Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Speaker A: Made in the UK for HR consultants worldwide. You're listening to the HR Marketing Guys podcast.
[00:00:13] Speaker B: Hello, James here and welcome to this week's podcast. In this week's main event, we're going to talk about networking. Most consultants I speak to think they should go to networking to grow their consultancy. So we're going to discuss the pros and cons and whether it is really the best use of your time. And in this week's Thought of the week, I'm going to ask you a question. What's your definition of success? And how you can use your answer to guide your business plans for 2025. So let's jump straight.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: In this week's main event, I speak.
[00:00:45] Speaker B: To lots of HR consultants and when I ask them how they're getting new clients or how they're planning on getting new clients, networking is the top answer I always hear. Whether they're a startup independent consultant or growing consultancy, you've probably been to a networking event before or thought about going to one in the past. So in this podcast episode I want us to discuss if networking is the best way to grow your consultancy and is it the best use of your time. Let's start by looking at the pros and cons of networking. The first pro of networking is referrals. I know lots of HR consultants that go to networking meetings because they find it very good for referrals and recommendations. There is rarely someone in the room that they can directly sell to, but the people that they do meet will likely refer work their way in the future. The second pro of networking is learning opportunities. You're obviously in a room of other business owners and I think speaking to other business owners is a really healthy thing to do. And there are lots of things that you can learn. You can pick up new perspectives, understand cross industry strategies that work well, and you can also figure out what's going on in other industries from a HR perspective, which might enable you to tap into new industries that you've never thought about before and target them with specific services that you know they need right now. This, I think is probably the main reason why I would go to a networking meeting. It's a great way to do market research. And then we have our third pro of networking, which is support. So running a business can be a really lonely place. You can not only learn from other business owners, you can also be there to support one another too. And you may find yourself creating a new networking support group of like minded individuals as a result. So that's the pros covered. Let's move on to the cons. The first con of networking is that it can be expensive. Sure, some groups are pretty affordable, but others can demand big membership fees. You've also got to think about all of the other costs involved, like travel, loss of billable time, and maybe a new outfit if you're feeling fancy. And here's the issue. There's no guarantee of a return on investment. Networking is by its very nature unpredictable. You can spend all of this money and leave with nothing but a few business cards and some small talk. So it is a huge gamble. The second con of networking is that it eats up all of your time. Whether it's showing up at in person events or attending virtual ones, you've got to be present. It's not something that you can automate or outsource. And because of this, it's unscalable. It's kind of like sending your Audi Ray. You can only build so many hours in one day and you're capping your earning potential as a result. And it's similar to networking. You can't scale this beyond your available time. And the hours you're spending at networking is time that you're not spending on biddable work strategy or scaling your business.
The third con of networking is that it's untargeted. So networking events often include a mix of professionals, which is great, but it's unlikely that they'll be the type of client that you'll ideally like to work with. Most businesses that go to networking are on the smaller side and might not have the requirement or budget to work with a HR consultant. And I always say this about targeting startups, unless they're the big financially backed startups, for instance, they just don't have the budget or the requirement and it makes your life so much harder. So instead you want to be targeting businesses that understand the value of HR and have the budget to spend on it. And the fourth con of networking is that it's a big sales fest. A lot of consultants I speak to complain about this. You go to networking events and you see the same people every week. It's hard to meet new people and it just feels like a big selling fest. So it's hard to make meaningful connections in that kind of environment, especially if you're trying to focus on building genuine relationships. So now you've heard my pros and cons, let's go back to the original question of the podcast. So when it comes to growing your consultancy, is networking a good use of your time? Don't hate me if you disagree, but my honest answer is no. I think that there are other much more effective ways of growing your consultancy and I would much rather you spend your time getting better at marketing than going to networking meetings because you can then systemize your consultancy's growth and make it scalable. An example of this is by using my three step system. So I use this three step system in every business that I work in. Step one is to grow multiple audiences like your LinkedIn connections and email marketing list. Step two is to build a relationship with your lists and step three is to convert the relationship and you should follow these steps in chronological order and they become your funnel. So in episodes 17 and 18 of my podcast I spoke about how you can create an automated lead generation system for your consultancy following this three step system. And I suggested a campaign that you could do using your LinkedIn profile and clever software called Meet Alfred. So let me summarize this again for you quickly. First of all, I would highly recommend choosing a target industry at a time to focus on, to keep things simple and to make our messaging highly relevant. You would then use software like Meet Alfred to connect with business owners or decision makers in your chosen industry and send a nice connection message that says something similar to mine. So hey Name, I'd love to get connected with you on here and look forward to reading and liking your posts in the future. Once they've connected, you can then get Meet Alfred to engage with their profile by following their personal and business page and liking a few of their last posts. And then a few days later you can go in with your first initial message which could sound something like this. So hi Name, thanks so much for connecting with me. Just wanted to say hello and let you know that I'm here to help you with any of your HR problems. HR Admin is a huge hidden cost for any business and that's why we highly recommend using HR software to help you save time, money and hassle. Quick question, Are you using HR software at the moment? Best wishes and your name. So for me, this type of campaign will help you start conversations with more of your target market than what networking ever could. And better still, it's a campaign that is completely automated and doesn't suck up all of your time. But if you do want to go to networking meetings, then see it as a list building exercise. Go there and get everyone's contact details and add them to your email list so you can keep in touch with them. Go there and ask them if they have any people issues at the moment or if they Know any friends that they could refer you to and go there to do some market research. But if you'd rather protect your time and create scalable systems to grow your consultancy in the future, then please get in touch and I'd love to start helping you today.
If you need some help with your marketing and would like to create an action plan for 2025, then please feel welcome to book in a free discovery call with me and let's have a chat. Just go to my website, thehrmarketingguy.com, have a look about and book in a call via the Contact Us page. We can then talk about what your goals are and how we can work together to help make 2025 your best year yet.
[00:07:42] Speaker A: James thought of the week.
[00:07:48] Speaker B: I was speaking to a member of the HR Marketing box the other day and was asking her my usual motivational consultancy type questions like, what are your goals? What are you working towards? How many new clients do you want? And she said, do you know what, James? I'm happy ticking over with the clients I have right now. I'm not going to lie. I was kind of taken back. I paused and said, you don't want to grow your consultancy? And she said, yes, I'd like to in the future, but right now I'm happy with what I've got. I'm happy with the work that's coming in. I'm happy with my money because I have the time to spend it with my two young girls and that's my definition of success. When she initially said that she was happy ticking over with the clients she had, I was kind of shocked that she didn't want to grow her consultancy. And I saw that as a lack of ambition. And in my head that was a bad thing because that's not my definition of success. But when she said that spending time with her two young girls was her definition of success, it made me stop and think, actually, that's really cool. She has a very clear life vision right now and that's to be a present parent and create wonderful memories with her children. And she's created a business that flexes around her personal goals. She is winning and I have total respect for that because I always say your life vision should always come first and you should build a business to help you support that. Having that conversation with my client has also made me question what my own definition of success is, which I think is a really powerful thing to do, actually. And it's made me realize that I've maybe gone off course the last year or so. So as we end 2024, I want you to think about what your definition of success is and looks like and let that drive your business plans for 2025.
[00:09:26] Speaker A: You've been listening to the HR Marketing Guys podcast, helping you to get new clients and create a life you love.
