“I had no idea how to network”

I’ve heard that comment from a couple of people this week and when I hear it, it always reminds me that effective networking is a business skill.

I sometimes lose sight of this because networking and referral generation are my business, so I assume everyone knows what to do. Not true.

In both cases, the above comment was made by women who had started their businesses within the past 3 years.  They’re both organized, realistic business women, who made a solid plan to start and manage their businesses. They both felt they had to network (mainly because other successful business people said they should), but they had no idea where to begin and how to network.

That’s a huge challenge for all business people – everyone says “Ya gotta network!” but no one says “Here’s how you do it.”

I’m here to help – here’s how you do it.

The first step is to decide what you’d like your networking activities to bring to your business. “New clients” is usually the response I get to this question. Which brings up the first challenge; believe it or not, networking events are not where you will find new clients. (It’s a shocking mythJ.) The good news is that at networking events you will find contacts that will lead you to new clients.

Understanding this helps make networking activities more productive.

Which leads to step 2: what would you like to accomplish with your networking activities?

If your answer is “Make meaningful connections” then you’re on the right track. The best approach, in my experience, is to decide who you’d like to be connected to before you attend the event. Then, at the event, look to connect with those people.

And, this approach works best when you are NOT looking for new clients. BNI Founder, Dr. Ivan Misner tells a story about an event where he was the keynote speaker. The audience was about 500 people. He asked the question: “How many of you came here today looking for new business?” Most of the hands went up. Then he asked, “How many of you came here to buy something today?” ZERO hands went up.  That’s a perfect example of the networking conundrum.

So, when you attend a networking event look for people, not clients. People who can help you with something; people you can help with something; and people who would be great connections for your clients. When you attend a networking event with a “How can I help you?” attitude, everyone wants to be connected to you.

And those people know the people who want to be your next, best, new clients.

Give it a try at the next networking event you attend.