What Are You Doing Tonight? Spring into Smarter Networking

Spring is here and many networking events are sprouting up like those perky yellow daffodils. Everyone's encouraging everyone to “network, network, network”. For 4 years I made a living through hosting elegant evening networking events. I loved to hear those words. Now that my role has moved on to Development Director at the Queens Chamber of Commerce, the host of 100+ events per year, I continue to do WAY more than my share of networking.

Over the next few weeks I am going to be writing posts about tips to successfully networking.

The Situation: There's no doubt that setting foot inside a good networking function opens up the opportunity to meet people who might buy, sell, deal with, or service you. Just realize, there are great methods to network and bad methods to network.

 Advice Tidbit: How can you take your game up several notches? Here's an important piece of advice for you:

Don’t talk without figuring out first
WHO it is
you are speaking to.

In other words, listen before you speak. Direct your pitch to their reason for taking precious time and money to be there. Start by asking a few friendly open-ended questions, or, just plain listen when they approach you. Your goal is to take note of:

WHAT is their reason for being there?

WHO is it they would really like to meet?

CAN you pinpoint your goals to meet their goals??

Sidebar: You MUST be genuine when asking questions. If you truly aren’t interested in their mission, don’t even bother to fake it. People are smart… they can tell if you're really interested in what they have to say. If you cannot look into their eyes when they speak, you've put it out there that you are insincere.

Let's face it: I deal with a major medley of businesses in my role at the Queens Chamber of Commerce. That's because ethnically diverse Queens contains such a wide variety of businesses that are being honed (they utilize their relationship with the Chamber in order to grow faster). As a result, I’ve learned to fine tune my presentation to all types of people –a highly regarded energy specialist, a budding new real estate broker, the head of an airline, the owner of a sports facility.

Bottom line: Everyone has their very own agenda, and if you pitch the same no matter who you speak to, chances are slim that you'll hit their sweet spot. Why not increase your odds …by establishing genuine interest through listening carefully first?! You’ll make better pitches and ultimately, close more deals – the whole point of networking. ∞

 Stay tuned to my blog and social networks for more networking tips.

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