How do you, as a consumer, make your buying and purchasing decisions? When you need to buy a magazine, how do you decide which store to buy from? When you want a coffee, how do you decide which coffee shop to go to? When you need a new pair of jeans, how do you find a jeans store? You dont ask your friends or colleagues for recommendations or an introduction to the store owner. You already know where to find the proper store. Retail store owners get business by placing their stores in the proper places to get pedestrian or city traffic. You will find convenience stores to buy magazines from in strip malls, coffee shops on street corners, and jeans stores in shopping malls.

Retail store owners dont engage in business networking to generate more business. A coffee shop owner doesnt ask for introductions so that he can sell more coffee to more people. He sets up shop at the busiest intersection that he can find so that as many passing pedestrians and motorists find him.

Retail does not engage in business networking, so why does B2B? Business networking evolved from the concept of six degrees of separation. That is, youre connected to anybody in this world, by no more than six degrees, through somebody that you already know. The concept evolved into the general thinking that being introduced to a buyer or decision maker inside a company that you would like to sell to increases your odds of closing a sale because people will buy from people they know; an introduction from a friend or colleague extends the trust and, thus, makes it easier to sell. This may be true but the time involved in getting introductions makes it impractical.

This further evolved into business networking groups created to meet, usually monthly, to introduce themselves, to exchange business cards, and to pitch their products and services to each other. B2B salespeople would meet with other B2B salespeople, usually over a meal like breakfast or dinner. There are, literally, thousands of B2B networking chapters across the country. These networking functions are time consuming and a waste of your time. Think about it, an average networking group will consist of people like mortgage brokers, realtors, copier sales reps, financial planners, accountants, and business consultants. They are all trying to sell their services to other people that are trying to sell their services. Salespeople are not buyers, they are sellers. The buyers and decision makers dont attend business networking functions. Why? Because buying is not difficult!

So think about this: selling is difficult; buying is not. When a business owner or a decision maker in a company needs to buy something all he needs to do is open up the yellow pages or do an online search for what he needs and he will find what he is looking for. So why do you continue wasting your time business networking? The top sales producers dont; they become visible when buyers are looking for their services. Just like the coffee shop owner that sets up shop where as many people as possible can find it, the top B2B sales producers are visible in the places where executives and procurement professionals are searching for their products and services. They are in the yellow pages, they have professional profiles on internet websites, or they have their own website that are found through internet search engines.

The bottom line is business networking doesnt work, just dont do it.