heartharmony.com.au

Reading other people’s blogs can give you some great insights. This post comes from a post at
alternativehealthpractice.com

They were talking about finding clients for practices through networking and quoted Ivan Misener, the founder and CEO of BNI, in a piece on Entrepreneur.com. He said:

Word-of-mouth is more about farming than it is about hunting.

Building your business through word-of-mouth is about cultivating relationships with people who get to know you and trust you. People do business with people they have confidence in. One of the most important things I’ve learned in the past two decades is this: It’s not what you know, or who you know, it’s how well you know them that counts.

The writer went on to suggest that the way to form deep relationships from your networking is to consider that you are farming for clients rather than hunting.

It’s a great metaphor for the development of your professional referral base. Slowly gathering background and connections before you approach someone - is about choosing to farm relationships. Nurture them gradually. Plant them, water them, and watch them grow, but don’t harvest them until they’re ready.

And whatever you do, don’t hunt them. That’s what everyone else is doing because they haven’t yet realized that you can only eat prey once, but you can harvest a garden forever.

Makes you kind of think about your next networking meeting. How many people are hunters and how many farmers?

If you have been guilty of hunting, take a breath and learn from the farmers. You will reap greater long term rewards.

Until next time
Ingrid Cliff
Heart Harmony