Effortless Networking

In business networking, I find that many people often confuse self-introductions and “elevator speeches”.

These are two different things, and each is useful in different contexts.

For example, if you’re someone who is involved in many different initiatives, or offers a variety of unrelated products or services, coming up with one “elevator speech” may not only be difficult, but also not useful.

Why is this?

Because chances are, different people will be interested in different things you offer.

So instead of trying to summarize everything you can and want to do in 30 seconds, I would approach it in a different way.

Consider two things:

1. Whom are you talking with?
2. What is your intention?

If you’re talking to someone who may be a prospective customer, find out first which of your products or services this person may be interested in.

Then you can present your information concisely, highlighting only those products or services that are relevant.

This may be a pre-crafted “elevator speech” for that aspect of your work. Or it may simply be you explaining and describing what you do, given what you’ve learned about the other person.

What this means is that you introduce yourself without using an “elevator speech”.

How? Just like in any other situation — with your name and something else that’s relevant in the context.

At a social gathering, it’s usually your relationship to the host of the party, or who you came with. In a business setting, it may simply be the company you represent, or perhaps something related to the setting where you meet this person.

It also means that you engage the other person in conversation to find out whether in fact they are a potential customer — and if so, for which of your offerings.

Similarly, if you’re presenting to a leads group, who the members? What kinds of leads would they be able to generate for you?

If the members can find leads for one of your products or services more easily than others, you may just highlight that one in your “official” presentation.

This does not mean you can’t promote your other offerings. You would simply do that “offline”, as you get to know individual members better.

Again, this implies that you take the time and initiative to talk to each person and find out more about them, than can be summarized in 30 seconds.

For more on getting to know people and related topics, click here.

Till next week,
– Sri

A reader recently commented that my articles didn’t “wow” her.

Well, of course not — my intention is not to impress or dazzle people!

My goal is to provide useful information. And useful information can often be “unglamorous” because it is … well… so utilitarian.

For instance, someone recently asked about how best to build a list of contacts for her business.

She has started a new business and attends events to build her contact list. However, she finds that most people at these events tend to stick to others they already know.

Although she’s not a shy person, breaking into these pre-formed groups is still difficult.

My response is straight-forward:

1. Start with a clear idea of the kinds of contacts you’re looking for.
2. Look for people you already know, who may be able to introduce you to such contacts — so you don’t have to attend “events”.
3. If you need to (or want to) attend events to find additional contacts, go with a specific “agenda” so you can be focused and actually leverage the power of the pre-formed groups.

Here’s what I mean:

Let’s say you want to become a “preferred vendor” at companies or organizations, so you can provide your products or services to their employees.

You’d attend events with a specific goal of finding and compiling a list of contacts at these types of companies.

For example, if you were a coach or a massage therapist, wanting to find companies that offered coaching or massage at the workplace as employee benefits, that’s what you’d look for and ask about: Are there companies that do this? If so, which ones? And what’s the process to become a “preferred vendor”? And so on.

Here’s where the pre-formed groups can actually be helpful to you:

If you’re able to introduce yourself to the group and ask your question, you’d be able to tap into the collective knowledge and network of the entire group — not just one person.

If the groups seem to “tight”, and you’re unable to (or feel too awkward to) break in, consider asking the meeting organizer or someone at the registration desk to get you started.

In most cases, this works very well, because meeting organizers want newcomers to feel welcome. After all, they want their events to be successful!

Meeting organizers will most likely introduce you to a regular attendee, who will probably know other regular attendees.

And once you meet one person in the “inner crowd”, you can ask them to introduce you to others who can answer your questions and help you find what you need.

As you see, there are no bells or whistles here — nothing to “wow” you!

However, the information is simple to understand, easy to use, and most importantly, gets you the results you want.

After all, isn’t that what you really want?

Till next week,
– Sri

How do you make business networking actually work for you?

This is a question someone asked me recently.

And my short answer is this:

1. Start from the end — in other words, what outcomes or results do you want?
2. Then work backwards from there.

For instance, you may say that your end goal is to make more sales.

Fine. And my next question is, “how”? Do you want to do this directly or indirectly?

Your answer will help you determine your networking strategy, as well as help you measure whether it is actually working for you.

If you want to generate more sales directly, you’ll be looking for opportunities to meet prospective clients or customers. (This, by the way, is “prospecting” — not “networking”.)

So your strategy will involve finding ways to meet them — which may be through individual introductions, at “networking events”, conferences or trade shows, etc. It will also include ways to present yourself and what you sell, for maximum impact.

And you will probably measure your progress by the number of leads you generate, the number of sales you make, etc.

Now, if you want to generate sales indirectly — i.e., through “networking” — you may look for affiliates, joint venture partners, referral sources, a combination of these, and so on.

Most of these people will probably not buy what you sell, but rather find others who are interested in buying from you. So you will have a very different kind of conversation with them, than you would with your prospects. Also, you may or may not find this group of people the same way or in the same locations as your prospects.

How and where will you find and meet these people? What kind of working relationship will you build with them, and how will you do this?

To make business networking actually work for you, you must find one or more strategies to answer each of these questions.

And then, you must have a way to tell whether or not your strategies are working.

So how will you know whether or not your business networking strategies and tactics are paying off?

Yes, I know — “more business”!

But what else?

What intermediate “evidence” will you look for, that’ll tell you that you’re on the right track?

Because this will not only tell you whether your efforts are paying off, it will also tell you whether (and where) to make adjustments or modifications to get the results you want.

And for more details, click here.

Till next week,
– Sri