Instead Of Whining About Your Networking Group … Dial Up Your ROI

This is going to be one of my “tough love” posts šŸ™‚ Let’s start this conversation by defining ROI. That stands for Return on InvestmentĀ and not Return on Expense. Who expects a return on an expense (ROE) anyway? I’ve never even heard of that term before. However, every day we make investments with the hope, the expectation, of receiving some form of return. How many of you out there have actually invested in yourself? Invested in your own success? Investing in a networking group, any networking group, in terms of time and money, is exactly that. It is an investment and it in no way should this be confused with being an expense.

Still, I hear this all the time … “My company won’t pay my dues”. Assuming that your compensation is at least partially based on your ability to generate new revenues, I’d have to ask … “Why should they?” Of course, if they do, that’s very nice but, if you can invest $100 (time and money) a week and get $200 back in return and youĀ won’t do it because your company won’t pay for your dues, who’s not the sharpest knife in this drawer? If on the other hand, you are a salaried employee, I would expect your company to pay. Enough said about that.

Now then, since you have made the wise decision to make this investment, let’s talk about how to maximize your return:

  1. YouĀ attend (you personally, not an alternate) a minimum of 75% off all meetings. This will beĀ dependentĀ on your particular groups’ bylaws.
  2. You do a presentation to your group sometime during the first 6 weeks of membership.
  3. You contribute a minimum of two written leads per week including those weeks that you may be unable to attend.
  4. You meet with 6 other members off-site to get to know each other better and you do this quarterly.
  5. You provide the group operator with a full-profile on you that is suitable for the groups’ website within 10 days of your start date.
  6. You begin to take advantage of any and all of the group tools and resources that are available to you within 10 days of your start date.
  7. You meet or exceed any and all of the other requirements for membership as specified by your group.
Sounds simple. Yes? It’s so simple that we will back up your investment in our groups with a full 90-day money back guarantee on your first quarter dues. How can we do that? The fact is, if I don’t expect to ever have to write that check. Why? If you do these 7 simple things, you will be successful. If you don’t, and many of our existing members do not, that would be your loss, not mine, and you have not followed the conditions necessary to place you in the position to request that refund. Me, I’d rather see you be successful!

Thanks for visiting!

Craig

Author: Craig M. Jamieson

Craig M. Jamieson is a lifelong B2B salesperson, manager, owner, and a networking enthusiast. Adaptive Business Services provides solutions related to the sales professional including Boise's best B2B leads group, NetWorks! Boise Valley. We are a Nimble SCRM and a PieSync Solution Partner and a Value Added Associate for TTI Performance Systems. Craig also conducts training and workshops primarily in selling.