Convinced networking events are dead money, here's what I do now instead

Used to drop $200+ on those conference happy hours in Austin every quarter. Handshakes, swapped cards, maybe 2 follow ups that actually mattered. Last year I hit up a small local coffee meetup with 12 people and closed a $4k contract from a guy who runs a bakery that needed inventory software. That never happened at the big ones. Stopped paying for tables at expos too. Now I just message 5 local owners a week for a 15 min phone call about their pain points. Costs me nothing but time. Anyone else ditch the formal stuff and go hyper local?

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1 Comment

anna5671mo ago

Went to a tiny farmer's market meetup last spring, ended up talking to some guy about his dog for 20 minutes before we even mentioned business. He turned out to be the owner of a local restaurant chain, and we've been trading referrals ever since.