Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Successful Business Networking - It Is Not All about You

By Chelsea Grace


Business networking events are a great way to build your contacts and increase your business. However , you need to be very sure to do a lot more than just show up if you'd like to get the most out of them. Here are one or two simple ideas to help get more from the business networking events you attend.

First of all, you should be real and truthful about your business. Folk respect honesty and genuineness, and you will gain their trust if you have these qualities. If you don't, others will pick up on it and be less willing to conduct business with you. Some people seem to have the mind-set that truth and sales are not totally compatible. This is an exceedingly short sighted mentality. Business is all about building trust and relationships. You cannot do that successfully ultimately without honesty.

When you are meeting others at networking events, you need to first focus on how you can provide help to them. Spend some time to hear them and understand their business. Try to think of ways you can give them referrals, rather than thinking of how they can bring you new business. If you help them build their business, you'll earn their trust and they will feel forced to return the favor. If you first concentrate on what they can do for you, they may sense that and be less ready to do business with you or refer you to others. There's an extremely straightforward principle that whatever goes around comes around. If you do great things for others, good things will come to you.

When you meet contacts at a networking event, be absolutely certain to write down things about them and their business.They will see you are making the effort to understand them, and this info will be terribly helpful to you later. Remember, you want to focus on how to refer them business, so you need to be ready to remember details about them after the networking event is over. An easy tip is to scribble on the back of their card. That way you do not lose the info.

After the networking event is over, be sure to chase up swiftly with your new contacts. Customarily a fast e-mail will do the trick, and the person you are contacting will feel thankful you took the time to chase up. Be sure to add some detail about them when you write the email. If you found out something interesting about them or their business in your conversation, make a short mention of it. At the exact same time, you would like to keep the email short and straight to the point, in order that it's not a burden to read. Their schedule is probably real busy like yours, and you want to respect their time.

I n short, to be a top networker, it is critical to be polite and think of how to help others. If you live by this principle, you'll develop solid relationships and others will naturally need to refer business to you.




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