Networking is the most cost effective method of marketing your business. While other forms of effective marketing cost thousands of dollars a month, a good network with multiple meetings to attend will generally be only a few thousand dollars a year. The return for a business owner who refines their networking skills will be between 3 to 10 times what they spent each year. They also received many other benefits of attending the groups. Friends were made, meals were enjoyed, skills were learned, money was saved on services bought through the network, and mistakes were missed because of knowledge that was gained. The value of these benefits outside of the sales made, can easily exceed $10,000 annually. It should also be noted that 80% of all businesses fail in their first 5 years and according to an article published in Forbes, 80% of new businesses also do zero networking. This is the missing key for many entrepreneurs.

Marketing is a good thing to spend money on, however not all small businesses have a large enough marketing budget. Effective ad purchasing for example begins at a $3000 per month spend. If one needs to make a choice, networking wins hands down. It is not only low cost, all of the factors for your success are within your control. You can learn to deliver a better infomercial, you can control how many one-on-ones are booked and how many sales presentations are made. It is a scalable way to build a small to medium sized business with ease. Once we have built a funnel using a networking model the pieces of that funnel can be reproduced for other marketing funnels such as ad purchasing, social media marketing, or trade shows. Networking is a natural first step in building a business.

Free events attract people who like to get things for free. Do you not need people to buy something from you? Wouldn't you rather belong to a group that weeds out the broke people? You're welcome! At CIBN Connect we save you valuable time by weeding out those who cannot afford to pay, and those who are too cheap to pay. Everyone in our membership is a paid member at some level. They have invested in their business and in our networking culture, so they are on common ground with you and they are serious about their businesses.

Many business networks are started by someone who is trying to sell something to you. Perhaps they are an insurance agent, or a realtor, and they were rejected from one of our competitors, so they started a small group to get some business. Good for them! It is a smart idea. However, it is not their full-time gig, and when they get busy, the network will take the back seat. This is our main business at CIBN Connect. This is what we do. We are 100% committed to our network and to the success of our members.

Some large networking organizations have a lot of rules and very little fun. We are not that business network. CIBN Connect has very few rules and we attract positive people who share an abundance mentality and a winning attitude.

In person networks can also be costly and they still run on your volunteerism. We believe that volunteering should be saved for a cause that you love, like feeding the poor in your city. Volunteerism to run a business empire that belongs to someone else is a poor use of your personal resources. Time is just as important as money and at CIBN Connect we believe that your business, and your family deserve your time. We have a professional business network and we have the staff and the team to do the heavy lifting. You get to come and have fun and do business and spend your time talking about what you do.

We adopt existing networks and financially reward those who have established groups or who want to start a CIBN Connect group in their area. Reach out with your questions to [email protected]

We have been running a business network for 14 years and we have over 30 years experience in a membership/based business. This gives us a huge edge over many of our online competitors. In 2020 many people lost their jobs and they went looking for something to do, so they started a business network. We are not that network. We are not guessing at what business owners need. We have been eating, sleeping and breathing networking for years. As a result we have not only developed very effective networking meetings, we have also built entire training programs on how to succeed as an entrepreneur. Most of these courses are included in our basic online networking packages at the Full Member Level.

We also support existing online networks and help them to get more of what they need. If you have a group that you are developing or trying to monetize be sure to reach out with your questions [email protected]

Our members love to bring new members to CIBN Connect and we do have a reward system for those who want to invite their friends and their clients. However, you are not required to bring new members to us. You are generally busy running your business and you need to get your own clients. We have teams of people who are paid staff who know how to market our network online and in person. You can relax and focus on your own business.

Professional networkers should be adding $150,000 per year to the bottom line of their business through networking. If that is not yet happening, then perhaps some training would be appropriate. Our LinkedIn Strategy and our Collaboration Strategy are just two of the many methods designed to add $150,000 per year that we offer in our training that is available at the Full Member Level.

There is no reason to remain in the struggle. Networking works for those who work their nets. Join the network and let us help you do the work that works.

Many business owners struggle to make a sale. Sometimes it is a fear of selling, or perhaps we are an introvert. Often it is a lack of having a real sales process. This leads to winging it, but as our Founder Kerry George always says, "Winging it is for KFC. Winging it is not a sales process." We cannot tell what we did right when we get it right, and we can't tell what we need to improve if we are winging it.

Your networking will not work if you can't sell. Networking provides warmed up leads in the form of referrals, but if our ability to close a sale is wanting, then 100 leads will not help us. So many people are focusing on creating a lead funnel before they have created a sales process that closes deals. One marketing project after another will fail if the the business owner does not know how to sell. We need to focus on selling and fix the sales process first.

This is why CIBN Connect offers two very effective Sales Training Courses that help our members slay the sales dragon once and for all. If one is on a budget and they want to work on their sales ability over time we have the MAX+ Program. If one has a bigger budget and the desire to conquer the problem quickly, we have the Sales Mastery Program which is an in-house week-long training delivered in Calgary, Alberta a few times each year. Both of these courses include online membership.