Business networking Hull. Referral networking at BforB where we always try to provide visitors with information to boost their business networking skills and knowledge. Today an interesting video link here where Andy Lapota talks about the deficiencies of elevator pitches. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k3jSDxugkoQ. He makes a fair point. If you go along to a networking meeting or literally bump into someone in a lift then you are guarunteed to put people off if, after initial introductions you launch into your sixty second spiel without taking the time to listen to, or pay the slightest interest in your new potential business colleague. To be honest if all you do when networking is wait for an opportunity to sound off for a minute then you have probably given up as networking has not worked for you. Andy raises a good point also when he says that you need to have a punchy two or three second tag line that tells networking colleagues what you are about.

But is it fair to discount the effectiveness of elavator pitches altogether? First,let me declare an ineterst here, I hate the term elevator pitch. It creates an image of someone literally trapped in a small space having to lisiten to a spiel. Secondly BforB referral networking meetings have what we call the sixty second slot as amjor part of our networking agenda. The point of the sixty second slot is to give like minded business people an opportunity to hear in some detail what their colleagues are about. It swerves as a starting point for further discussion and is a way of establishing relationships rather than a barrier to them as Andy infers in his video.

There's a second point to an elevator pitch ina structured referral networking group. Your colleagues will listen to you and perhaps a dozen other networkers give their pitches, out of the twelve minutes or so that they listen to you they may well pick up on two or three details for each person. It can be tag line or it can be specific aspect of a product. The point is that each of your referral networking colleagues is an ambassador for your business, that vital two seconds of your pitch will be the thing that will refer to when they meet others,but to simply stand and deliver a two second sound bite at a networking group which is designed to develop Know Like and Trust Relationships will not do the job at all.

So yes, by all means, take care to avoid delvering a lecture to each new networking colleague you meet but don't undervalue the sixty second slot. It is a bridge with which to build relationships and a means of ensuringb that trusted colleagues know about you and can "sell" you elsewhere

If you would like to try referral networking out then click on this link to get Business Networking Now