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“People will come onto the site with a shopping list of who they want to meet. So here’s a real example, a lawyer working in commercial leasing wants to meet real estate agents handling commercial leases. The networker sees the job description, responds that it’s something they could facilitate and then makes the introduction,” said Mr Adams.
He said that the core premise of the service was that the networker was able to act as an “agent for your contacts,” and provide links to other professionals that should be mutually beneficial.
To ensure that the matchmaking was useful, and hence valuable, once the networker had seen the list of attributes someone was looking for, they would contact the person seeking introductions and arrange to meet either physically, on the phone or via Skype. The person seeking introductions would then pay a consultation fee (ranging between $100 and $1,000 according to Mr Adams) to 8Contacts which would hold the fee in escrow for 27 days.
The networker would ferret out from their contacts the best people to introduce to their 8Contacts client, and make the introductions directly. If the person seeking the contacts is happy with the introductions then they can immediately send a message to the network to release the payment, if not then they have 27 days to make a complaint and stop the payment. 8Contacts meanwhile takes a commission on each successful transaction.
Mr Adams said that he hoped the service (which is a 50:50 joint venture between BSI Connect and Mr Grobbelaar) would be live within two months.
Further down the track he hoped to extend the services to include a Business Ambassadors service that would allow organisations to find people that they wanted to represent their company at networking events in other cities or countries, and also a joint venture marketplace to link potential partners.
