Face-to-Face Business Networking -What’s Your Strategy?
Monday, May 25th, 2009Btb Guest Author
Miriam Ahern
Face-to-face business networking is a much cheaper way to promote your business than advertising or PR. It is a low-cost activity where the pressure is on your time rather than on your pocket. It’s more effective than on-line networking as you build important personal relationships more quickly.
Nevertheless, meeting someone just once is unlikely to bring you new business. The key lies in repeat-encounters. However, the old maxim still holds – time is money. Here’s how to spend that time wisely:
Step # 1 - Determine why you need to network and set clear networking objectives for yourself
Action - List the main (important and urgent) objectives for your networking activities for the next twelve months. These objectives might be aligned to a personal or business plan that you have developed. Be very specific in terms of what you need to
do and why and when you need to do it. Use the SMART principle so that your networking objectives are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound.
Step # 2 - Audit your existing networks
Action - Make a ‘master list’ of your existing networks on one sheet of paper. Then, for each of those networks, take a blank sheet of paper and brain-storm that network. What you want to end up with is a set of individual lists of all of your active contacts within in each of your current networks. An active contact is someone with whom you have interacted during the last three months or so. If you are used to ‘mind-mapping’, that method makes this step really easy.
Step # 3 – Align your ‘master list’ to your new networking objectives
Action – Ask yourself this question. Are there other relevant groups of people that I need to network with to achieve my current networking objectives? If the answer is yes, your immediate mission is to identify, locate and engage with these new groups or individuals. Different networking objectives may require you to interact within different networking groups.
Step # 4 – Galvanise your existing networks into action
Action – In the context of your new networking objectives, review the names on each of the sheets that you have prepared for each of your networks. Are there other people available to you through those existing networks that you have not included in your list? For example, are there wider family members, ex-colleagues, or co-professionals with whom it would benefit you to acquaint yourself? Plan to connect with these additional people at your earliest opportunity.
Step # 5 –Re-educate your existing contacts
Action – Make sure that your introduction, or ‘elevator pitch’, is up to date. For many of us, the way in which we introduce ourselves may depend on which network we are interacting within. Make sure that if you have a ‘set’ of introductions that they are all freshly aligned to your networking goals. Do this in advance of any networking activities. Don’t get caught on the spot at events or meetings where you might get tangled in a long explanation about how or why you have changed your slant.
Step # 6 – Encourage your contacts to be your ambassadors and your sales reps!
Action – Make yourself memorable. One extremely good networker that I know carries a stunningly beautiful pair of diamond earrings in his pocket. Not so strange, really. He’s a master jeweller and a diamond grader. You should see people flocking around him when he’s in action. No-one ever forgets having met him either!
Use every available opportunity when you are networking to become involved in the event itself. Here are some suggestions:
Get to know your network organisers or facilitators
Volunteer to ‘buddy-up’ with newcomers at formal networking events
Become a connector, introduce your acquaintances to each-other
Offer to present a short talk on your subject(s) of expertise
Extend a special discount to fellow-networkers
Offer to be a table facilitator or host during round-table networking activities or exercises
Follow up a promising chance encounter with a one-to-one meeting over coffee or lunch
Relationships + Reputation = Referrals
Miriam Ahern is the founder and managing partner of Align Management Solutions – a consultancy specialising in organisational change and development. She also manages LINK! - Dublin City Enterprise Board’s Network for Start-up Businesses. Miriam is a regular contributor in the national media on issues relating to business management and human resources. She is a Certified Management Consultant and a Fellow of the Institute of Management Consultants and Advisers.
Mobile: + 353 86 234 2789
Office: + 353 1 412 5890
www.linkedIn.com/in/miriamahern
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