Regardless of the power of online networking, good
networking techniques at live events remind us again and again that there’s no
substitute for getting face-to-face with business people – provided we play our
cards right. With that in mind, I would urge all of us to observe the following
networking practices.
I recently wrote about networking with real people, as
opposed to the cyber-people on your Social Media friends lists (Tips for
carbon-based networking).
In this article we’ll review suggestions for networking at
business events. Regardless of the power of online networking, good networking
techniques at live events reminds us again and again that there’s no substitute
for getting face-to-face with business people – provided we play our cards
right.
With that in mind, I would urge all of us to observe the
following networking practices.
Mingle, don’t cluster. My experience is that when
people from the same workplace attend a business event they make the
mistake of hanging together, rather than doing the hard work of mingling
with strangers and turning them into acquaintances. You can talk to your
office mates any time. Even those who are solo practitioners are prone to
cluster with the first couple of people they meet and never advance
beyond.
Don’t wander aimlessly.
Always try to get the attendee list prior to the event. That gives you an
opportunity to review the list and target the people you want to meet and
do business with. If the list is not available, it’s a good idea to spend
your first five minutes surveying and assessing the crowd, figuring out
who you want to approach. In other words, have a game plan rather than
just letting things happen as they may. If you get to an event early keep
an eye on the entrance and catch high-value people as they arrive. Most
event planners neglect to have greeters at the door, and people will
appreciate somebody who extends a hand and says, “C’mon, I’ll walk you to
the bar.”
The food can wait. You
cannot effectively network with a drink in one hand and a plate of food in
the other. How do you shake hands? How do you exchange business cards? Do
you think people want to watch you chomping on hors d’oeuvres and showing
off your dental work while trying to explain what you do for a
living? I don’t think so. Don’t
show up famished. Eat something before you arrive if you’re hungry. Brush
your teeth and freshen your breath. Eat while the event is drawing to a
close, or grab a to-go plate.
Keep it short, but never abrupt. You want to touch down, make
contact, exchange some key information with your high-value targets and
move on. Just don’t be abrupt or you’re likely to offend people by
creating the impression that you deemed them unworthy of your time and are
bolting for greener pastures. You can avoid this situation by striking an
agreement with your new contact to get in touch to schedule a coffee
meeting so you can spend more time talking business.
Keep business cards separated. Put the ones you hand out in
one pocket and the cards you collect in another. If you mix your business
cards with the ones you collect you’ll end up shuffling a deck before
long. This gives people the wrong impression – that you’re an
indiscriminate and serial collector of business cards. And you’re
disorganized.
Introduce people to one another.
This is a powerful technique. You become a connector. And if you hang
around awhile and observe the conversation you just ignited, you’re likely
to be surprised and enriched by the information you pick up just by
listening. So bring people together, they’ll remember you for it.
Mike Consol is president of MikeConsol.com,
which provides business writing seminars, Web 2.0 strategies and media training
to midsize and large companies. Consol spent 17 years with American City
Business Journals, the nation’s largest publisher of metropolitan business
journals with 40 weekly newspapers across the United States.
