Networking is generally not the most efficient use of time if the only reason you are attending an event is to look for new business. The vast majority of attendees at most networking events will not be prospects for either new business or as a referral partners unless the event is designed specifically for people who might be your prospects or partners. For example, if
you sell title services for a title company, attending a REALTOR event would, of course, put you in front of lots of potential referral partners. On the other hand, if you’re attending a chamber meeting, relatively few of the attendees will be potential referral partners or prospects.
This being said, there are ways to maximize your efficiency at networking events. The brief discussion below is greatly expanded in Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales Success through Client Referrals, but this gives the basic outline of an efficient networking formula.
Before you go: Have a supply of business cards with your information on the front and blank on the back. If you can, have your cards cut slightly larger than the standard card, as they will stand out in one’s hand. Also, do a little homework before you go. Get an idea of who might attend that you would want to meet so you can keep an eye out for them. Have a high quality name tag made for yourself that features your name in large, easy to read letters.
Be the first on there: Get to the event early and station yourself at as near to the main entrance as possible. Greet each person as they arrive. This is a brief greeting. You want to introduce yourself, hear them pronounce their name and their company. If you meet someone you want to speak with further, make a mental note. This greeting should only last a few seconds.
Mingle: Once the arriving traffic begins to slow, start to mingle with the attendees. Have a plan—work your way around the room in one direction and keep going in that direction. These conversations will only last a couple of minutes. Introduce yourself again and immediately ask about the other person. Don’t try to sell yourself or your product/service. Most people will offer you a business card. Put the business cards of those people you do not identify as potential prospects in your left pocket. Those who are of interest, put in your right pocket. This separates the cards so you can quickly find the cards of those people you are interested in learning more about without having to remember. For those people you are interested in learning more about, take one of your cards and before giving it to the person, say that you are interested in learning more about them, ask for permission to contact them, then write on the back of the card the day and time you will call them. Make the time general—something like, Tuesday, May 4 between 10 and 11 am. Make the call date and time the same for everyone. You have given yourself an hour window, so you should be able to make all the calls during that time, but by making the date and time the same for everyone, you don’t have to remember who you’re going to call when. Then move to the next person. Spend about 60% of the allotted time in this manner.
Reconnect: Spend the last 30% of your time looking for and reconnecting with the people you determined are of interest. You have their cards in your right-hand pocket, so you know exactly who they are. This time when you find one, make the conversation go a little more in-depth. Learn as much as you can about the person and focus on them, not on you. Before moving to the next person, give the person another card and write the same information on the back. If the opportunity presents itself, this time you might set up a lunch meeting.
Using this format allows you and the people you are interested in to meet and see each other three times. This will help solidify in both your minds each other’s face, company and names. Also, after three or four meetings people will begin to think of you as an acquaintance rather than someone they just met.
On the appointed day for your phone calls, make sure you call exactly when you say you will. If they aren’t in, leave a voice mail reminding them that you were to call so it clicks in their mind that you did what you said you would do. In your voice mail give them another time and day you will call (of course, make it the same for everyone, just as you did the first time).
