For business owners and managers, networking with people both in and out of your industry should be a priority. Effective networking is not just attending events and collecting business cards. It is building and maintaining real relationships that consist of both give and take.
Networking can give you a quantifiable return-on-investment in the form of an increased customer base from personal referrals. Word-of-mouth recommendations – the best form of advertising, which also happens to be free – are driven by networking. Think about it, how likely are you to trust someone recommended by a friend?
But effective networking also gives you less quantifiable benefits, such as having other business owners to ask for advice, knowing experts in multiple fields, being exposed to new ideas and ways of thinking and finding friendships that transcend business.
Networking at its simplest is building relationships. And for it to be effective you need relationships with professional contacts that are real and deep. Just having a lot of contacts that don’t know you very well won’t do you much good. If you want to improve your networking skills, keep these suggestions in mind.
• Focus on quality over quantity. Instead of trying to speak to as many people as possible at a conference or event, focus on having meaningful conversations where you learn about others and their needs and goals.
• Listen first and listen more. Being a good networker means trying to help those in your network. Doing this requires listening to them in order to find out what it is they need. Always look for ways to help someone before even thinking about asking them for a referral or trying to make a sale.
• Cultivate a diverse network. While industry contacts are important, your network should extend beyond your industry. By having a more diversified range of contacts, you’ll avoid creating an insular network and increase your chances of being connected with people you would not have otherwise met.
• Connect with people on a non-business level. You don’t have to always talk business. Find out what interests people – sports, travel or other hobbies. Shared interests help people to bond. So if you have something in common, take time to talk about that, no matter what it is.
• Don’t treat everyone the same. It’s impossible to develop meaningful relationships with everyone you come across. Instead, identify a few people who you consider critical to your network. Get to know these people and be sure you stay in regular contact with them, including speaking a few times per year.
• Follow up quickly. After meeting someone that you would like to keep in touch with, contact them within 48 hours. Send an email, add them on LinkedIn, give them a quick phone call or schedule a lunch. In networking, following up quickly is needed to cement a relationship and keep you and your business at the front of their mind. If you don’t follow up, your conversation may as well have not happened.
