Submitted by Scot Simmons, Co-founder, ProConnectLA
CONSIDER THIS: You just met a plumber in the supermarket. Your carts collided and the two of your struck up a five-minute conversation about sports, what you do, how the real estate market has never looked better, how nobody appreciates a plumber until they need one (usually on Sunday when the game is on) and what kind of potato chips you prefer. Then you remember what you’re doing in the supermarket and you both resume your shopping.
Sometime later, your brother-in-law calls. Says he’s been working all day on a leaky faucet (when he’d rather watch the game). You tell him you know this plumber and you recommend him. Because you know he’s a great plumber. Because he likes the same sports team you do. And the same potato chips.
Thing is, you really have no idea how skilled this plumber guy is. You recommend him because he’s the only plumber you know…or can remember…or simply because he was the last one you bumped into (literally) and you’re not close enough with your brother-in-law to really care how this all works out…and you want to get off the phone and watch the game.
Collision referrals are about coincidence, not experience.
And yet, this is how many (if not most) networking groups function. You join a group, pay the money (not usually a small sum, by the way), throw your business card into the mix and sit back in your bumper car (a seat at breakfast or lunch) to wait for the referrals to start pouring in.
They usually don’t.
You get bumped around a lot. Cards and names and numbers that don’t pan out. Pitches without promise. Promises that age you prematurely. A genuine connection? More likely just a collection of bumps and business cards and bruises to your ego.
SO HERE’S AN IDEA: How about a group that’s not really a networking group, but a mastermind group — an entrepreneurial think-tank, if you will — that shares questions and listens to the answers. One that’s not so much interested in generating “leads” or blanketing the world in business cards, but in solving problems. Helping each member get better and do better and forge connections that build trust, affirm value, increase success.
There is such a group.
PROCONNECTLA is all about connection — the sharing of opportunities and insights, concerns and concepts, strategies and solutions. Worth a shot? We think so.
PROCONNECTLA
Experts. Insights. Answers.
Scot A. Simmons
Author | Content Writer | Brand Strategist