Is the cost of memberships for networking groups really worth it?

The availability of networking groups up and down the country is immense today.  When I first started up in business 4 years ago, I had the choice of a Chambers lunch, BRE, BNI or the odd Ecademy meeting.

Now you can network before and over breakfast most days of the week, go on to a coffee session with Ladies Who Latte or Cappucino Connections, followed by an array of lunches, post dinner drinks and evening sessions.

But what about the membership costs?  When some meetings are free to attend and others pay as you go, do you really need to be forking out a couple of hundred pounds for a membership?

Let’s put this in to context and give you a real life example.  Working with one of my clients this morning, we were working out the cost of joining 12.30, a women’s networking group in the SE.

£55 annual membership for a business less than a year trading, £35 joining fee and lunches at £11 each.  £85 upfront was a little hard to swallow at the moment for my cilent and she was unsure whether she could afford it.

But if she was to go to 6 lunches across the year, the total cost of her networking (across the year) would be £156.  She offers a one-off consultation for £75 so all she would need is 2 consultations as a result of raising her profile by networking at 12.30 and she’s (just) quids in!

Could you really expect to get 2 consultations from a £156 one-off advert?  Um, I think not!

Comments

[Alice Elliott]

If you look at the initial cost of networking groups you can easily gulp or fall down in a faint. But if you are successful in your networking, such as creating an exceptional 'minute' every week, regularly liaising or having 1:1s with fellow-members, following up new members when they visit, opting in for a speaker's slot to further advertise your business, arriving early and leaving late, joining in with the committee... I could go on but, as Karen said, all you need to do is to get some business, win some referrals, accumulate some testimonials, etc and you will easily have made up your joining fee and more.

At least, that's what I'm hoping for, now I'm a member of BNI...

[Callie Carling]

I absolutely agree, Karen. I found the most critical element of networking is to find a group/organisation you are really happy with - that you feel energised by, that you can feel confident and content by having an association with.

I now have a select few which I flirt outrageously with and signed up with 1230; on my very first meeting, I met a client who is signing up for a course of 6 treatments (with my therapist hat on) so that will pay for my membership in one tidy hit!

Mission accomplished ... now for the next networking event ...

[Jeremy Dent]

Two points, Karen. Your return-on-investment calculation is a bit simplistic (What about tax? Net rather than gross margin?).

In any case, this 'immediate return' approach will cramp your networking style and prevent you from building longer-term relationships (sell through, not to, the room).

Comparing cost to one marketing communications alternative was also misleading. Think of all the other things you could do with £156 in marketing-on-a-shoestring terms.

Using the words 'swallow' and 'lunches' in the same paragraph gave me an amusing moment. Unintended humour?

Finally, the growing choice of networking groups is a different issue to their return-on-investment (ROI): this was two blogs in one. More choice means more careful selection: ROI needs careful thought however many choices there are.

[Karen "CanDoCanBe" Skidmore]

Thanks for your comments, Jeremy and yes my ROI was rather over-simplistic. And deliberately so.

Yes, you do need to take in acount your tax - and then you mustn't forget your petrol costs getting to the event, the cost of printing your cards that you take to the networking events, etc, etc. But I try not over-complicate things :)

And a great point you raise about the choice of networking groups. It is so important you think carefully about which group to join - but don't take too long. Spend too long working out your ROI's and you could have been to a couple of meetings and been recommended to those 2 consultations :)