Get the most out of your networking

Business networking is one topic that is at the forefront of most business owners minds right now. Why? When it's done well it yields results and when it's not, it doesn't and with business owners out there who are looking to maximise that return on their networking investment, then doing it to the best of your ability is high on the agenda.

A full range available

There are many different groups out there to choose from ranging from pure referral based set-ups where you accrue a surrogate sales team to work on your behalf, through to informal 'social gatherings' where your ticket to success relies on the words that leave your mouth and the 'style' in which YOU deliver them. Throughout this spectrum of opprtunity there is a format that will suit you and your business, no doubt about it, yet before you go and start networking there are a few fundamentals to take into account.

Activity management

Like many other business development activities, networking IS business development and IS measureable. As a business owner or representative of a business you have made an investment in time and money to be there at the event so to measure your success in your chosen environment should be on your agenda post event, shouldn't it?

Why are you there?

Firstly - manage your expectations in relation to networking. Business networking is not a forum for a person to go and directly sell their wares. Most would agree it is a platform for business owners and decision makers to communicate with eachother, build relationships, get to know, like and trust one another before 'possibly' making an appropriate recommendation where available to your business. Rightly so, you are there to raise the profile of your business, make people aware of who you are, what you do, the value you provide and , if appropriate to do so, request who you might be interested in speaking with so making 'commtiment' to the 'who and how many' question should be a consideration. For those who are part of a group already, it could be your responsibility to communicate the benefits of the group or outline some of the success achieved by the group to maintain the level of interest amongst visitors.

What do you want to achieve?

Having personal and business objectives in mind is crucial. To go networking without an objective is potentially hazardous. Why? Because if you 'prefer' this environment to develop your business (as opposed to telemarketing for example) yet don't commit to speaking with new people then you are not developing your business as efficiently as you could. Committing to speaking with new people, committing to speaking to exisiting contacts about success stories since you last met and committing to step outside of your comfort zone to do these things can be a part of your plan. In addition to telling others about you, you must also make time to allow others to return to you information about them, their business and offer, if appropriate, how you can help them. Having an objective to help someone will move you quicker towards communicating with many.

Offering a helping hand!

Some people say that better networkers are those that give and there are often people who you come across who are only more than happy to assist you and your business. THIS IS QUITE NORMAL and not to be misconstrued as someone being over keen or intrusive. You can tell those types a mile off! Rooms of people hold valuable skills, contacts and experience and for those who find people with skills sets that are slightly unique, there may be opportunities for you to experience that offering before having the opportunity to recommend to your valuable contacts. Go in a giving mood - you never know what might occur. Would you want to be amongst givers of takers?

Building rapport with the people in the room

Your ability to learn or advance your personal rapport building skills is paramount to the success of your networking. With so many people 'unaware' of how to build rapport with people easily, maintaining conversations and communicating 'on their level' is a pre-requisite to advancing a relatiionship in your desired direction so the skills are their to be learned. Rapport happens naturally for most people and the next time you are out there networking, take a look around the room and as you listen to the conversations taking place, also take note of body positions. You may notice many mirroring and matching of behavioural patterns as you do that.

Your 60 second message

Whether off the cuff or planned to the hilt, your business message is to be clear and concise. Your ability to communicate in a confident manner whilst illustrating your offering is the prime skill to be honed in this environment. Couple that with a style that is natural and appealing to the listener(s) and you have a combination of ingredients to get you known in the right areas.

Presentations

The best opportunity in business networking awaits you at the 10 minute 4site/spotlight/insight part of the meeting. For those who choose to get involved and do it, this is the main event. It's not very often that you get an opportunity to showcase your business for 10 minutes with no interruption, everyone listening, just you and your peers hearing about what it is you do, how you do it and how you help people in business to get their results. This moment in time is not a direct sales pitch with no room for identification of offers, pricing structures or persuasion to use. It is your opportunity to give more information than you might in 40-60 seconds whilst going round the table over breakfast. A chance to let people get to know you and the business better, see your style, your personality and your skills and knowledge. What an opportunity, take it with both hands when the time is right for you to do that.

Post event tools!

Some of the more 'with it' networking businesses have harnessed the power of the internet and in particular social networking as part of their offering with great success. Those businesses have managed to allow their members to continue their relationship building online, in between meetings. This opportunity allows you and your business multiple ways of promoting yourself, your knowledge, offers, thoughts and anything else you consider of value to a listening community. In addition, the opportunity to contribute to other business owners thoughts, dilemmas and challenges via the contribution to 'threads' is an indirect way of promoting you and your knowledge to that community. If your business knowledge enables you to provide interesting and relevant articles that will benefit community members then this is yet another way for you to showcase yourself.

Investing time, not effort

When you look at all the various ways you can promote your business, owners and representatives are advised not to be fooled into thinking that liaising on linkedin, tinkering on twitter or any other social media for that matter is 'messing about on the net'. By adopting a time managed approach, say 20 minutes a day, to such activity, can and does build and cement further relationships. As the old saying goes, you have to 'in it to win it' and as communication methodologies advance, the advice is to get on board and commit to making it work in which ever way is best for you to do that.

Can you evolve with it?

So. It does pay to invest time, thought and effort into networking. It also pays to move with the times and step outside of your comfort zone to adopt the latest ways of working to get your business. Business is evolving and so is the way it is being done. You have to prepare yourself to choose to evolve with it.