Will the world stop turning if you don’t turn up and don’t send a substitute to your networking group?
Probably not!
I am conflicted about the effectiveness of sending a substitute when you can’t be at the meeting. Does it matter if you don’t?
To understand this, it might be interesting to think about how business networking ‘works’.
The foundation of effective networking and becoming referable comes down to three things - Trust, Knowledge, Continuity
We refer people because we trust them and they the will look after our contacts in the same way we hope they would look after us.
This trust is built on gaining knowledge about their business and habits, which we learn from their presentations and conducting recon meetings.
This knowledge is maintained by the continuity of the meetings and listening to their presentations.
So what happens if you don’t show up at all with no substitute
Let me clarify one thing, by not showing up I don’t mean the occasional absence caused by illness or work emergency; I am talking about how having a patchy attendance record affects your effectiveness as a networker.
So, back to not showing up.
Trust, trust is weakened as if you are absent a lot the members question your commitment to the group, question your commitment to any referral you may be passed.
Knowledge growth is stifled as you are not here to educate people, so they do not have information on which to base the decision to refer you, even if the opportunity arises.
Continuity, well there is none if members can’t be sure you are going to show up they will focus their effort on other members.
But, what happens if you send a substitute
Trust is maintained as the membership know that even though you have not been able to come to the meeting, you have gone to the effort of arranging a substitute, and everyone knows how hard that can be.
As you have prepared your substitute in advance with what to say about your company, the education process is maintained
The continuity box gets ticked as well as because you have sent a substitute the members perceive you as being here.
There is no doubt that finding someone to substitute for you is often difficult, but if you want to be an effective networker, if you want to be referable, you have to make an effort.