My dad always told me that he wasn’t shoveling snow for this storm… He was shoveling for the next storm.
See, in Boston, if you give away an inch of your driveway to snow in January, you don’t get it back until April. If you’re lucky.
So storm-by-storm your driveway gets narrower and narrower.
He taught me to shovel to the grass every time, because you never, ever, ever get it back.
And yesterday, as I’m shoveling this heavy, wet snow to the grass line of my driveway, I start thinking about your Elevator Pitch.
Because Business Networking is also a game of inches – but in a good way.
I did a no-fee business networking talk 13 months ago that led, this month, to a signed contract to do a training at a major Cambridge bank.
I did a no-fee webinar for an exclusive marketing group 2 months ago that led to two new customers and a proposal for corporate training at their company.
I did, you guessed it, a series of no-fee talks that led to a new customer I’m talking to this afternoon that came through a referral.
I’ve found that every time you show up, every time you let people see you, every time you put the right Elevator Pitch in front of people, you gain an inch.
It doesn’t seem like much at the time.
In fact, it can be downright frustrating, because it feels like nothing is happening.
And nothing is happening and nothing is happening and nothing is happening…
…until, WHAM! (no, not them), referrals start coming out of the woodwork.
In business networking, you ARE the snowstorm.
You gain an inch at each networking event, over each cup of coffee, with each referral.
Which is why I always recommend going to an event.
There’s an inch there for the taking, and if you don’t go, you’ll never get that inch back.
No particular networking event is that important, and they all are.
Because you’re gathering up inches.
That’s how you expand your referral network and grow your business through business networking.
Is it spring yet?