Networking is something that many professionals look down on as a frivolous activity that serves no purpose beyond keeping up an appearance, but this simply isn’t the case. When done correctly, networking can greatly improve your career and make you a better sales professional in more ways than one.
At BMS Performance, we are experts in helping sales professionals find their next role and exploit their career potential, and one way we recommend candidates do this is through professional networking. It can prove to be invaluable, as the following five advantages highlight.
- Raise your professional profile
If you want to be successful, building a positive professional profile is a must. Word of mouth is still an incredibly prevalent catalyst in the recruitment sector, especially in the sales market which is increasingly becoming candidate driven. There are more vacancies than there are job seekers in the sales sector, meaning competition to find the best talent is fierce amongst businesses. If you are well connected through professional networking platforms, employers will be aware of you and likely offer extremely competitive employment opportunities and packages.
- Expand your client base
Sales is all about building relationships. Clients want to know that they can trust you. Sales people don’t always have the best reputation, so if a client can connect with you on a slightly more personal level, you stand a better chance of developing a lasting relationship and garnering new leads based on positive word of mouth recommendations.
Networking also makes it easier to find new prospects who you may not have otherwise been exposed to, further cementing its importance from a target point of view.
- Build your confidence
Professional confidence isn’t easy to come by, but one way you can effectively boost your self-esteem and your overall confidence is to engage in networking. Doing so will teach you how to market yourself to other people because in order to build connections, you need to sell yourself. Knowing how to network professionally isn’t easy, but the more you do it, the more confident you’ll become. This will not only benefit you when you’re pitching yourself to a prospective client, but it will also bode well in job interview situations.
- Find new career opportunities
Sales people are among the most motivated to develop their careers. If growth and progression are important to you, think about learning how to build your professional network. This is one of the best ways to get your foot in the door early on with new vacancies, but to also hear about potential new roles before they become widely advertised. You may even get recommended for a role by one of your newfound connections, or you may find that a company specifically asks for you as a result of your reputation. So, if you’re looking to take the next step in your career, networking could be the perfect way for you to get closer to achieving your goals.
- Learn more about the industry
Sales is an ever-changing industry. New best practices and technologies are always coming into play which means there’s always something new to learn. Rather than seeing this as a skills gap which works against you, you should see it as an advantage and a way to grow. When you connect with the right people, you can learn so much and see things from a different viewpoint, both of which will help you become a better sales person and a more well-rounded individual. You may even teach someone else something new, too! Every person has the potential to help you learn something new, so the more networking for sales professionals you do, the more you stand to gain from a development perspective, and this always advantageous.
Learn Professional Networking Skills with BMS Performance
BMS Performance are experts in helping sales people find their next role. If you’re looking to take the next step in your career, contact us to see how we can help.