Stop Asking for General Marketing Advice at Networking Events
Imagine that you’re at a networking event and you have the opportunity to ask for support from the group. Maybe you’ve actually had this experience when you’ve been out networking talking about your business, or maybe even being in a paid program where you had the opportunity to ask for feedback and support.
One of the things that I often see and that I would encourage you to maybe tweak or stop doing altogether is that a lot of people will want to get general marketing advice with their ask.
Be specific
If you’re going to do this, here’s what I would recommend. Ask a specific question about your marketing, because I often hear people saying, I want to fill my program or I want to sell more books or I want to land more speaking engagements. What is the best social media platform for me? Should I be doing email or blogging?
You can do any or all of that, but not all of it is going to be aligned with you.
So if you are wanting to take that opportunity to get some free marketing advice in a networking container there’s nothing wrong with that. I would highly encourage you to be very specific in your question, because usually you only have a couple of minutes to introduce yourself and make your ask. Then maybe you get a couple of minutes to receive feedback from the group.
If you really want to optimize that time, be specific with your question. Otherwise you’re going to get all kinds of advice and continue to be overwhelmed with options. And isn’t the point to find out what is going to be the one, two, maybe three things that are going to work best for you?
How Do You Want to Show Up?
What I usually share is it’s really important to tune in and ask yourself, how do I want to show up?
What is my communication style?
What feels good to me?
Do you prefer to have one-on-one conversations with people?
Love it or hate it — when you ask specific questions, you will get better feedback in those situations.
What’s been your experience asking for general marketing or business advice in networking meetings? Let us know in the comments.
If you would like to have more than just a couple of minutes to get some marketing advice at no cost to you, then I invite you to sign up for one of my Bold Heart Visibility Breakthrough sessions.