There are many classic mistakes that people make when networking. For example, the biggest mistake people make when networking is directly or indirectly selling to people they meet.
Not that I would ever excuse you of selling when you are out networking. However, so many people treat networking as one big jolly conversation. Networking, without purpose or focus, is a massive waste of time AND money. If I know professional advisors, most of them can ill-afford to waste time.
Before you book your next networking event, keep this mnemonic in mind – it will help you achieve more at the event:
F Follow up after the event
I Introduce yourself with impact
T Target specific people
T Turn a social chat into a business conversation
E Enter and breakout of groups
R Research
Find out who is attending the event, in advance – not at the event, and find out more about the other attendees. If you do your research right, you will know who you want to target for a conversation – plus have opinions and thoughts on relevant news and trends for your target audience . Most hosts, if asked, will send out an attendee list before the event.
Once at the event, make sure you introduce yourself with impact – that means a confident handshake – and can talk about how you add value to your clients, rather than talking about what you do. For example, “I help my clients legally minimise the tax they pay”, has far more impact than, “I’m an accountant”.
Interestingly, this type of introduction already turns your conversation onto business matters. You may be wondering how? Well, after you have introduced yourself by the value you bring to your clients, the next question is normally, “So, how do you do that”… and, your conversation is already onto business matters.
When you are out networking you are out to meet ideally as many potential referrers as possible. If you linger with one or two, you potentially lose out on the opportunity of meeting three or four more potential referrers. Therefore, you must be prepared to break into and out of groups. The golden rules here are to always ask permission to enter or exit a group. If you want to encourage more people to enter a group, then always leave a gap facing into the room.
And finally, follow up, means doing what you said you would do at the event. If someone has given you their business card, this means they have given you permission to contact them after the event – but not to send them your newsletter. I personally always drop anyone I met a brief e-mail saying how much I enjoyed meeting them.
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