By now we’ve all gotten the Facebook invites to events we can’t attend by “friends” we don’t even know. Maybe you haven’t, maybe you’ve only gotten the stuff from Evite or maybe you were invited to a baby shower or tupperware party… the point is that we’ve all been invited to events and we’ve all had a negative experience at least once being invited.
Inviting is a skill
Inviting people to a networking event is a skill. You can just call any business and invite and you will have moderate success as long as you have thick skin and sound pleasant. Whether they show up is a different story.
Before we get into the process of inviting, it’s important to know what you are talking about!
What’s the benefit of this person coming? Who’s going to be there? If you know this person, then it’s easier to convey, but if you are cold calling businesses, then you want to your “Value Proposition.” It’s THE WHY of why someone would want to go to this meeting.
Here’s some common why’s
- Referrals or Leads passed
- Other professionals
- Education
- Prize?
- Food?
Common Objections
- The person doesn’t want to be “sold” anything
- No signups for new business (MLM)
- Cost
- Fear of public speaking
- Never done it before
Here’s the method to invite and have good success:
- Invite by phone or in person – “Hey this is Joshua Jarvis and I wanted to invite you to a business networking event.”
- Remind them by phone again after they agree.
- Have someone from the group call them before the event and tell them they are looking forward to meeting them there. Preferably someone that can refer business to them.
- E-mail them a follow up each time.
Make sure you don’t just do this but you also want them to feel welcome as soon as they come to the event. Introduce them to people that can help them grow their business.
