How To Network With Real Decision Makers for New (and not so new) Fractional CFO's Wanting To Grow Their Business Faster

Not all networking is created equal. Over 88% of fractional executives spend thousands of wasted dollars and hours networking with the wrong groups and people when trying to launch & grow their CFO business.

A Fractional CFO client of mine started working with me shortly after he had signed a contract agreeing to pay for a booth and a speaking slot at a live entrepreneur summit.

The organizers claimed that all the attendees would be established business owners with revenues over 1 million.

We role played how he would deliver his Call To Action at the end.

All told, between the fees, the materials for the booth set up, and travel (not counting his time) were about $14K.

It really wasn't a terrible investment if he generated at least one or two clients and built up his targeted base of decision-maker relationships, right?

When he got to the event, he realized very quickly that the event organizers had lied.

There were hundreds of attendees, almost all of them were startup solopreneurs nowhere near the 1 million dollar revenue level.

None of these attendees was ready for a CFO for their business. Many hadn't even gotten their first customers or clients.

How did this happen?

How could my client have made such a misstep in choosing an event investment?

Another client joined a well-known networking referral group that cost him thousands every year. He had to drive over an hour each way every two weeks to network and cross refer to local business owners that turned out not to be anywhere near ready-willing-able to introduce him to the right potential clients.

He joined because a friend of his recommended the group.

We know that networking to grow a service business is absolutely essential.

It is one of the first things everyone tells you you will need to do to build your referral partners and meet potential clients.

What almost no one tells you is how to do it strategically.

Remember my fractional CFO client who invested in the wrong event?

His mistake was not checking the event organizer out carefully enough (I looked him up and saw his event was a scam immediately)

He should have contacted a few of those "testimonials" on the site to find out directly what their experience had been like at past events.

I have rarely, if ever, heard a networking "expert" talk about how to get in front of the right decision makers and capable referral sources to put your new, and even not so new, Fractional CFO business into high-gear.

This can be especially challenging for those who are more introverted than extroverted.

If there is one thing you should do before you ever join a group, or invest in any networking event is develop a targeted networking strategy:

1. Define your exact ideal decision maker. Be very specific with industry, type of business, stage of business, perhaps location.
2. Learn exactly where these decision makers are congregating. Organizations they belong to, where they are speaking, what their hobbies and activities are, and more.
3. Be prepared to have insightful open-ended icebreaker questions to ask them. This is the best conversation building technique and defines you as a quality connection to make.
4. Be proactive Initiate the right conversations with the right decision makers once you meet them.
5. Don't pitch too fast. So many FCFO's kill off opportunity through impatience. Patiently build the relationship before you even think of pitching your services. And yet... you do need to move the needle forward at some point. There is a technique you must learn for that too.
6. Don't invest in any group or event until you have learned exactly who will be in the room(s). Get verification of this.

One of my favorite examples of strategic networking is my former client - a Managing Partner of an accounting firm. He became a member of a university club situated right next door to his office building.

Every weekday morning, he set up a breakfast with: a business attorney, or a financial advisor, or a trust & estates attorney, or a property/casualty insurance broker.

This was his top tier Circle of Influence.

All of these people had decision makers exactly in the sweet spot of this Managing Partner. In just a few years he had built one of the most influential referral bases and grew his firm to over 250 professionals in three offices.

He brought the right network to him.

Another example is a client of mine, a Fractional CMO servicing law firms entering new markets. She learned to attend Legal Marketing Association luncheons and Bar Association events, vs. general networking events like Chambers of Commerce events.

Very soon she was meeting the Managing Partners of these firms and the CMOs who needed her services for Go To Market success.

One last example:

A few years ago, my target audience was Accounting Firms and Law Firms. My decision makers were Managing Partners of firms.

A colleague and I decided to bring the right decision makers to us.

We made a list of all the Managing Partners we wanted to have attend.

We created a theme for the event: The Art of The Merge. (There was massive merging going on throughout all of professional services)

We created a panel of top MPs to speak.

We engaged a well-known anchor from a TV business network to moderate the panel.

On a rainy night in NYC, 34 of the 35 invited MPs showed up at the Penn Club to our event.

We had sponsors cover all the costs.

And my colleague and I, as hosts, gained direct access and new visibility with an entire body of decision maker attendees.

To access your real decision makers, you will need to convert your networking from a quantity experience into a smarter, targeted quality-driven strategy.

Networking in all the right places with all the right people will save you thousands, help you make thousands faster, and more importantly allow you to help the right people.

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Nancy Fox is the CEO of Product WYZE, helping consulting & fractional exec firms scale by adding recurring revenue & subscription productized services - signature systems, playbooks, courses, books, webinars , and customized targeted networking plans. To learn more, book a custom WYZE Discovery Call.