Unless you have lived in a cave for twenty years you already know that the world is changing at a mind-boggling speed. Old ways of thinking and behaving are fast becoming obsolete or ineffective.

One of the areas that are experiencing a big shift is in Business Networking vs Selling.

In my humble opinion networking is becoming THE way of building business In today’s world for many different reasons. At the same time traditional selling is becoming less and less effective.

Why? Mostly because our trust in sales people is eroding, and for good reasons. We have all experienced slick salespeople sell us (meaning push us to buy) something that we didn’t need or worse … they simply lied about the features or price etc.

Because of these reasons and more, business networking is now becoming a force to be reckoned with, but most people approach it with a sales-like behavior and mindset. To really make business networking work you have to understand some fundamental differences from selling.

Here are just a few of them:

Selling is about communicating.
Business Networking is about connecting.

Selling is about finding triggers that will get people to buy now.
Business Networking is about finding commonalities and bonding.

In selling you focus on the short term goal of closing the deal.
Business Networking is about long term real relationships

Selling creates customers.
Business Networking creates lifelong friends.

Selling creates a sale.
Business Networking creates a never ending stream of warm and
often presold leads.

Selling is mostly about win-lose
Business Networking is about win-win

Selling is about Little or No Trust
Business Networking is about Trust and Integrity

Selling is about making the fast sale.
Business Networking is about: Long term CARING Relationships

Selling is about Competition.
Business Networking is about Co-operation

Selling is a JOB
Business Networking is a LIFE Style

Selling is about Manipulation
Business Networking is about tell it as it is/Respect/Honor.

Selling is about Debate/Argue
Business Networking is about Understanding/Acceptance

Selling is about Convincing.
Business Networking is about Sharing honestly

I think the main difference can be summarized in the following sentence:

“To succeed in the 21^st century you need to totally change your mindset from being focused on making the sale, to come from a place of true serving and giving value.”

And that is in essence what business networking is all about.

Happy networking – Patrick Powers