Your Networking Group Is a Goldmine You Aren’t Mining
Your BNI chapter, your chamber of commerce, your industry association — you attend meetings regularly and swap cards with the same people month after month.
Your assumption is that you already have everyone’s details. Your reality is that half of them aren’t in your CRM, and the ones that are haven’t been updated since 2023.
Your regular contacts need refreshing
Your networking group members change jobs, phone numbers, and email addresses. Your CRM record from two years ago might have the wrong company name, an old mobile number, or a defunct email.
Your next meeting is the perfect time to rescan cards from members whose details might have changed. Your duplicate detection will flag the existing record and let you update it.
Your visitors are the real opportunity
Your networking group invites visitors every meeting. Your visitors are fresh contacts who don’t know your business yet.
Your scanning process should prioritise these new faces.
- Your visitor’s card should be scanned before the meeting starts
- Your notes should include what they do and what they’re looking for
- Your follow-up should happen within 24 hours
- Your referral network should be checked for introductions you could make
- Your next meeting invitation should be sent as a personal message
Your referral tracking improves
Your networking group thrives on referrals. Your CRM should track which contacts came from which member’s introduction. Your scanning tags make this easy — add the referrer’s name when you scan.
Your referral data helps you understand which relationships are most valuable. Your thank-you notes become more genuine when you can see exactly how many introductions someone has made for you.