There’s only a few of us that really love networking; that get a thrill from walking into a room full of strangers eager to see who we will meet and who we can connect. However, even us networking enthusiasts don’t want to waste our time. Here are our top 5 tips on how to optimize your networking efforts.
- Go with a plan. This can’t be stressed enough. For sure you can just show up, sip your glass of wine and meet some new people. But how much more effective would your time be if you went in knowing you wanted to meet a great plumber for your bathroom and to connect with your client and one more bookkeeping client.
- Be interested. Don’t be that person that talks for 10 minutes and knows nothing about the other person. Be interested in other people. Take pride in being able to list a number of interesting things about the people you met.
- Be the connector. When show interest in other people and take the time to listen to what they do and what they need you put yourself into a great place of being able to connect them to what they need (or who needs them). Being a connector will not only feel great but will make you someone that people want to keep in contact with.
- Bring Pen – Take notes. Don’t feel silly about it either. If you were talking to someone and they asked to take a moment to jot down a reminder for themselves about something you said wouldn’t you feel listened too and little pleased? No matter what our intentions are – when we get home from an event if we haven’t made some kind of note it’s likely we will have forgotten the important and thoughtful details we heard and learned over the evening.
- Follow up with thoughtful details – not mass emails. Look, following up at all puts you ahead of the pack. But how quickly do you hit delete upon receiving that mass follow-up email? Take those notes you made and send a thoughtful follow-up email that reminds the person about your conversation. Whether it’s someone you want to meet up with again right away or just stay loosely connected with – thoughtful follow up goes a long way to staying in people’s memory banks.
If you want to flex your networking skills come join us at one of our upcoming events or sign up for our newsletter to stay in the loop.