Networking Events: Unleash Success by Seeking Quality Leads
If one of the primary goals of your business is to increase sales, then attending networking events is a great idea. The audience is already pre-warmed and that’s a lot better compared to cold calling. However, to get the most out of the event, you need to play smart. Here are a few suggestions to boost your business with networking events. Learn To Limit – Most entrepreneurs who try to boost their business with online or offline networking events have the mentality of “more is better”. While this can work for some, you should strive for quality rather than quantity. Thus, it’s better to set a limit on how many new contacts you should acquire for any given event. By doing so, you are conditioning yourself to strive for quality connections. To help you with better quality contacts, you can start with these questions:* What’s the type of contact? * How good am I at connecting with new contacts? * How relevant is this contact to my business?
Focus your attention
To start, you might want to aim for 5 to 10 new contacts per networking event. This may sound too few, but is it? Let’s do some math. If you attend a networking event at a rate of twice per week, that’s around 10 events per month. That translates to 50 new contacts a month. Continue this rate for a couple of months while you follow up with older contacts, it’s easy to see that there are more than enough quality contacts to keep you busy. Quality Time – Now that you are aiming for few but high-quality contacts, take the time to learn about the other individual as a person. Talking and listening to someone else is a skill. If you are serious about your business, then improving your communication skills is a must. At the very least, spend at least 10 minutes listening and talking to one individual at that location. Don’t limit your talk to strictly talking about business. Remember, the more you can connect to the other individual, the more he or she will remember you.
That is very important as one individual in the event may talk to a lot of people, and easily forgetting someone is pretty common. Don’t forget to collect a business card. Then, make sure that you follow up after the event. This is where the heavy lifting starts. Keep in mind that in the networking event, you are simply setting the stage for the future. Business Card Tactic – This only works on offline networking events. However, this is a very effective tactic. When you receive the business card, write important notes at the back of the business card while the person is still in front of you. This does two things for you. One, it sets you apart and makes you more memorable for the other person. It shows that you are genuinely interested, and you should be. Remember, we are aiming for quality rather than quantity. The other advantage of doing this is slowing you down so you won’t be running around at the event; trying to meet as much you can.
Take plenty of notes
For starters, you can write down the name and the event. Also, write down a few important notes that came from your conversion. This can also serve as a reminder the moment you contact the person in the future. It’s something that you can refer to. Do Not Sell – Try not to sell anything to the person you just met; not your product or your idea. If you do such a thing, you’re not setting yourself apart as most people in the event are doing such kind of thing. What’s preferable is to try to evaluate how you can help the other person in a cost or time-efficient way. Remember, as Zig Ziglar often says “You can get everything you want, as long as you help enough people to get what they want”. Be Visibly Different – Aside from acting differently, visibly differentiating yourself can go a long way. However, this does not mean that you need to wear a clown costume. You could have a cool, but still professional haircut. Or, you could wear an eye-catching tie. Just make sure you don’t overdo it.
Keep the end goal in mind
Your main goal here is to be visibly memorable, but not go overboard that you’ll not be taken seriously. Attending networking events is a great way to acquire new contacts. However, most smart entrepreneurs know about it, and that’s why you need to step up the game. Simply attending a networking event is not enough anymore. You need to play smart, and that means applying some of the suggestions mentioned above.
