Networking Tips 15

Apart from your various personal reasons, the main motivation for going to a networking event is to find new leads and generate new business.

The results that you get from this will depend on how you present yourself to the other people in attendance.

And believe me… I have just about seen everything now!

Some people just ramble on about what happened to them during the week; sometimes not even related to their business.

But . . .

Headshift business card discussion (Photo credit: Lars Plougmann)

In a one on one conversation, you only get a few valuable seconds to make that good first impression.

In many networking groups, you get 30 to 60 seconds to present yourself to the group. Some as little as 15 seconds.

So . . .

Make the most of the opportunity to convey your message and ask for the specific lead or contact that you are looking for.

How to make the most of your 30 to 60 seconds

Really, it all boils down to asking for specifics in networking.

The Ramblers

As I mentioned above, some people just ramble on about what happened to them during the week; and sometimes it is not even related to anything that happened in their business.

It is usually deadly boring and a real turn off.

This is pretty much a total waste of the networking opportunity. Why are they even there?

Name, Rank and Serial Number

Then there are those that pretty much just rattle off their name rank and serial number!

We are a tyre company and we sell tyres.

That’s pretty much stating the obvious.

Some people just say what their business does, which is definitely an improvement on rambling but it doesn’t really showcase the business to its best.

And it will not inspire most people to network for them.

Features

Some people talk about the features of their product or service.

We sell tyres and they are round.

Again, this is an improvement on just rambling on, but benefits are so much better than features.

We sell tyres than give you a smooth and safe ride..

Pretty much every sales guru will tell you that people relate to benefits, and it is true because they see what is in it for them. The specific benefits for them using or referring the product or service.

Ask for What You Want

Probably the most focused networking skill is to ask for exactly what you want in terms of a business lead or contact.

And when you are in a networking group that meets regularly, this can be most powerful.

We sell tyres, and the referral that I would like is to the owners of a taxi fleets or bus fleets.

I remember a real estate agent who had a lot of success contacting FSBOs, (for sale by owners), for property listings.

Their main challenge was finding all of the Fisbo’s in their territory.

So this real estate agent used their 30 seconds to ask people to refer For Sale By Owner signs on houses and report the phone number back to the agent who would then contact the property owner.

This was a great source of semi qualified leads for the real estate agent and they did generate new listings from this method.