With the rush of Christmas Events happening these days, it will be on everyone's minds as to how to make the best of socialising and networking whether it be with business partners, clients, colleagues or prospects.
Networking is a lot of things to different people, but overall it has changed to mean less about broadcasting your elevator pitch and more about giving something useful to others, being seen as a resource, nurturing relationships, asking questions and listening, and above all being genuinely interested.
Easier said than done you may say. So we thought we would come up with 10 tips that have worked for us and hope that they will help you as well.
Before you go...
1. Find out who is attending and decide who you want to meet
2. Ensure your LinkedIn profile is current and accurate (or your mug shots on the website)
3. Invite them to connect on LinkedIn (saying that you will be at this particular event) to start a dialogue with them. Follow them on Twitter as well
4. Prepare questions to ask - do lots of research on their areas of interest (Prep is paramount!)
5. Practise your pitch, plus set 3 or 4 clear objectives that will build a genuine conversation with them which is around them (and not you)... for example
a) to listen out for their pain points and empathise
b) to discover what success means for them
c) to ask them for their opinion on trends and opportunities in their industry / areas of interest (sport, music etc.)
d) to give them your business card. This must articulate clearly what you do, where you can add value and must include your website, twitter handle, LinkedIn profile and email addresses.
After it's over
6. Write down / capture all the key insights that you picked up from your conversations
7. Tweet to and about your new connections - say how interesting it was to meet them
8. Reconnect on LinkedIn possibly in a group as well to engage in the topics and market developments that they are interested in
9. Schedule time to continue the conversation when appropriate
10. Stay in touch... always refer back to the elements that they talked about (i.e points from no. 6 ) to reinforce that you were listening to them!
By turning the focus of networking away from you and more about others, not only will you feel less under pressure to perform at events, but you will also start to understand true needs, triggers and behaviour about prospects and other connections which will encourage others to want to buy from you on their own terms as opposed to shying away from being sold to.
Season's greetings to you and your families, from us all at CBC.
