Build Your Networkings Skills, One Step At A Time

Tuesday 5 January, 2010

by Dr. Ivan Misner

As a business owner, one of your primary goals is to continue to fill your pipeline with new business. One of the most cost-effective ways to do this – particularly for a smaller business – is through networking.

Before you can begin to be an effective networker, it’s important to identify some of the strengths and skill sets that you bring to the table as a business professional:

• Are you a “people person”?
  
• Do you enjoy public speaking?
  
• What kind of professional background did you have before starting your business?
  
• How long have you lived in the area where you do business?
  
• What other natural skills do you have (such as time management, staying organized, keeping clients focused) that don’t fall directly into your business expertise but are valued by people?

One of the biggest roadblocks to networking is the fear that being more of an “introvert” impedes any successful attempts at trying to network. In fact, it’s a question that is asked quite frequently: “How do I network if I’m not a naturally outgoing person”?
Go ahead and breathe a sigh of relief - because you don’t have to become Mr. Public Speaker, Person About Town, to be a successful networker. Most business people, given a little real-world experience, naturally develop a certain level of comfort in dealing with customers, vendors, and others in their day-to-day transactions. Even people who are not gregarious or outgoing can form meaningful relationships and communicate.

Online Networking: Building Your Social Capital At Your Desk

If it is taking you a bit longer to get used to face-to-face networking, remember that thanks to technology’s continuing advances, you can also network without ever leaving your desk – online networking is a very effective way to connect with potential clients and referral sources.
Computer technology and the growth of the Internet have made it easier than ever before to connect with large numbers of people. Online networking gives you broad reach at low cost and effort. What it doesn’t do, however, is provide a forum where relationships can deepen naturally. The nature of the medium strips out communication cues such as facial expression, tone of voice, and body language, restricting communication to the verbal. This is why emoticons were invented - to help convey whether one is happy :D, angry ):o, or perhaps just joking ;). Text messaging on mobile phones is even dicier; sometimes THX C U L8R just doesn’t do it for gratitude.
Online networking has a rude etiquette all its own. Communications are more direct and blunt, less polite, and this often comes across as aggressiveness. It’s easy to get “flamed” online - that is, encounter open hostility when you’re chatting or messaging invisibly behind the curtain of cyberspace. In person, social norms dictate more restraint.
This is one reason it’s usually better to use online networking with people only after you’ve established a relationship with them by traditional means. To develop trust, respect, and true friendship, it’s hard to beat in-person conversation and the occasional handshake or pat on the shoulder.

Offering Advice To Break The Ice

So we’re back to the challenge of doing some face-to-face networking when you haven’t had much practice at it, or are not sure how to “break the ice”. To get you started, you might want to try offering some free professional advice. Let’s say you’re a real estate agent talking with someone at a networking event who, although not ready to buy a home today, is heading in that direction. You could say something like this:
"Well, I know you’re not interested in buying a home right now. But when you’re ready to start looking, I’d highly recommend checking out the north part of town. A lot of my clients are seeing their homes appreciate in the 10 to 20 percent range, and from what I understand, the city is thinking about building another middle school in that area".
See how it’s possible to offer some value-added advice without being too salesy? A statement like this acknowledges that your prospect is not currently in the market (first sentence) but still demonstrates your expertise, so he will remember and perhaps contact you when he’s ready to move.
This model works for just about anyone in a service-based industry in which knowledge is the main product. If you’re a marketing consultant, give your prospects a couple of ideas on how they can increase the exposure of their business. Don’t go overboard; maybe a technique you read in a magazine or tried with one of your clients. Just give them something they can “try on” to see if it works.
Not only will this open up a good conversation with the person (while you’re out networking), but if you play your cards right, who do you think they’ll go to when they’re in need of your kind of service? When it comes to building rapport and creating trust, nothing does it better than solid, helpful information provided out of a genuine concern for the other person.

Become A Trusted Source For Quality Referrals And Contacts

Another way to ease into networking is to provide a referral or contact. This could be a direct referral (someone you know who’s in the market for this person’s services) or a solid contact (someone who could help in other ways down the road).
Let’s say you’re networking and you run into a person who owns a printing shop. You talk for a while, you hit it off, and even though you don’t know of anyone who’s looking for this person’s selection of print services right now, you’d like to help him out. So you say:
"Jim, I don’t know of anyone who’s actively in the market for printing services right now, but I do have someone who I think could be a big help to your business. Her name is Jane Smith, and she’s a marketing consultant. I know a lot of her clients need business cards, flyers, and things like that printed, and while I don’t know if she has a deal on the table right now, I think you both would really hit it off if you got together".
You see how easy that was? You stated right up front you don’t know of anyone in the market right now. You then followed up by saying you do know of someone who you think could help and briefly described how. Chances are, this will sound like a good idea to your new contact.
Being new to networking does not have to be a barrier to building and maintaining relationships that will help grow your business. Simply identify your professional skill set and make it work for you. Before you know it, you won’t remember a time when you were anything but a solid, professional networker.