Grow Your Business with the Right Connections It’s easy to feel like networking is a waste of time, energy, or money—but that just means you’re doing it wrong. In this new edition of Networking Like a Pro, networking experts Dr. Ivan Misner and Brian Hilliard reveal key networking techniques to help you grow your business. In this comprehensive guide, you’ll discover strategies that go beyond collecting business cards and turn networking into a profitable resource for your business. Dive into this book and discover how the most successful networkers leverage their brand, expertise, and customers to achieve greatness in life. You’ll learn how to: Attract the right people with a carefully crafted Unique Selling Proposition Gain your most valuable customers with referrals from networking partners Make your best first impression with the 12 x 12 x 12 Rule Choose networking events and activities that best fit your needs Build and expand your network with a calculated follow-up strategy Avoid behaviors that damage your reputation and push potential partners away Plus, gain access to worksheets, templates, and the Networking Scorecard designed to help you get the most out of your network. If you’re ready to build connections that turn relationships into profitable customers, the Networking Like a Pro is for you!

Networking master and New York Times bestselling author Dr. Ivan Misner along with David Alexander, and Brian Hilliard teach entrepreneurs how to master the art of networking. Introducing an exclusive results-measuring system—the Network Scorecard—this powerful guide motivates entrepreneurs to reach quality prospects, leverage new and current contacts, prompt ongoing referrals—and ultimately, boost their client base and their bottom line. With this powerful guide, eager entrepreneurs uncover undeniably effective networking techniques for building, reviving, and growing their business. Following the action plans provided, entrepreneurs learn key networking strategies including how to build their social capital, farm (not hunt) relationships and referrals, leverage the four major “streams” of their networking river, track the results of their efforts, and more. Entrepreneurs also discover how to enhance their networking efforts with new media tools, helping them reach new levels of referrals, free promotion, and connection with their clients. With the insight and direction provided by networking champions Dr. Ivan Misner, David Alexander, and Brian Hilliard, all experts from BNI, the world’s largest business networking organization, the timeless guide gives entrepreneurs all the steps they need to transform their current outreach efforts and secure a steady flow of business for any economic climate.

It’s no surprise that communicating with the opposite sex can be tricky. Hidden in the glitches are often misleading assumptions about each gender that beg for help. Finally, help is here. Learn the secrets to accurately reading between the gender lines, and uncover a new edge for your business—the power to effectively talk business and successfully network with the opposite sex.

This book is for business people wanting to increase their business through referrals. Authors Dr. Ivan Misner and Brennan Scanlon are experts in the area of business networking. Their careers have focused on teaching entrepreneurs, business owners, and sales people how to build and leverage professional referral networks. Their combined fifty years of experience and ideas have been funneled directly into this book. In Avoiding the Networking Disconnect, they share their networking insights, providing you with stories, statistics, and strategies for creating more sales through a tried-and-true approach that champions connections rather than competition. At the heart of this approach are the "three Rs." Similar to the three Rs of education (reading, writing, and arithmetic), the three Rs of business networking-relationships, referrals, and results-must be consistently cultivated to avoid the networking disconnect. The book provides you with the five steps for building and maintaining strong business networks-steps that go far beyond just showing up at events and passing out your business cards! It will take some effort, and the process won't always flow smoothly, but with the aid of Avoiding the Networking Disconnect, you'll soon be reaping the generous benefits of a business approach based on sharing and trust.

This book is a practical, step-by-step guide for creating, cultivating, and capitalizing on networking relationships and opportunities. Updated from its first edition, Make Your Contacts Count now includes expanded advice on building social capital at work and in job hunting, as well as new case studies, examples, checklists, and questionnaires. You will discover how to: draft a networking plan cultivate current contacts make the most of memberships effectively exchange business cards avoid the top ten networking turn-offs share anecdotes that convey character and competence transform your career with a networking makeover Job-seekers, career-changers, entrepreneurs, and others will find all the networking help they need to supercharge their careers and boost their bottom lines. Packed with valuable tools, Make Your Contacts Count offers a field-tested "Hello to Goodbye" system that takes you from entering a room, to making conversations flow, to following up.

An internationally known public speaker, entrepreneur, and marketing executive shares practical, up-to-date tips for mastering the skills of networking. Networking doesn’t have to be that frenzied old-school game of calendars packed with stuffy power lunches and sterile evenings at community business gatherings. We’ve entered a new era, one in which shifting cultural values and the explosion of digital technology enable us to network in vastly more efficient, more focused, and more enjoyable ways. A fresh take on How to Win Friends and Influence People, Your Network Is Your Net Worth is an entertaining, straightforward guide filled with revealing case studies, hands-on advice, and innovative strategies for building your network. Written by sought-after speaker, entrepreneur, and marketing executive Porter Gale, with a foreword by Apple evangelist and bestselling author Guy Kawasaki, this book shows you how to establish, expand, and nurture your connections both online and off. New ways to network are popping up every day—and Gale tells you how to make the most of them—but even traditional networking opportunities are not the same animals that they once were, and we need to shift our attitudes and approaches accordingly. Networking has evolved from a transactional game to a transformational process. Whereas once it was about power plays, now it’s about charting your own course, following your passions, and making meaningful connections, which in turn increase your happiness and productivity. In addition to chronicling her own rise from an ad agency intern to an in-demand consultant, Gale also shares the inspiring stories of so many others who live by this networking model: a military wife who connects with social media communities while her husband is deployed overseas, a young woman blog-ger battling leukemia, a dyslexic politician who wins elections by telling stories, and the CEO of a Major League Baseball team who once made a phone call that changed the course of his life. When you focus on your passions and reorganize your networking around your values and beliefs, you will discover the kind of lasting relationships, personal transformation, and, ultimately, tangible wealth that are the foundation for happiness and success. With a message both timely and important, Your Network Is Your Net Worth is the definitive handbook to Networking 2.0.

