How To Grow Sales With Local Networking Events All salespeople have tried to grow sales with local networking events. Many organizations utilize these events to bring awareness and drive sales. It’s a strategy that truly works.  Sam Edwards is Chief Marketing Officer of SEO.co. It’s a content marketing and link building agency based in Seattle. He’s been in the digital and marketing space for the past 10 years and now he’s focused on hosting marketing events to get more clients on the sales side. Sam has experience working with TEDx talk and has written for Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur, and other large publications.  Through this work he’s developed his teaching side and helps local communities build their own stories and plans.  Sam has a meet-up group with approximately 400 members.  Another he’s affiliated with has over 300 and a third has close to a thousand members. Sam’s group has an average attendance of about 50 - 100. They have an upcoming event this February 5th that’s slated for over 120 people. Typically, the idea of going to a networking event right after work isn’t that appealing to people who work 9 to 5 jobs. Sam’s group met that challenge by creating events that are more like fun outings so people were excited to attend, even after a long day.  That’s how they were able to obtain and retain the number of people coming month after month.  Monetizing networking events  Their very first event was agency-sponsored. That agency believed in their idea and wanted to look further into what Sam was doing. They spent $300 for the event and it was focused on an industry-specific topic about how to use the paid SCM data to influence the organic SEO strategy for search marketing. That event cost them $300 but they made eighteen thousand dollars. There are three main things you need to ensure when setting up a networking event.  There is no selling at events Focus should be on the quality of the event and the content you’re offering Take the time to build up the group. There is no selling at events People have their guard up when listening to a presenter. It’s after the presentations that everyone lowers their guard, especially when it’s time for the after-party and everyone is going to the bar for drinks. People tend to relax in that environment and it’s then you can start a conversation.  When talking to people, just talk, no pitching. People will see what you have to offer through talking with you. If they like what they see, they will want to work with you.  Focus on building a relationship using organic means instead of trying focusing on presenting a pitch.  Be transparent and honest when you are talking to people coming to your events. If you see the potential client isn’t going to be a good fit early on, be upfront. Don’t take the client just because they’re available. You want to make sure you’re qualifying the people who want to work with you.  Make your events free and organize them to grow through invitation. It takes everyone to help for these events to continue to grow, and that includes previous attendees.  Understand this is not a one and done quick fix. Even if you only have a handful of people coming to your first event, that shouldn’t deter you from planning another one. It takes time for the actual growth to happen. You will experience growing pains before you’re finally able to identify the kind of event that will attract attendance and growth. Event planning takes time and effort to build.  Focus should be on the quality of the event and the content you’re offering Regardless of how long you’ve worked in your industry, your event still needs quality content to be successful.  People won’t see the value of your events if they don’t see the benefits they will gain from attending. Sam makes it a point for his events to have specific themes or content so attendees know exactly what to look forward to.  The easy part is inviting people to their first event but the challenge is getting them to the events that