Wasted $200 on a networking group that was just a sales pitch

I signed up for the Detroit Business Alliance meetup six months ago thinking it would be real connections. Paid $200 for a yearly membership and went to three meetings. Every single one was just people trying to sell me insurance or payroll services. Nobody asked what I needed or wanted to help. I walked out of the third one feeling like I got played. Has anyone else found a Detroit group that actually focuses on sharing referrals instead of selling to each other?

2 comments

2 Comments

michael_craig4d ago

Are you sure it's really that big of a deal? Sounds like a typical networking group to me, most of them are just people trying to make a sale before anyone else does. You paid $200 and went three times, but that's pretty standard for any business meetup these days. I'd say cut your losses and just grab coffee with one or two people you actually liked, instead of expecting a whole group to be different.

charlie_allen4d ago

Have you ever tried just showing up late to one of those things? I did that once and it cut the hard sell time in half, since everyone was already paired off. @michael_craig makes a solid point about the coffee route, I've found that grabbing a $5 latte with one person gets you more real leads than a whole room of people handing out business cards like they're candy. Skip the group fee next time and just buy two coffees for the folks you actually clicked with.