Abandon the networking-for-networking's-sake mentality in favor of a more powerful and effective approach to creating and enhancing connections. STOP NETWORKING. Seriously, stop doing it. Now. It is time to ditch the old networking-for networking's-sake mentality in favor of a more powerful and effective approach to creating and enhancing connections. In Superconnector, Scott Gerber and Ryan Paugh reveal a new category of professionals born out of the social media era: highly valuable community-builders who make things happen through their keen understanding and utilization of social capital. Superconnectors understand the power of relationship-building, problem-solve by connecting the dots at high levels, and purposefully cause different worlds and communities to interact with the intention of creating mutual value. How can you become a Superconnector? Gerber and Paugh share instructive anecdotes from a who's who roster of high achievers, revealing how to systematically manage a professional community and maximize its value. Of utmost importance is practicing Habitual Generosity, acting on the knowledge that your greatest returns come when you least expect them, and that by putting others' needs first the good karma will flow back to you tenfold. Gerber and Paugh also explore winning strategies such as The Art of Selectivity, a well-honed ability to define which relationships matter most for you and decide how you will maintain them over time. Full of helpful advice on how to communicate with anyone about anything, Google-proof your reputation, and much more, Superconnector is a must-read for those seeking personal and business success.

Unveiling eight indispensable competencies for the new Network-Oriented Workforce, Strategic Connections provides practical advice anyone can use for building better, more productive business relationships. Smartphones, social media, and the Internet can only get a professional so far. At some point, the success of an organization will depend on face-to-face relationships, which means the isolated employees trying to do everything virtually will at some point have to fall back on the tried-and-true, essential skill of relationship building if they are going to survive in today’s increasingly collaborative workforce. You will discover how to: Commit to a positive, proactive networking mindset Earn trust Boost their social acumen and increase their likeability Master conversational skills and deepen interactions Employ storytelling to make communications memorable Businesses don’t have to look very far to find employees with a strong presence in the different social networks. If you want to stand out and make yourself invaluable to your organization, focus on making your presence known in the company’s physical networks.

Few professional activities are as nerve-wracking as networking. There’s the paralyzing prospect of entering a room full of strangers. The awkward introductions and stilted small talk. The concern that “networking” means you have to exploit others for personal gain – or might appear that way. It’s no wonder so many talented professionals eschew networking altogether. Unfortunately, that means they’re limiting their chances of making the kind of great personal and professional connections that can expand their worldview, enrich their lives, and – yes – even lead to new business opportunities. That’s why it’s time to reclaim networking. It doesn’t have to be the province of users and takers; instead, as Forbes and Harvard Business Review contributor Dorie Clark makes clear in this short and actionable guide, networking done right is nothing like the stereotype. It’s not about making shallow, insincere connections and filling your wallet with business cards. Instead, the real goal is to turn brief encounters into mutually-beneficial and lasting friendships—in both your personal and professional life. Drawing on wisdom from her own experience and from experts like psychologist Robert Cialdini, marketer Michael Katz, and authors Judy Robinett and Keith Ferrazzi, Clark provides valuable insight on how to be a good networker, including concrete tips on how to: - Turn initial small talk into meaningful exchanges - Unlock the power of social media as a networking tool - Transform casual online contacts into real-world connections - Make the most of conferences - Set a schedule for keeping in regular touch with your network - Repair and strengthen troubled relationships - Create your own events and become a connector Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, and whether you currently relish or loathe making new connections, Clark will teach you the strategies you need to make networking fun, joyful, and enriching.

“For introverts who panic at the idea of networking, Wickre’s book is a deep, calming breath.” —Sophia Dembling, author of The Introvert’s Way Former Google executive, editorial director of Twitter, self-described introvert, and “the best-connected Silicon Valley figure you’ve never heard of” (Walt Mossberg, Wall Street Journal), offers networking advice for anyone who has ever canceled a coffee date due to social anxiety. Learn to nurture a vibrant circle of reliable contacts without leaving your comfort zone. Networking has garnered a reputation as a sort of necessary evil. Some people relish the opportunity to boldly work the room, introduce themselves to strangers, and find common career ground—but for many others, the experience is awkward, or even terrifying. The common networking advice for introverts are variations on the theme of overcoming or “fixing” their quiet tendencies. But Karen Wickre is a self-described introvert who has worked in Silicon Valley for thirty years. She shows you how to embrace your quiet nature and “make genuine connections that last, that we can nurture across the world for all kinds of purposes” (Chris Anderson, head of TED). Karen’s “embrace your quiet side” approach is for anyone who finds themselves shying away from traditional networking activities, or for those who would rather be curled up with a good book on a Friday night than out at a party. With compelling arguments and creative strategies, this “practical, easy-to-use” (Sree Sreenivasan, former chief digital officer of Columbia University) book is a perfect guide.