Tom Searcy posted some good advice for CBS News to improve your business networking even if you hate networking. The article is a couple of years old, but the suggestions her makes are still valid. He says:
It’s not all about you. Mr. Searcy explains that if you spend your time meeting people and trying to see if there is a way you can be of help to them, you put your mind in the right order and it is easier. Why? Because you may not be a great networker, but you are a great problem solver. If you can help someone else with an issue, idea, or contact, you are working in the sweet spot of your skills. Along the way, good things will happen for you, too.
Set your goals. When you attend an event, the author recommends you pick out 1-3 people in advance to specifically meet. If they are not there, or they are completely swamped, go to your backup goal. Set a number of new people, the article suggests five or 10, to meet, ask two questions, and swap cards with.
Once you have hit your number, you are off the hook. You met your goal and you can go home, see a movie, catch the end of the game at the bar, it doesn’t matter. You set a goal and you hit it. Networking events are not a prison sentence if you don’t make them one.
Ask good questions. “What do you do?” “Tell me about your company” and “How long have you been with your company/this industry/this association?” are all typical openers and they get typical answers. Boring. Try a few other questions instead:
“What business problem does your company solve?”
“What is the best example you have of how you are doing that?”
“What has been the biggest win for you/your company in the last six months?”
“What do you think it will be in the next six months?”
“What is the most interesting initiative you have planned at your company this year?”
“How will that change your company the most?”
The point is that you want to have thought provoking questions that start a conversation out of the norm. These questions should give you that. Once they have answered the questions, you have just one more to ask, “That’s great, is there some way I can help you?”
Exit gracefully. The article says to make the most of networking events take the initiative to introduce yourself, control the conversation with a few questions, and then exit gracefully.
There is a courtesy to be observed at a networking event that involves not monopolizing someone’s time. This rhythm that she set was the right tempo to accomplish what a networking event should do.
You should come away from the event with:
- Business cards of contacts with any commitments you made written on the back of the card for you to follow up on the next day.
- A few new prospects or industry contacts.
- More information about your industry, competitors, and clients than you had on the way in.
And just a few reminders…
- Take your business cards to the event.
- Smile.
- Be the first to put your hand out and introduce yourself, every time.
- Send a quick email to every person you have a card from the next day.
- Thank them for their time and the opportunity to meet them. (This has ridiculous ROI.)
- Don’t bitch. Just because this isn’t your thing, no one wants to hear that you hate it, the food is bad, the place is loud, the people are weird…
rb-
Congrats you’re there: do your job and go home. Have a process and some guidelines it takes some of the stress out of networking and tolerates it better.
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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
Forty hours is considered a typical American workweek. The U.S. BLM reports that the average weekly hours and overtime of all IT employees is just over 36 hours. Add all of those minutes spent answering emails on your phone or stealing glances at your computer when you’re off the clock, you feel like it may easily turn into fifty or more.
