As many of you know I am an avid networker in Salisbury, and strongly believe that people buy from people. If you’re not convinced, think of who you buy from, and why.
I therefore use these meetings to not only promote myself as a website designer in Salisbury, but also myself as an individual. I have even given presentations about some of my more bizarre hobbies and charity work.
Amongst others I regularly attend the local groups at Salisbury Chamber of Commerce, Salisbury Ambassadors, 4Networking Salisbury and Amesbury Referral Group.
All networking and referral groups have their merits, but today I’d like to talk about two:
- 4Networking Salisbury – I am group leader of this group, which is really relaxed. We meet fortnightly between 8 and 10am over breakfast. 4Networking has the advantage that there are lot of local groups, for example Southampton, Ringwood, New Forest, Andover and Romsey, and you can attend any of these on an ad-hoc basis. This is great for people with a wide coverage of clients.
- Amesbury Referral Group – This differs from a networking group in that members generally attend every meet (twice a month) and it’s earlier at 7:00 – 8:30am. The idea of a referral group is to meet outside of the group and create a stronger bond between members so that they feel more confident in referring each other. There is a ‘lockout’ for each sector, for example we will be the only web designers in the Amesbury group.
As with most networking groups, both of these allow visitors and this will cost just £10-£12 including breakfast. The results are not always instant, and it takes time to build up trust between members, but by visiting you will at least experience the meeting and get yourself in front of around 20 local businesses.
My advice to anyone who would like more enquiries is to try these groups and see if any of them are of interest. In the worst case you’ve paid £12 and had a free breakfast, but you could easily walk away with a new client.
If you would like to know any more about all four of these groups, please get in touch.