Interview With Andy Lopata, Director Of Word Of Mouse And An Expert On Business Networking

Networking is becoming a buzz word. An increasing number of businesses recognise the need to network for a range of reasons but don't necessarily know how to go about it. Many people simply join the network that they are invited to attend by a friend or colleague, irrespective of what they want to achieve and how relevant that network is. I work with companies to look at what they want to achieve and the tools that networking offers them, from selecting the right events and understanding how to get a return from them to using online networks or simply tapping into their existing connections more effectively.

I offer a range of services, from keynote speeches at conferences to training workshops, coaching on networking or consultancy. I am also introducing public seminars later this year for the first time.

In addition to this, I am a director of a new business network, Word of Mouse. Word of Mouse is designed to appeal to small businesses who want a local referral-network but can't commit to the existing options that tend to centre around weekly early-morning breakfast meetings. We bring together local businesses online in small groups known as e-circles. Each e-circle will have no more than 30 members and there will be no competition. The idea is that members get to know each other in their own time, using the site to organise meetings, ask for support and referrals.

For eight years prior to January 2007 I was involved with Business Referral Exchange (BRX), one of the UK's largest referral-focused business networks, latterly as Managing Director. At BRX we ran the weekly breakfast meetings that I talked about above. Two things became clear during my time with BRX that led to the formation of my current businesses.

First of all, as BRX grew I introduced a range of new training programmes for members based on the fact that many people were new to networking and didn't know how to do it effectively. Training varied from the elements of a meeting and how to make the most of them to concentrating on overall networking strategy.

Indeed, one member, from a high street bank, left a group after a year claiming that his membership was a 'waste of time'. We took his complaints and results to the senior management of that bank and asked what results he should expect to justify his membership in terms of the investment made. Unanimously they agreed that he had doubled their realistic expectations! Unfortunately, he didn't know what he was looking for, and so failed to recognise success when it came along.

As I visited BRX groups around the country, and spoke at other networking events, I asked people why they first attended an event. The vast majority admitted that the prompt had been an invitation from someone they knew. They joined because they liked the 'buzz' or saw others doing business. Few had carried out further research into other networks available to them. I also asked how many people had a figure they were working towards in terms of return on investment. Most didn't and of the few who had, simply meeting their costs was considered to be satisfactory. It shouldn't be, not unless you are looking for a non-financial return, and few were.

The frustration at this lack of a business approach to networking led to me developing my strategy business and I have a mission to change people's approach to networking, encouraging them to make it a serious element of their business strategy, not an aimless add-on.

Secondly, a key weakness in our business model was the number of people who were interested in what we offered but whom we couldn't do business with. I would estimate that 80% of people who attended BRX meetings wouldn't join, mainly because of the time of the meetings or the frequency and commitment. Those figures don't include the large numbers who won't attend in the first place, possibly because they have other commitments, such as the school run, or because they simply don't do mornings.

We felt that there was scope to offer an alternative to these people. Given the growth of use of the web and social networks, either for business (Ecademy, LinkedIn) or socially (Facebook, MySpace), there was potential for something effective to be designed, taking the best of the referral networks and marrying it with the best of the online networks. That's how Word of Mouse was born.

Many people tell me that I am a 'great connector'. What that means, quite simply, is that I have the ability to take myself out of the equation when speaking to someone and think of other people in my network they should be talking to. I then see through my promises and put them in touch with each other. That is vital to establish my credibility when talking about networking, giving people confidence that I do understand the nature of the beast.

My approach is very intuitive, both in connecting people and in understanding what makes a network work, whether formal or otherwise. My experience with running BRX, where we had 125 groups UK-wide, allows me to recognise quickly what is successful and what is not and, hopefully, come up with ideas to fix it. I also have an ability to get beneath the skin of people's networking challenges to recognise where the real problems lie and what steps they need to take.

I would say that the mixture of wide experience in a young sector and strong intuition in this field give me an edge.

I could say the very cliched, "meeting lots of different people" and it would be absolutely true! I have learnt more in the last decade from my networking than at any other time in my life and that's because of the exposure to such a diverse range of people, businesses, experiences and expertise.

I also get tremendous satisfaction from solving someone's challenges, making a strong connection or coming up with a great solution. I really do believe that often you can get a greater buzz from giving than from receiving.

Having said that, networking has also opened a host of doors for me and created opportunities that I could never have previously dreamt of. And there's nothing I love more than standing on a stage and delivering a strong talk, seeing the spark in people's eyes of new ideas and recognition of points made and getting good feedback afterwards.

My head! If you are not in the right frame of mind, if you don't know why you are networking or what you want to achieve, if you lack focus, you will struggle to succeed. (I bet you thought I was going to say 'business cards'!)

I had a very varied background before I stumbled across my 'calling' some nine years ago. After leaving university (where I changed from an Accountancy degree to Political Science just before the start of my course) I worked in such diverse areas as the civil service, the music industry, as a sound engineer for radio interviews, a runner on film sets and project manager for the launch of 'The Finest Golf Clubs in the World'.

My last job before joining BRX was running car parks, I used to run a large number of the car parks at train stations across the South East. But don't tell anyone!

I am putting together a business plan to develop public networking strategy and referral strategy seminar programmes for all sizes of business, from micro and new start-up to corporate. When I went on my own I always said that this was a route I wouldn't go down but we have identified a model that is very exciting and has a lot of potential.

I have been invited to Chair a conference in November for women in the retail sector, helping them to break through the glass ceiling. Despite a lot of progress over recent years, there is still a long way to go for women to get the appropriate representation in the boardroom, as illustrated by The Sunday Times recently. Understanding how to build strong and effective internal networks and develop their 'social capital' is a key skill that I hope to be able to help women develop.

I have been asked to put together a workshop on referral generation strategy for the Financial Advice arm of one of the world's largest investment banks.

We are looking for a publisher for a second edition of my last book '...and Death Came Third! The Definitive Guide to Networking and Speaking in Public' and I have been working on the proposal for that.

I am writing a workshop for Chief Executives and have the task of persuading them that networking is not just an activity for small companies and salesmen but is relevant to them as well.

To be honest, I don't see myself working in Marketing and Sales, they are just two uses of networking tools.

However, if I wasn't doing what I do now.....I certainly don't think I'd be as happy as I am! I really feel as though I have found my niche. Many years ago I quit my job as a civil servant and went travelling. I couldn't have done that if I wasn't single at the time and I sometimes look back and wonder what would have happened if I had stayed with my girlfriend before I travelled and settled down. I'd probably be leaving sensitive documents on a train somewhere!

I've been lucky in that I've done a lot in my life, both in work and outside. I've travelled to most of the continents of the world, done a parachute jump, swum with Whale Sharks, auditioned for the RSC and much more. My burning ambition however is much more grounded. That is to find the right person, settle down and have a family.

I could cheat and pretend I was writing this before I've seen the last show! On one level I was very disappointed with The Apprentice this year, or The Muppet Show as I prefer to call it. They have increasingly picked candidates for their entertainment value and not their apparent business prowess and, to be fair, it has been very entertaining.

I think they have to take a step back for the next series, picking a few serious candidates who won't make such horrendous errors of judgement as seen this time around. Get some personalities, sure. Set some sparks flying by all means. But have some people that we can at least take seriously.