I finally compared two networking groups in Phoenix and one was way better for referrals

I spent three months going to Scottsdale Business Connect and another three at Mesa Chamber mixers, and the difference in actual leads was huge. Scottsdale gave me 5 solid referrals while Mesa folks mostly just swapped business cards and never followed up. Anyone else notice a big gap between groups in different parts of the valley?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_jamie2mo ago

Total time waster when a group is just a card swap meet instead of building real connections. Good for you for finding the one that actually works.

sagep192mo ago

That Scottsdale group sounds like a real winner. I've been going to a couple here in the East Valley and it's the same story, one is all about business card collecting and the other actually set me up with two good client meetings last month. It's honestly frustrating to waste three months somewhere when you could have been getting real results. Glad you found the better one though, that makes a huge difference for how you feel about going to events.

danielhenderson1mo ago

Ended up in a group a few years back that felt like a race to see who could hand out the most cards the fastest. Nobody remembered a thing about you fifteen minutes after the meeting ended. The turning point was when I stopped counting how many cards I collected and started actually following up with just three people from each event. That simple shift from 'collecting' to 'connecting' made all the difference for me. It took about six months before I really saw the payoff, but those three deeper relationships ended up being way more valuable than the fifty shallow ones. Your mileage may vary of course, but giving yourself a real chance to build something with a handful of folks instead of everyone at the table was a game changer.