Effortless Networking

How do you end any conversation?

At the end of a chat with a friend, how do you wrap it up? Does this approach work for you and your friend? If so, why not use the same approach in the business context?

For instance, just the other day I spent a couple of hours with a friend. I hadn’t intended to talk for so long. So when I noticed the time, I had to wrap it up quickly.

I told my friend that I really enjoyed our chat, and I had to go pick up my son from school now. Perhaps we could schedule another get-together soon. My friend agreed. And we went our separate ways.

This is very similar to how I end social conversations at parties, and business conversations at networking events.

The main difference is that I may or may not want to meet with these people again!

The other important difference is that I usually offer to introduce the person I’m talking with, to someone else.

If someone is at a networking event, I figure they’re there for a reason. So I ask what they’re looking for. Is there an introduction I can make? Is there someone they want to find?

If I can make the introduction or help find whomever they’re looking for, I do so.

If not, I introduce them to someone else who may be able to help better.

Either way, it clears the way for me to move on.

And far from being rude, it’s actually a positive ending.

I can think of at least two cases where people I met just once remembered me years later just because we ended our conversation in this manner. When I encountered them again, their words were (more or less):

“Oh yes, I remember you — you introduced me to so-and-so! That was very helpful.”

A rather nice way to be remembered, don’t you think?

For more on this topic, check out the Effortless Networking book.

And good luck applying this concept to your networking conversations.