Do you like networking, or are you one of those people who treat networking as an afterthought?
If you think of networking more as an afterthought chances are you hate networking. You go to events and don’t feel like you are achieving anything. Chances are that you are not proactive and you don’t have a plan.
This is ENTIRELY the wrong approach to take. No matter your position on the social scale, no matter how long you have been in business, networking is important for business and personal growth. To me, networking is key. Social Capital is much more important than economic capital.
If you are doing networking wrong you need to change what you are doing.
Concentrate on helping others – If you are not enjoying your networking chances are you are doing it wrong. Maybe you are going to events and handing out hundreds of business cards and trying to sell your product or service. This does not work. You need to change your approach. You need to start with an approach whereby you are helping others first. You should be seeking out opportunities to provide others with referrals and to help them grow their business
Arrive early at events and offer to help – I am a member of BNI and one of the recommendations often mentioned by BNI Founder Ivan Misner is to adopt a host mentality at networking events. Get to an event early and scope the venue. Introduce yourself to the event managers and be helpful throughout the evening.
Curry favour and ask for specific referrals – This is not an event specific recommendation but one more important for your stronger contacts and after you have helped them. If you want referrals you need to be specific about the referrals you want.
Always be looking at self improvement – If you want to improve your results from networking you should constantly be looking to improve yourself – self education related to your area of expertise and related to networking is important for future growth and successful results.
Great networkers have a plan. They set goals and work hard to achieve them. Do you have goals? If not, use the tips mentioend above as a guide and set your goals today.