Great video from top journalist and Eric Schurenberg that came from my good networking friend Jason Jacobsohn. Love its simplicity and passionate message to make business networking fun!

1. Make It a Game.
2. Make People Come to You.
3. Measure Success by How Many Cards You Get.

Learn how to do these by watching this 1min 27 secs video. Happy networking!

I use the phrase 'CTC' in my many networking and referral seminars. It stands for any of the following:

• Card to Client
• Contact to Customer
• Card to Connection
• Connection to Client

You get the idea. It's about turning that business card into a sale. It's about converting your networking leads into paying customers and clients.

It's also the hardest thing for most networking business people to do. Here's why:

In any profession, industry, sector, walk of life, there is a distribution curve of performance.

There's that 2-3% of people who bring up the rear. They never do anything and they're tough to manage. Like pushing milk uphill. These people sell the least, object the most, create the most problems, take up most of their bosses time and are the least motivated.

Likewise there's that top 2-3% of star performers who are simply world class. These people make the most money, sell the most stuff, have the most influence, get the best results and seem to have the most luck.

Then of course you've got that middle swathe of people who are average. Perhaps slightly above, perhaps slightly below. As well as applying to certain industries, it applies to certain skills. In every team there will be the best performing networker, presenter, seller, typist, coffee-maker etc.

If you want to be a better networker, you can do it. If you want to be world class, that top 2%, here are three world class tips...

Let's talk about referrals. You do all this networking to either win direct business or cultivate relationships that will lead you to direct business. This second strategy is referrals.

The problem is that few people can tell you what a referral is.

Getting terms mixed up can make you sound a bit confusing when you ask for help. What you think is a referral might be a lead to someone else. You can see how it will help to get people on the same page. Would it help you to get a definitive answer on this?

If you want to achieve anything of significance in life, you usually have to take a risk. Came across this great video this week while looking at Peter Winick's blog on Thought Leadership Leverage.

If you want to be the number one, 'go to' compelling and obvious choice for what you do, you're going to need courage. You're going to fail, so you need resilience to come back. And you're going to be walking into unknown territories, so you'll need to take risks.

It doesn't matter if you're an accountant, lawyer, banking professional, entrepreneur, writer, coach, consultant or motivational speaker. You have competition. People can choose not to use you. Which means you're going to hear the word 'no' once in a while.

Let's talk about presenting yourself in an attractive, compelling way.

You see, people need to 'buy you' before they buy what you're selling. People will always buy people before they buy products and services.

If everything else is equal, people will buy from the people they like rather than people they don't like. So you've got to understand that 'selling yourself' is a powerful weapon in business.

So if you want to sell yourself and make people buy you, what can you do? Three steps:

Did you know that networks are like trees? They are both planted for the future. If you want business today, and you're not putting all of your hopes in advertising, cold calling or direct mail, then you're probably going to have to go through your existing network.

When did you start building your business network? Not overnight. Probably over years.

They say 'dig your well before you're thirsty'.  If you want business today, build your network yesterday. Better still, build it 20 years ago! This next story will illustrate how this works...

Why do people go networking? Forget the silly reasons like 'because we have to' or 'because everyone else is'. Forget 'because I have nothing better to do' or 'because it's the only way to win business'.

I'm talking about developing your networking strategy so you have proper, strategic reasons to attend networking events and spend time with online networking sites. I'm talking about walking into networking events with a real purpose, a proper reason for being there and a set of networking goals or objectives. In other words, a powerful 'reason why'!

There are lots of good reasons to do business networking, but every single one boils down to either PLEASURE, PROFIT, PROFILE or PROVISION.

Let's break these down for you so that you can make that transition from amateur networker to professional networker...