I met someone at the chamber meeting last week who offers pre-paid legal services. You've all heard of prepaid legal right? Well I sent a follow-up e-mail to him, just like all of the others as a courtesy and now he called and wants to set up a 30-45 minute meeting. He was very polite and said he wanted to learn more about my business so that maybe he ran across other's who were interested. But very clearly he would like reciprocity. Something tells me that he, himself is not going to be a prospect.

Should I continue investing time in this networking lead. Stopping now might make hard feelings and that wouldn't be good. But would be pursuing be worth it at all? Are other businesses even going to take him seriously? I just don't have a positive perspective on these pre-paid legal gigs. But I might just be biased in some way.

I've pretty much decided that I'm going to pursue it, because it could possibly due more good than harm since he appears to be actively involved in the community and his networking activities. Plus, what if he turned out to be my first client? That'd be a shocker!

But I'm curious to know what your thoughts are?

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Sarah Bernstein
Jackson Administrative Outsourcing
www.jacksonao.com

No one asks for a meeting unless there's a two-way possible benefit. With that in mind - meet up and wow the guy with your professionalism, find out what he's all about and make your best impression. 45 minutes is a brief enough meeting that even if nothing comes of it you'll not have wasted much time and you never know what possibilities can come of new contacts!

And you're right - he very well *could* turn out to be your first client.

*Every single contact (even - or especially! - those you least expect) is an opportunity*

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Good encouragement Tess. I wonder if anyone has stories from a similar situation and how it resulted?

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Sarah Bernstein
Jackson Administrative Outsourcing
www.jacksonao.com

I'm in a networking/referral group, and all of the members do this. They meet for 30 minutes or so to discuss each others businesses and what type of referrals they are looking for. That way if they run into someone that fits the description they can pass on your info and vice versa.

I would definitely do it, you don't have anything to lose and you may get some referrals out of it. The more people that know about what you do the better.

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Rebecka Melson ~ Virtual Business Services

Great. glad to know this is status quo! I just talked to the guy and set up an appointment for Thursday. I guess I'm moving in the right directly.

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Sarah Bernstein
Jackson Administrative Outsourcing
www.jacksonao.com

Sarah, I think the attitude you need to take is that you expect nothing more from the meeting than a new friend. An awful lot of time and energy goes into networking that really can't be measured against some ROI standard. It takes whatever it takes to get known, and that may include spending time in conversations that seem to get you nowhere. I'm preaching to myself here, as well. Networking for its own sake is always a challenge for me.

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Mary H. Ruth/Virtual Writing & Communications
http://www.writingVA.com

I agree with the advice of all the other. Definitely do it, show your professionalism, and be open to hearing what he has to say about his business as well. You never know where a client will come from

I used to belong to a BNI group when I was in sales. This was a standard practice called a "one on one" where you would get together with the other members for about 30 minutes, learn about their business and they would learn about yours, and you would learn what type of business or clients you each were trying to attract. I did this networking group about 7 years ago, and even though I don't participate in it anymore (and I'm not in the same business) I still keep in touch with some of the members and they still refer people to me.

My only word of caution would be if you got a weird vibe or feeling from this guy that maybe he wanted more than a business relationship. Just make sure to meet in a public place, not his office or yours, and don't give away too much personal information. Since you've only met this person once I think it's best to be cautious. (Sorry, that's the mom in me!)

He could very well turn out to be your first client or refer someone to you who will be your first client and you'll be happy you invested the time. Best of luck, and let us know how it goes!

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Yvone M. Kon
M.Y. Marketing & Design
Your Virtual Marketing Assistant - At Your Service!
www.mymarketingdesign.com

Eve, thanks for the "mom in me" advice, Again, good tips. I set up a meeting at one of my favorite local bakery/restaurants, which happens to be one of the local small businesses I'm going to showcase on my blog. It will be good "sales" practice for me.

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Sarah Bernstein
Jackson Administrative Outsourcing
www.jacksonao.com

Originally Posted by JacksonAO

Eve, thanks for the "mom in me" advice, Again, good tips. I set up a meeting at one of my favorite local bakery/restaurants, which happens to be one of the local small businesses I'm going to showcase on my blog. It will be good "sales" practice for me.

That's great! Showing the bakery owner that you're bringing potential clients there for meetings is another benefit of going there!

You are featuring local businesses in your blog? Are you doing a different one every month or every week or so? And how are you relating that to your business?

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Yvone M. Kon
M.Y. Marketing & Design
Your Virtual Marketing Assistant - At Your Service!
www.mymarketingdesign.com

Cool concept, showcasing local businesses on your blog - I have the same questions Ybone does and am so curious about this

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