Writer in Residence - Cornwall

In tough times, there is always more pressure on business budgets and businesses begin to strip non-essential expenditure out of the mix. The budget for marketing is an area that often comes under intense scrutiny and there is a temptation to reduce expenditure that seems to have no clear hard benefits attached. There is an article to be written about the importance of marketing out of tough times – this is not it. This is about a small part of marketing – the budget, both of time and money, for business networking.

It is notoriously difficult to quantify what hard benefit comes from networking. Done properly, networking is about casting bread on the water in order for some of it to be returned. It is not a sales activity and the return will come not from the people you speak to but often from those they speak to.

Some networks count referrals and attempt to value them and that is something we all could do, however, how do you identify work that comes via a contact of a contact (of a contact of a contact …) who first met you networking?

There also remains the problem of how you value the intangibles of networking. I wrote about some of these in Fresh Business Thinking last year - Business Is ‘Just Below The Surface’ At Network Meetings. They include such things as education, confidence, business intelligence and camaraderie. All of them are areas where the business could lose an edge if they are not satisfied in some way – especially where the business is a small one and dependent on others to find paid work.

However much you need to focus internally and on sales, you will still need to be seen by others in business. Would you refer business to someone you hadn't seen recently. You might ask yourself ‘are they still referrable?’ or, worse, ‘are they still in business?’

There is a myth that battening down the hatches and riding out the storm is a viable strategy in the current climate. In my opinion, you may ride out the storm but the damage to your reputation and presence may be done and if anyone bothers to open the hatches, they will find a dead company there.

Those are some of the reasons why you'll find me out there networking, connecting, advocating, referring, learning and doing my best to keep business flowing and confidence growing.

You must decide your own approach to the current circumstances of business. But in my view, networking should be one of the activities that you increase rather than decrease over the coming months.

From the Rapport Magazine Spring 2009 edition -

Debate - Social Media Marketing
Online Social Media (see box for my definition) has been picking up speed in early
2009. Facebook became the largest worldwide social network in mid 2008 and
is growing fast. Micro blogging service Twitter is also growing rapidly with a threefold
increase in traffic this year and with celebrity members like Stephen Fry and
Jonathan Ross giving it profile in the market. Andy Coote asks what that means
for the Personal Development community.

Frank Bourke - Taking NLP into the Mainstream
Meeting Frank Bourke is an experience. His passion
reverberates so strongly and creates such resonance that you want the
conversation to continue indefinitely. As the figurehead of and driving force behind
the NLP Research and Recognition Project, Frank brings all of his wide experience,
determination and wisdom to the development of a scientific process supporting
NLP. Here, he talks to Andy Coote.

Book Review - Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds
by Judy Rees & Wendy Sullivan
Clean Language: Revealing Metaphors and Opening Minds is a book with a mission. As an ‘essential primer’ in Clean Language, its purpose is to introduce the subject to a very large group of people around the world who could, say the book’s authors Wendy Sullivan and Judy Rees, benefit substantially from the technique. Andy Coote
spoke to them for Rapport.

Feedback welcomed.

Andy