Things have changed so much in the business networking arena over the past five years I felt listing a few things to remember when attending a business networking event would help those (thousands) who are just now entering the sometimes confusing world of business networking.
How Much Time Ya Got?
One of the biggest issues I am asked by the newbies to business networking is how to manage their time at the networking event. Many of the events are overly organized leaving the attendees guessing on when exactly they can relax and meet people.
Naturally, business networking events are just for a couple of hours so there is this urgency many get to touch each person in the room before the end of the event. This sometimes results into a frenzy if many of the social butterflies arrive late. Mathematically, if there is a room full of people attended, the calculation on the amount of time you have to spend with everyone would lead to the event being nothing but a hand shake reception line.
The key to effective business networking is in directing your time in delivering quality instead of quantity. If you get your message across well to a few people it will serve you better than a half-ass job covering your business needs with everyone in the room.
Who to Talk To?
The way to determine who to spend the time allocated with is determined by reading people’s body language. This can be very complicated and for most people is something they do not know how to do. Since I am trained at this I will be bringing out more about how to go about learning to read body language but until then, overall, there are some built in human traits that each of us have that tell us who and who not to bother talking to. Let your instincts loose and gravitate to those who you feel fit your comfort zone. However, many times, the person who looks to be someone you are not comfortable with will turn out to be the person you need to meet. So, make sure to stretch that comfort zone form time to time to get comfortable with approaching those you feel uncomfortable with.
Some simple principles apply to who in the crowd would be the person to talk to. The people who makes eye contact usually are a good starting point. Sometimes those who approach you first is another starting point. However, the question remains, how do you know who in the room is someone you are looking to talk to about business or about your professional interests? The answer is..Ask someone. Make the question part of your introduction to people.
My surveys show that most of the time there will be someone you meet who knows most people there. They will point you to the person or person’s you are looking for.
Online Tools Help
The biggest change in business networking has to deal with how there is now a more powerful online connections associated with offline business networking groups. This is where the ‘Old Schoolers’ who do not use the internet for their networking get left out and become frustrated making, for them, the networking event very challenging.
Having a business networking sites associated with the offline gathering really helps to maximize a networkers time. Seeing who is going to be at the event and then going to the site that provides their profile really speeds up the process. It also ads value to the gathering since it flags those who are out to network their needs.
I prefer to attend gatherings that have some sort of list of attendees and who is attending. It helps to do a little homework before going to a networking event. Being provided a list of whose attending really helps. Of course, it can hurt also if someone known as a ‘Black Hat Networker’ is showing on the list, but I will save reporting the Dark Side of Business Networking for another venue.
Find the Exit!
Beware: if the organizer stands up to greet the group and asks each person to introduce themselves and take 30 seconds to tell everyone what they do..look around for the exit and make a break for it. The infamous ‘elevator speech’ have already been proven over and over to be a complete waste of time and kills more time than it is set up to save. Most of the announcements turn into theatrical presentations that are well rehearsed to direct attention to the person. However, after about listening to four of these you start to get the same symptoms you get from eating bad Sushi.
These introduction efforts are rarely done well so I would suggest that you leave the gathering and find another gathering that lets the networking flow naturally. I have lost count on how many of these function have walked out on, but do remember a large number of times of convening in the parking lot or another portion of the facility with the others breaking down the door to leave.
Time is valuable and in today’s business networking it is almost a commodity. Use it well and choose the networking gatherings that work.
Let me know how I can help.
