, Newfoundland (which joined Canada in 1949) and South Africa. Australia and New Zealand followed. India, Britain's largest colony at the time, became a Dominion at independence in 1947 and remained so until January 1950, when the Indian Republic was born.
“The Commonwealth bears no resemblance to the empires of the past. It is an entirely new conception built on the highest qualities of the spirit of man: friendship, loyalty, and the desire for freedom and peace."
None of this could have been achieved electronically or remotely, in the form of maintaining constant communications yes, most definitely, but nothing will replace face to face communications. It is easy to be confrontational, acusational over the phone, it’s not easy to confront your actions when face to face with the person you confronted on the phone.
Networking/relationship marketing is a powerful way to connect with opportunities and an enjoyable social exercise. You meet, greet, listen and connect. This is what Wiifm Consultancy is all about, providing a platform for businesses to connect with opportunities? We are famous for putting the handshake back into business, getting back to the bare basics of human communications. And it works a breeze, businesses that make loyal commitment and attend regular network events are flourishing contrary to the GFC. Our guiding principles are similar to that of the Commonwealth so how can we go wrong.
Patrick McMurray is a director of Wiifm consultancy and he is also famous for his vivid floral silk tie designs.
