The Story of a Referral
I have been a member of this networking group pretty much since our business started 14 years ago and over that time we have generated more business that I can even remember. The key is; it is not just the people in the room who give us business – and often it’s not – it’s who they know, and that’s the magic of networking.
This is an example of just one of our referrals from MBBC that has been more than lucrative for us:
In 2011, a new member joined who ran a sustainability consultancy business. After a few weeks we sat down and had a one to one meeting where we learnt more details about each of ours business. A few weeks following that meeting she contacted us saying one of her clients, Oldham Council, was needing some way of engaging employees in specific health and safety messages and following our conversation she felt that video would be an effective way of doing this, so she wanted me to go and meet her client. We ended up winning this business and delivering them a successful series of health and safety video clips to be used in staff induction and training. Following the success of this job we were asked to pitch for another project with the council which was a significant marketing and communications video project. We were successful in winning this and worked for a period of 4 months on this project. Following this project we were referred to another area of the council who required some other training support and we provided video and presentation solutions for them. Since then we have been referred to numerous other projects and even clients outside the council. This probably totals in the region of £100K of work in the last 3 years – all starting from one referral – given over a bacon buttie at 7am on a Friday!
A word of warning though; you can’t come down expecting that straightaway. You have to build long-term relationships, trust and learn about others and how you can help them. That is how networking works. Just as a business is only successful when thinking long term rather than quick fix, networking as a strategy for generating new business is exactly the same. It takes time, but if you put the time in it is worth it!
Helen Nurse Capture 1