The power of property networking.

Do not underestimate the power of networking, you can never know enough good people.

Your business needs a ‘power-team’ of buyers, financers, estate agents and property specialists.

To get one you need to build and nurture good relations and equitable partnerships.

Networking is difficult – we know – but it is critical to your success.

Whether you come to it with a wealth of experience and knowledge or are just starting out, meeting with other people in property business gives you access to ideas and opportunities, market knowledge, guidance, support and partnerships.

It’s unlikely that you’ll ‘just’ meet these people by chance. Networking puts you in a room with people involved in property who could add value to you.

These people could become your power-team who can assist you, finance you, support you and connect you with the right people that will enable you to compete in cash-flowing deals.

You need a good pipeline of these people to de-risk any last minute problems.

Networking gives you opportunities.

If you’re new to networking you probably get that uncomfortable feeling in your stomach and worry about who you are going to talk to, what you are going to say and where to start.

Networking is not necessarily easy or enjoyable, but given the right tools, you can make a success of it.

Think of networking as a job, not a jolly. There is a purpose and a desired outcome.

If you want to network successfully you need to:

• Mingle with different people, don’t discount anyone on sight.
• Avoid staying in a group with people you already know.
• Focus on mutual benefit – what you can do for them, not what they can do for you.
• Avoid pitching or selling.
• Always follow up with people who handed over their card.

Remember, networking is about building relationships. The more people you know the more expertise, knowledge, skills, finance etc. you will have access to.

We’ve been the newbies at networking events. We know that it’s tough to begin with and even when you do feel more comfortable, you end up with a stack of business cards that you’re not really sure what to do with, but you know you need to build relations.

We knew that we needed to network smarter. We needed to avoid wasting time and energy chasing leads that were not of real value to us, and we had to improve the way we were connecting with people during and after networking events.

We started to use a simple process (known as FORM) that gave us a purpose when networking, we simply asked everyone we met:

• F – Where are you from?
• O – What is your occupation?
• R – Why are you attending this event (ie/ reason for being here)?
• M – What is your message?

Their answers gave us something tangible to build from that we could use to leverage our CRM.

These shared details are the starting point of our personal engagement, where the CRM can be used to reach out in a systemised but personalised way to follow up on leads and build better relationships with the right people.

About the author

Steven Lai is a property investor, founder of Super Developments and creator of CRM for Property Success. He is a CRM expert with over 12 years commercial experience of managing sales teams.

Join the CRM for Property Success Facebook Group to ask him anything (about CRM, property or 80's trivia!).