FocalPoint Business Coaching’s Back to School Special: Essential Networking Habits

September 7, 2010 — Anonymous

Successful people are always looking for opportunities to help others. Unsuccessful people are always asking, 'What's in it for me?

-Brian Tracy

Summer is over and it’s back to school, back to work, back to sports teams and club meetings… Everything picks up pace again in the fall, especially your social obligations.

But with socializing comes networking: tons of opportunities to let people know who you are and what you do.

Today is our FocalPoint Business Coaching’s Back to School Special: essential networking habits to make sure you’re all keyed up for the coming season.

Whether you are head of the parent-teacher association or opening a new restaurant in town – you are about to be exposed to oodles of networking opportunities in the next few months. Here’s what you should do to take advantage of them:

  • Volunteer for a leadership position in your club or organization – often the time commitment is only a few hours per month, but the payback is awesome – you are instantly perceived as a leader and that label can leak onto other aspects of your life, like your career in sales or your small business.
  • Introduce yourself – don’t be shy! Talk to the people you are meeting, get to know them and let them see that you are friendly and approachable.
  • Ask people about themselves and how you can help them out - like Brian Tracy says, “Always look for ways to create business for others and they will always look for ways to reciprocate.”
  • Don’t make your networking about you – make it about the people you meet. Become the person who can be depended on and who brings business for others.
  • Listen.
  • Be involved and be an active participant in all situations – your energy will show.
  • Keep your integrity - Respect other’s time by being on time, show appreciation, return phone calls, keep up your appearance.
  • Don’t ask for referrals, always say thank you when you get a referral and always follow up on the referral.
  • Be the person you would want to do business with.
  • Don’t forget your business cards.

Take these ten tips and get out into your community – chances are you will have another great year and you’ll pull in some serious prospects.

Want to brush up your networking skills? Call for a free business coaching session with a Brian Tracy certified business coaching professional.

Comments

Networking season is

September 12, 2010 — Greg DeSimone (not verified)

Networking season is definitively upon us again. I think the advice Dom gave is excellent.

I hear from my prospects and clients that they are a little frustrated with the results they are getting from networking. When I dig deeper, it's usually because of three things:

1) They are trying to make sales at the networking event

2) They expect a quid pro quo relationship

3) They don't have a plan

First, networking isn't about making sales, it about having conversations which lead to connections. Once connected, it's about determining if you can help them and they can help you. After that it's about following up, staying front of mind, and helping each other grow your businesses and provide better service to each other's customers.

So in the end, again, it's not about sales..... it's about find salespeople (unpaid advocates for your business).

Second, if you go into every networking event and conversation with the expectation that there has to be and equal give and take. You will be disappointed. I go into each event hoping to add a tool to my toolbox. Let me explain. As a business coach, I provide a wide range of services and add a ton of value to my clients. But, I don't provide every service a client needs. I don't fix IT networks, or negotiate commercial leases, sell insurance, or set-up benefit plans, but I know people who do. Networking allows me to add people who do provide those and other services to my toolbox and makes me a great reference for my clients and prospects. I may not provide every service a business may need, but I probably know someone who does (because of networking). Now my clients and prospects have more reasons to call me.

Lastly, most frustrated networkers don't have a plan when they go to an event. They head into each event with a stack of business cards and toss them like Chinese stars at the other networkers as if they were villains in a James Bond movie (I borrowed that visual from "Trust Agents" written by Chris Brogan and Julian Smith). With that approach, you will be that guy that no one wants to talk to. I go into each event with a goal to make one solid connection for every 20 to 30 minutes I'm at the event. So if the event is 2 hours long, my goal is not to meet everybody but to leave with 4 – 6 new connections that I can schedule follow-up appointments to so I can get to know them better. Most of the time, those meetings create new referral partners, but sometimes they create clients. You'll never know unless you get to know them. Which you can't do by throwing your business cards at them.

Greg DeSimone

Greater Boston and Providence Area

www.gregdesimone.com 

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