Sunday, September 27, 2009

B2B Networking: Creating Your Power Team



The key to referral based selling B2B is to establish a "POWER TEAM." A group of like-minded individuals who are looking for and working with the same prospects as you. I first stumbled upon business networking in 2006 when I joined Business Networking International (BNI) http://www.bnibayview.org/ a referral based organization who who's motto "givers gain" helped grow my book of business. At the weekly breakfast meetings each member delivered a 30-second infomercial about their business, and concluded the meeting with the passing of referrals.


This group became my sales team, 20 -30 different professionals who kept my business services and goals in mind as they went about their personal business. The exchanging of referrals was much better than spending a day on the phones telemarketing.


BNI is not the only referral based group available and I would be happy to share my experience and to those interested in joining or starting their own group.

Whether you choose to join an organized group or start your own, you will be more successful if you establish a close Power Team of professionals who provide similar and complimentary products and services to yours. For example If I was a business banker I would want to partner with the following people:
  • Payroll Service
  • CPA
  • Bookkeeper
  • Business Formation Attorney
  • Estate Planning Attorney
  • Insurance Agent
  • Commercial Realtor
  • Business Consultant
  • Who else can you think of???

A Moving Service:

  • Moving Coordinator
  • Commercial Realtor
  • Residential Realtor
  • Mortgage Broker
  • Property Management
  • Phone Sales (Service)
  • Phone Sales (hardware)
  • IT Service Provider

I can go on and on. Go ahead tell me about your business and target customers and I can come up with a POWER TEAM that is right for you. Go forth and NETWORK!


2 comments:

  1. Arthur,

    Thank you for providing the examples. They are useful in learning how to establish your team and what are the essential factors.

    Keren

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good way to approach starting a new company! If you ever want accounting or finance help in a future entrepreneurial endeavor, let me know, haha.

    ReplyDelete