Networking or Not Working?

Posted by Brian | Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Networking is an increasingly excellent way to develop your business but is also an excellent way to waste a lot of time doing nothing useful. It may be that productive networking is an art and there are different levels of involvement.

There are however some useful tips or thoughts to consider around any opportunity for networking and these are detailed below

• Why are you going? – may appear obvious on the surface but you need to consider this. Do you want business directly from an event, are you looking to meet useful movers and shakers. You may find that any networking event is full of sellers and not buyers.
• Who do you want to engage with? – Different events may attract different types of businesses and you must ensure you get this right or risk disappointment. It is also important to determine who you are talking to as there is a big difference between the business owner (who can write a cheque) and the employee (who wishes he could write the cheques)
• Do you really know what you offer? - This is an area of apparent confusion for some businesses as they often struggle to detail their offering in a way that can be easily understood. Most people would like to be told simply what you do and more importantly what that means to them.
• How will you get chatting? – Are you confident and outgoing or shy and reserved? Big difference and if the latter do you have a colleague or partner who is better placed to go instead. Networking, regardless of type, is all about introduction and chatting so a very simple intro works best. It can also be polite to ask the recipient about themselves first to promote conversation. Not only can this be relaxing for them but also allows you to qualify a need for what you do.
• Where is the get out? – If you do end up with the 32^nd life coach of the night be confident enough to move on if there is no benefit. If you just want to grow your contact base talk to everyone but if it is business you are after do not be afraid to move on from those you will not do business with.

It is also useful to think about where you go as well as what you actually do. There are many different networking groups and organisations that offer lots of different types of events. As well as location, there is cost and customer value to consider. You can attend events with Chamber of Commerce, Business Link, BNI along with many other local or national event organisers. There is also the ability to network online with ecademy, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, zoom and many others.

Above all ensure that whatever you do you understand fully why you are doing it and what you expect to gain as a result or you will indeed be not working as opposed to networking.