For those new to the business of networking, the whole process can seem quite daunting. You’re being asked to walk into a room filled with strangers and talk to them about your business…which can seem like your worst nightmare if you don’t feel confident talking to people you don’t know.
Let’s start by breaking down the types of networking events that you can go to.
The Breakfast Ones
There are a huge amount of breakfast networking events that you can go to including BNI, BRE, 4networking, BOB clubs to name but a few. New ones spring up all the time and it’s quite hard to keep track of them. BNI is probably the most formal of the lot with the others being break-off groups that promise to be much more informal.
Although the format of each group varies slightly, what usually happens is that you go to a hotel, where everyone meets each other for the first half an hour or so. You will then be asked to sit down and eat breakfast. During (or slightly after) breakfast, each member of the group will stand up and speak for between 1 to 2 minutes about their business. Once the members have finished, the visitors have the chance to get up and speak. Usually, you’ll then have a 10 minute spot by one of the members, where they tell people about their business in more detail followed by the referrals section, where members of the group pass business between themselves.
Sounds good in practice, but to get business you first need to join the group and then you’ll be expected to turn up every week and also refer business each week. The cost of joining a group varies between £250 per year to £500 per year and you will have to pay for breakfast in addition to this (between £6-£10 usually).
Yes, there are drawbacks to these groups, but I have also seen people get all of their business from them. They are great if you want to get networking out of the way early in the day and like to build up relationships with people. Contact http://www.bni-europe.com/; http://www.brenet.co.uk/; http://www.bobclubs.com/ or http://www.4networking.biz/ for more details.
The lunchtime ones
Lunchtime networking is also popular and include NRG Networking and many Chamber events. They are usually held between 12-2pm in a hotel and the format varies from a formal sit down lunch, business card lunches and speed networking (more about these in a mo). These tend to be a bit more pricey, with lunches around £20-£40 to attend. Some groups also require you to become a member (prices of which can vary between £100-£500 per year). Yes, there is no such thing as a free (networking) lunch anymore!
The formal sit down lunches will generally sit you down for the meal and then everyone on your table will have around 2 minutes to tell everyone else what you do. You’ll also exchange business cards. Some lunches get you to swap tables after the first course, so that you meet more people – a small tip, the vegetarian dishes tend to be nicer, even if you’re not veggie.
In the business card lunch set-up, you’ll usually be asked to send around 70 of your business cards to the organiser a couple of weeks before. When you turn up, you’ll be given a wallet with everyone’s business cards in there. The networking just happens over a buffet lunch.
The speed networking ones (my favourite type of networking) are usually held over a buffet lunch. You’ll be seated opposite another business person and each of you will have 1-2 minutes to tell each other what you do. Once your time is up, you’ll move to the next business person and so on. Some speed networking events allow you to meet everyone in the room; others don’t, but all in all they’re great fun.
The evening ones
I won’t go into that much detail about these ones, suffice to say they are very similar to the lunchtime networking events, apart from they’re held in the evening.
How to make the most of your networking experience
o First, make sure you bring the following items to every networking event you go to:
1) Plenty of business cards (more than you think you’ll need) – the amount of times I’ve been to an event where people have run out of cards. Nothing is more unprofessional than writing your contact details on a slip of paper.
2) A diary – if you have a diary with you and the person you’ve met wants to meet up afterwards, you can arrange a date there and then. It’s far harder (trust me on this) to make the call after the event.
3) A pen – how else are you going to jot down what people do on the back of their cards.
Later on, as you get more experience of networking, it’s well worth getting hold of a plastic name badge holder for yourself. If they don’t provide name badges at the event, put your business card in one of these so that people can easily find out who you are.
o Try to arrive early at the event and this is especially important if you’re nervous about going. Why? Well, when you arrive, chances are that they’ll be very few other people there. All of them will be hanging around on their own waiting for the event to start. It’s much easier to go up and talk to someone on their own rather than to go up to people in groups. Later on, I’ll give you a few more tips on finding people who are standing on their own too.
o Make sure (at all costs) you grab a copy of the attendee list. It’s going to be very difficult to follow-up with people after the event if you don’t.
o Wear your name badge on your right lapel and not your left. Why? Since most people are right handed, when they shake your hand to meet you, their eye will naturally travel to your right lapel, making it far easier to see who you are.
o If there are two or more of you from the same company, split up at the event. I know it’s hard if you’re nervous and you haven’t been to many events before, but if you split up you can meet twice as many people. Similarly, if it’s a sit-down event, don’t sit at the same table.
o When you’re talking to other people, you will be asked the question “So, what do you do?” Keep your answers as short as possible. Nothing is worse than hearing another person ramble on and believe me they’ll quickly be making an excuse to get away from you as quickly as possible. Try to get onto natural conversation as soon as possible and find out more about that person instead of talking about your business.
o Also, when you’re explaining what you do, try to keep to one thing even if you do lots of different activities. If you start explaining that you’re a life coach, do a bit of PR, interviewing skills and are a training company in your spare time, people will not know what you do and will get confused. How can they refer people to you, if they are not sure what you do? You can always give them a different message next time they see you.
o Act confident, even if you don’t feel it. The more you act confident, the more you’ll be confident. Go up to people on their own – you can find them around the edges of the room or by the buffet table – and have a chat. Or, interrupt groups of two. Stay away from groups of three or four because they’ll be enough people in the group, but nine times out of 10, the group of two will have had enough of chatting to each other anyway and be looking for an excuse to move on and they’ll welcome the relief.
o What to do with your business cards? Wear a jacket with pockets. Most networking events are a business dress code anyway and ladies if you don’t think you have any pockets in your jacket think again. Most of the time, they’ve been sewn up by the manufacturer and if you look in the pocket, you’ll find a small hole where you can unpick the stitching. Put your business cards in your left hand pocket and any business cards you collect in your right hand pocket. That way, they’ll be easy to find and you won’t get them mixed up.
o Oh and my excuses for getting away from people when you’ve had enough of talking to them – try “Oh I was just going to grab a drink”; “Do you know where the loos are around here?” or “Oh I must just speak to…”. Don’t be offended if people make these excuses to you. The whole point of networking is that you should be looking to get around as many people as possible.
o Remember to follow-up afterwards. It’s been said time and time again that very little business happens at the actual event; it’s what you do afterwards that counts, but how many people actually follow-up? Make sure you do and you’re chances of getting business will increase significantly.
All in all though, remember that networking is not about having fun. It’s about getting you known out there and getting business. And if you’re not achieving that objective from networking events, you should be looking at doing different activities to increase your marketing. Set targets at the events for how many people you’d like to meet and how many potential contacts you’d like to get out of the event and try to achieve that at each event you go to. That is the way to make sure networking works for you.
Helen Dowling runs Exceptional Thinking (www.exceptionalthinking.co.uk) which helps small businesses start-up; market and grow their business.
How to make networking work for you. - To learn more about this author, visit Helen Dowling's Website.
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