By D’vorah Lansky – Guest Blogger
Continuing on with our theme of in-person networking, today I am going to share with you three more tips for building relationships by attending in-person networking events.
- Bring Friends, Colleagues, and Networking Buddies with You to Events and Introduce Them to Others
- Develop a 30-60 Second Elevator Speech That Causes People to Say, “Tell Me More”
- Get Together With People Over the Course of the Month
Bring Friends, Colleagues, and Networking Buddies with You to Events and Introduce Them to Others
Take someone from your BNI Chapter to your Chamber of Commerce meeting and introduce them to someone in their contact sphere or introduce them to people whom you feel would be a good connection for them. This will again increase your value and your likeability factor as well as make you an invaluable member of the business community. You will also be helping people at the Chamber of Commerce event to broaden their contact sphere as you help to connect them to people in your BNI Chapter, for example.
Bring your Networking Buddies with you to events but don’t hang out with them the whole time. Visit with them, introduce them to people and then go and mingle and encourage them to do the same.
Previously I gave the example of making a simple introduction between a Realtor and mortgage loan office. Following is an example of how to make a much warmer personal introduction. Let’s use the same example of a Realtor but this time, provide a warm introduction.
If you are speaking with a Professional Organizer and you know that her best referral source is Realtors. You may want to introduce her to one or more of the Realtors in the room. A possible introduction could go like this, “Lisa, hi, I know that you are a Realtor specializing in selling homes in this area. I’d like to introduce you to my good friend Donna. Donna is a Professional Organizer and she specializes in helping to increase the value of homes with her Home Staging Services. I thought that the two of you might enjoy meeting one another for a possible mutually beneficial relationship.” This can increase the services that the Realtor offers to her clients and this can create a great alliance between these two professionals.
Again, you increase your value and what you offer to the community and you are deepening your relationships. As an additional benefit to you, you will become more easily referrable as you will be on their radar and thus you’ll be able to grow your business.
Develop a 30-60 Second Elevator Speech That Causes People to Say, “Tell Me More”
Rather than saying, “Hi, my name is so and so and this is the name of of my business and I do this, that and the other thing and we have great stuff and you should go to our website and buy our stuff.” First of all, people will tune you out. This is a situation where the “less is more” factor comes into play. Rather than telling them everything that you do, share with them something that causes them to say, “Tell me more”.
I’d like to share a story with you told to me by my very good friend Sasha. She was at a luncheon for Financial Planners and being the conversationalist that she is, she turned to the person to the right of her and asked them, “what do you do?” That person went on to tell her all about their financial planner services in great detail. Next, Sasha turned to her left and asked, “what do you do?” This person said, “I show people how to get their children to buy them an island”.
Which person would you be more inclined to ask to tell you more? So, what can you say to get people to ask you to tell them more? You may want to practice on a few friends and let them know that you are working on your 30 second commercial and that your goal is to get people to ask you to tell them more. Ask them if they would listen to what you’ve come up with and then give you their honest feedback.
Get Together With People Over the Course of the Month
Select two or three people that you’d like to get to know better and schedule a time to meet with them over the next few weeks. It’s a best practice to meet with at least one person a week, outside of networking events. Some people make it a practice to meet with several people a week for coffee or over lunch. People may not have their calendar with them, so set a tentative date and find out the best way to reach them to confirm that you both have the appointment in your calendars. You don’t want to leave it up to chance with a note on the back of a business card as it might not make it into their calendar. Ask them what the best way to reach them is. You can say, “If I send you an emai confirming our appointment, will you be able to get back to me or would it be better if I call you?
These days many people prefer email as they can get to it when they have a moment, it’s right there next to their calendar and it’s easy to reply back to you. When you do go out with them, don’t use that time to give a sales pitch, use this as a time to get to know them and find out about their hobbies. This will strengthen that relationship. This is also a great way for you to get ideas for who you can introduce them to in your network. This increases your likeability factor and the value you are adding to the relationship.
I hope that the seven tips I shared over the course of this week, were helpful to you. Please feel free to leave a comment, share an idea or ask any questions. Consider taking one thing that you learned and putting into action within one week. I’d love to hear about your results.
Here’s to your success! Happy Networing!
D’vorah Lansky – Guest Blogger
M.Ed and Relationship Marketing Wizard
www.RealtionshipMarketingCafe.com