Tweet

Networking Saying Hello with Impact

Written by: George Smart

Article Overview: In an age of global competition, today’s information professionals engage in a sport that isn’t found on an Olympic roster. Chambers of Commerce, conferences, and other business meetings form the backdrop for networking, a form of interaction professionals use to build profitable relationships.

Networking Saying Hello with Impact

by George Smart

I define networking as “creating and exchanging business information in one-on-one conversation.” Networking can be an old, tired term – or it can be your ticket to greater influence, recognition, and referrals.

When you meet someone new, you have to be effective quickly. Most people only truly listen about 90 seconds before they make judgments about you. The 90-second “honeymoon” period is critical for making a favorable impression.

And the old adage, ‘It’s not what you know, but who you know” is certainly true. Networking builds a foundation of people who know you and will tell others. Here are seven proven steps to improve your networking ability and effectiveness.

1. Introduce yourself clearly. Though this step may seem obvious, it is often overlooked. How many times has someone come up to you, started talking, and you did not know who they were? Say first say your name and company then ask for the same from your listener.

2. Be specific when describing what services or products your com-pany offers. Don’t just say “I’m in computers.” Instead say something more specific like, “My firm specializes in local area networks for the real estate industry.”

3. Organize your introduction. Have a 15-second opening statement that describes what you do. If your product or service is very technical or hard to explain, have a few 30-second stories ready that will help illustrate what you do. Stories, if kept to the point, help create and maintain listener interest.

4. Inform, don’t sell. Stress the importance of simply informing the listener rather than coming on with a sales pitch. When in doubt, low-key is always better.

5. Be yourself. Putting on another persona can make you look silly, or artificial, or both. Learn all you can about what makes people receptive, but remember that there is no substitute for authenticity.

6. Truly listen. Don’t plan your next line of dialogue while the other person is speaking. Good listening helps pinpoint the other person’s needs and builds trust and confidence.

7. Follow up. Get their business card and send a personal note to follow up. It’s unlikely that your listener will have an immediate need for your product or service. But if they say “drop by my office,” do so. If they say “call me in six months,” and you do, they will remember that you remembered!

Related Articles
  3 Good Ways to Get Wows From Your Holiday Season Business Networking
  A New Kind of Networking for Recessionary Times
  Are Business Networking Referrals Critical Business Strategies Within Your Strategic Plan?
  What To Do At Your Next Networking Event
  Networking Mistake Myopia

Article Tags: authenticity, describing what services, dialogue, favorable impression, honeymoon period, influence recognition, judgments, listener interest, local area networks, low key, networking ability, old adage, pany, referrals, sales pitch, second honeymoon, second stories, stress, true networking, when in doubt



Related Forum Posts
Re: Make Friends...Literally BUILD them! - I agree! Networking is definitely the key word here. What does everyone feel about the different Networking platforms out there? Twitter Facebook LinkedIn what are some others?
Re: How can a social networking site make serious money? - Hi There, It is quite interesting, that some Social Networking do produce an income. I think testimonials are always a benefit to share. See one below: This Social Network has changed my life! Every night is a Friday night and everyday is a Saturday!! Because of it, I have been able to leave the workforce 10 years early.It has given me back my life. Many of us would like to retire early. I am sure there are many more. The point is of focusing with great determination. The ongoing challenge is to stay focussed and not be sidetracked into a newer scheme or so. Also I have read, during this financial turmoil, more people turn to Social Networking for various reasons.
Re: Make Friends...Literally BUILD them! - [quote="burnsrunner":1zobscwk]I agree! Networking is definitely the key word here. What does everyone feel about the different Networking platforms out there? Twitter Facebook LinkedIn what are some others?[/quote:1zobscwk] I am on Twitter and Linkedin, have not joined Facebook yet as my time is fairly limited and one needs a lot of time to devote to all these various networking platforms. Unless you do this full time (the networking I mean). MichelleJ
Social IMPACT!! Marketing - How it will change your Business - SEO,SEM and more recently SMO have been the catch phrase for those wishing to optimize their sites for the search engines and all will see you gain some level of success, but I am about to introduce you to a new catch phrase SIM or Social Impact Marketing, a system that has been developed at Kooiii tested on Kooiii and proven to be more effective than any of the other 3 systems in use. When we started Kooiii 6 or so weeks ago we were building a site that had nothing as far as SEO,SEM or SMO properties it was lost way back in the depths of most search engines and had an Alexa rating of 3.8 million, it was lucky to get 12 visitors a week and that was mostly my business partner and myself with the odd visitor that somehow found their way to the site by mistake. Our original idea was to build Kooiii as a Search Platform that was capable of spidering some of the most popular social networks, however we realized early on that those coming to Kooiii would also want some form of social interaction with our site if it was going to go anywhere so we implemented a simple to use Micro-Blogging system as the front end of the system we were putting together. Not having money to promote our new baby we had to resort to using all the free avenues we could find in order to attract people to the site, of course this meant utilizing as many of the social networks we belonged to as possible, Not being spammers and not wishing to appear as such we decided that we would simply keep active on the social networks while sharing and posting to our profiles from kooiii, it was at this point we realized we were onto something suddenly within a week we saw our Alexa drop dramatically and our membership start to grow not only on Kooiii but also on the social sites we belonged to, people seemed to be drawn to us like we were magnets and Kooiii went from 4 members (all admins) to over 1500 members quickly. By teaching those that joined Kooiii to also share member posts on the social networks, not only those we were posting but other members posts as well we saw the birth of a completely new way to promote something, see everyone saw the same effects we were seeing not only was Kooiii skyrocketing up Alexa but the members sites and popularity were also soaring and so Social Impact Marketing came into the world of the Internet. So lets re-cap SIM it's a system where members of Kooiii cross promote each others offers using a socially connected Micro-Blogging system creating tremendous buzz about the offers throughout the wider social scene in other words causing Social Impact using Marketing techniques resulting in massive targeted traffic generation to a specific site or page for basically no monitory outlay.
Re: How to finance your independent movie - Hi, The video doesn't come up with its own URL... But it's the very bottom video on the page. Here's the description of it: Financing, Production and Social Impact of Feature Films Host- Carol Atwood - Founder, Spartacus Media Enterprises Panelists: Bill Johnson - Co-Founder and Partner, Inferno Distribution Steven Haft - Producer, Media Consultant Michael Goorjian - Actor, Producer, Writer


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

The Pure FUN of Learning & Using NLP

Resolving A Conflict Between Two Sales Staffs

Five Daily Marketing Habits to Increase Sales

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.