Tips for a Successful Breakfast Meeting

People often ask how they can get the most out of B2B Power Exchange.  We have found several tactics that help people get the most leverage out of our group, but they also apply to nearly any networking environment.

Show up early

Feel free to set down your things, but don’t sit down, because it may send the signal that you are not interested in talking to others.  Your first objective should be to mingle and get to know someone who you don’t already know.  Remember, it’s about getting to know more about them, so you can introduce them to others – either in the room or outside – that can help them expand their business.  Most of our participants come to our group to form partnerships, not to buy your services.  So expect to sell through them, not to them.    

Bring handouts and business cards

We encourage participants to bring business cards, brochures and/or “one-pagers” to distribute to others.  These items will help other participants remember you long after your three-minute introduction is over.

Three-minute introductions

Many groups give participants 30-60 seconds to explain their business offerings.  That is not enough time to articulate the complex offerings many of our attendees represent.  Three minutes will still go by quickly, though – and we run a timer to make sure everyone stays on track.  The most effective introductions include items referrers need to know in order to pass appropriate leads.  Let people know who you want to be introduced to and why; symptoms of companies that need your offering; and the decision makers and/or industries you target.

Second lap

If time allows, you will have 1-3 additional minutes to give an example of an opportunity or success; drive home a point; answer a question or mention something you forgot during your first three minutes.  Be prepared to share something in the second lap, but also be aware that larger meetings don’t always accommodate a second lap.

Lead sheets

Leads are not mandatory for participation in our meetings.  We find that forcing leads to be exchanged depreciates the quality of the leads.  Plus, our attendees aren’t likely to give leads to people until they have established baseline levels of rapport and credibility.  We provide lead sheets at the meetings, which can be used to pass leads, but they are most commonly used to set appointments with potential partners and referral sources. Each lead sheet has two pages.  One copy goes to your intended recipient.  The other is yours for your records or as a follow-up reminder.

Set coffee meetings

The breakfast meetings are a great place to meet a number of people who may be direct or indirect sources of opportunities for your company.  We have had many situations where someone shows up to a meeting, gives their pitch and is handed a lead for a 4-6 figure opportunity – but that is not the norm.  Most business transactions occur outside the meetings – after building rapport with possible partners or referrers at their offices or over coffee or lunch. This is why it is important to make sure you set time to get together with potential power partners, co-marketers, competitors, facilitators and other participants who can share leads.

Get to know your competitors

Yes, you read the headline correctly.  Other organizations do their best to keep competitors out of the same room.  That is not how things work in the real world or at our meetings.  We have actually found that competitors can be very lucrative power partners – especially in large business-to-business sales.  They can refer opportunities that aren’t a fit for them, and can provide additional bandwidth, skills or knowledge when projects are too big for one organization to handle on its own.

Invite guests

Guests are the life blood of B2B Power Exchange.  We encourage you to invite as many people as you like as long as they meet the criteria outlined at www.b2bpowerexchange.com/application.asp.  Your guest can attend their first meeting for $20, but they have to mention the discount and your name. If they become a standard, premium or corporate member, you will $50 off your own membership or next renewal.

Who should you invite?

Attendees must be focused on selling to decision makers at businesses.  Our group is not designed for business-to-consumer sales. We screen 95% of our attendees before they attend their first meeting, because we want to maintain our reputation as a “business-to-business only” organization.  Here are some examples of types of companies that do well in our meetings:

• Consultants – organizational, marketing, engineering manufacturing, business process, sales, HR, IT, change management, business analysts, cost reduction
• Employee Benefits – health, commercial P&C, group life, retirement, legal services
• Facilities focus - commercial real estate, movers, etc.
• Finance – payroll, cash flow, loans, credit, cost segregation, accountants, bookkeepers, CPAs
• IT Services – hardware, software, cabling, application development, support
• Legal – contracts, IP, workers compensation, general business
• Marketing/Advertising - web designers, graphic artists, marketers, branding, promotions, media buyers, search engine, PR, writers
• Printing – packaging, brochures, tradeshow, CD/DVD duplication
• Telecommunications – hardware, software, services

If you would like more information on getting the most out of the group or setting your networking strategy, you can visit the video section of our online community.

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