I used to hate Chamber of Commerce mixers until I saw the numbers

For years I thought those early morning Chamber of Commerce networking events were a waste of time. All that standing around with a coffee cup and a stack of business cards felt pointless to me. Then a guy from a local plumbing supply company showed me his spreadsheet at a coffee shop in Mesa last Tuesday. He tracked every single connection he made at those mixers over 6 months and turned 12 of them into actual paying clients worth about $18,000 total. That got my attention because I'd been skipping them for the last two years. Now I'm wondering if I've been leaving money on the table by not showing up. Has anyone else tracked their ROI from these events in a real way?

3 comments

3 Comments

taylor66816d ago

That plumbing guy's numbers sound good on paper but they don't tell the whole story. I went to those Mesa Chamber events for about a year straight and kept my own careful spreadsheet tracking every single conversation and follow up. After 12 months I had maybe 2 real clients from it and the rest were just people wanting free advice or samples. The time I spent driving to those early morning things and standing around making small talk could have been spent calling warm leads or working on my actual business. I think a lot of those success stories are from people who already have a strong network or sell something everyone needs like plumbing supplies. For me it was a lot of handshakes and empty promises that never turned into checks.

hugo_bennett16d ago

Wait, you actually tracked every single conversation in a spreadsheet for a whole year?

martin.paige16d ago

Taylor's spreadsheet story hits so close to home it hurts! I did the exact same thing with my local chamber here in Chandler and after a year had maybe 3 small jobs that barely covered the cost of the coffee I drank while standing around. The worst part was all the follow up calls that never went anywhere, just people who wanted me to fix their website for free or "pick my brain" over lunch. I kept a notebook in my car and tracked every handshake and business card exchange for 8 months straight. What I found was that most people there are just trying to survive the morning mini-muffins and will say anything to get away from you. The plumbing guy probably already had a ton of contractor buddies before he started tracking that spreadsheet.