2 builders who never spoke to each other · contested
Judge the networking room before you pay to be there
Rooms full of other service sellers are not a client channel, and paid recurring groups need vetting before you join. Whether they produce anything is genuinely contested.
Where this splits
One member spent months of savings pitching at weekly meetups and won no clients from them; another reports in-person networking does generate prospects, with a warning about who runs the group.
1 claims against 1
Greg Kogan
Meetups are full of sellers, skip them entirely
- 01Skip networking meetups as a client-acquisition channel: the room is full of other people selling services, and the founders you want are too busy to attend.
In person networking works, vet the organiser first
In person networking does generate prospects, but vet the organisation running the meetings before paying for a membership.
What it returned
He spent his first three months after quitting going to weekly meetups and pitching, depleted his savings and got no clients from it; a later two-month attempt at relationship-building through the same events also failed.
The founder warns that recurring paid networking groups are frequently populated by people recruited into pyramid schemes.
Sources
- Shutting Down my “IT-Manager-for-Hire” BusinessJames Cort · failory.com · Which were your marketing strategies to grow your business? · undated · dissenting
- How to Find Consulting ClientsGreg Kogan · gkogan.co · Month 0 · 2015-10-21
the second source
Three plays a week, for the phase you are in
No roundup of links, no news. Three tactics more than one builder arrived at separately, with the numbers each one returned and the disagreements left in.
More in sales
- Charge for it before it exists6 unconnected
- Book the buyer calls before you write any code6 unconnected
- Package more of what you own into sellable slots6 unconnected
- Interview customers when sales stall, not buy traffic5 unconnected
- Borrow credibility from the customers you have5 unconnected
- Keep a named list of dream accounts and work it5 unconnected