NFIB

Successful Networking
12/ 10/ 2003

by Jeffrey Moses

While the term networking is thrown around frequently, oftentimes the meaning is misunderstood. Networking is not about making as many people as possible know about your business. Instead, successful networking means forming meaningful and strategic relationships with other businesses, industry experts, vendors and customers.

Follow these tips to make sure your networking efforts pay off:

The overriding rule in all aspects of networking is to inform, not to sell. Even in the most businesslike of informal situations, people do not want to be forcibly approached with a sales pitch. They're interested in what your company does, certainly, but you'll turn them off with even a hint that you may be trying to get their business.

The best way to avoid the natural inclination to present yourself or your company in a way that comes across as a blatant sales or marketing pitch is to ask questions and to listen to the answers, rather than speak only about your own interests. The more you know about a person's business needs, the more directly you can discuss solutions.

The ideal networking situation is when your questions elicit details about problems, needs or goals that a person has, and your conversation then takes the form of informing the person about how their needs can be met. By doing this, you'll avoid giving the impression that you're selling. The more directly you can address a person's specific concerns, the less your conversation will seem like a sales pitch.

Of course, when someone asks you directly what your company does, you should tell them about your products or services. But anything you say will always be most effective if you've had the chance to ask a few questions first, so you can know how to inform them in a way that really pertains to them.

To prepare for describing what your company does, have a brief description prepared of what your products/services and what differentiates your company from competitors. Everything you say after that should be informational based on what you've learned from the person.

Conceivably, you may not even get to the point of talking about your company during the conversation. If you just ask questions, listen, then ask more questions, you'll end up knowing quite a bit about how to best approach a sales presentation. Once you've learned about the person's needs, you can follow up later and address them with great accuracy. Following up later offers you the chance to prepare, to research their company's history and present operations, and to put together specific data or information that pertains to what they told you were their greatest concerns.

Small Business Sound Off
Does this story hit home?  Share your story with us