Networking: Wing it and you’ll flap in the breeze

It is the inevitable topic of conversation at a networking event: Tell me about your job.

When I explain my life's work -- teaching leaders to achieve their dreams through powerful public speaking -- my conversation partner often shrugs and says, "Oh, I could never deliver a speech. I get too nervous."

My response: "What do you think you are doing right now?"

Make no mistake, when you network, you are delivering a series of mini presentations. If you don't know how to put your best foot forward in these business-critical situations, you can forget about building your business or advancing your career.



Master networkers realize that attitude and preparation are vital ingredients for success. How do these pros set themselves up as winners in the networking arena? Let's examine a dynamic dozen techniques:

1. Target carefully the events to attend. Networking is a strategic endeavor. Attend gatherings that make sense for your business or career aims.

2. Craft a 15-second elevator speech. Tell people how you have helped others and, by extension, how you can help them.

3. Arrive on time and stay late. Take advantage of any pre-event time dedicated strictly to networking; this is where business gets done.

4. Don't stand in a clump of people you work with. You want new customers or a new job, right? Spend time with new acquaintances who may hold the key to your dreams.

5. Use a firm handshake and solid eye contact. First impressions are critical. Get maximum benefit from your nonverbal tools.



6. Be prepared for basic questions. Think of the times you have encountered people who stammer when confronted with softballs like, "What's new?" or "What do you do?" Have a meaningful answer on the tip of your tongue.

7. Carry a thick stack of business cards. How frustrating is it to make a solid connection, then not be able to follow up because the person's business cards were left back at the office?

8. Get others talking about themselves. I like to remind myself that I have two eyes, two ears and one mouth. Use them in proportion.

 

Related: Networking On Instagram

Smart Ways to Use Your Business Card

 

9. Limit your conversations to five minutes. If you make a positive connection, agree to meet over lunch or coffee at a later date.

10. Steer clear of the buffet table. Food between your teeth, garlic breath and no free hand to shake. Need I say more?

11. Position yourself at a traffic choke point. This raises the odds that people will have to make eye contact and -- gasp -- actually start a conversation with a stranger.

12. Follow up quickly. A brief e-mail, call, or my favourite, the handwritten note, works wonders to solidify your new contacts.

A note of caution that will contribute to your healthy attitude: Networking does not mean selling; it means relationship building. You are in for a letdown if you assume immediate results. Deals are rarely sealed at networking events, though many are born there.



One more piece of advice: Don't be a spin-your-wheels networker, frantically racing to gather as many business cards as possible. The master networker realizes quality trumps quantity. One or two solid connections are far more valuable than a dozen meaningless quickies.

Successful business leaders understand that networking revolves around a healthy attitude and plenty of preparation. That sounds like a perfect prescription to develop your next client or career move.

Ed Barks is President of Barks Communications and author of "The Truth About Public Speaking: The Three Keys to Great Presentations." Phone: 540/955-0600 Web site: www.barkscomm.com

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High profit Business Practies that put money in your pocket

with Rogene Baxter, RN, MA, CMC
Rogene BaxterHaving a successful speaking/training/consulting business takes careful focus on consistent practices that can make or break your profitability. You’ve heard about spending time ON the business, not just IN the business — but what fun is that when you’d rather be speaking? Talented presenters have gone broke because they didn’t know how to squeeze the most profit from each engagement. If you don’t know how to do this you might be one of them.

Rogene has had a highly successful practice for nearly three decades. Clients flock to her for six-figure engagements. She’s figured out the small business practices that pay off big and keep her and a bevy of subcontractors thriving.

You will learn:

  • why to start with a business mind-set
  • how to develop formulas to more accurately determine fees in proposals so you are not underpricing your services
  • what key components to include in a contract to ensure your IP is protected
  • how to make sure you are paid on time and ramifications if you are not
  • how to you make sure you’re paid regularly for more than one-time engagements
  • ways to assure you are making what you think you are
  • what you should know about using subcontractors to extend your impact and business

http://www.profcs.com/app/aftrack.aspafid=338276&u=http://www.speakernetnews.com/tsem/ts20080626.html

Register or order the CD or MP3 recording

Date: Thursday, June 26
Time: 7:00 pm Eastern, 6 pm Central, 5 pm Mountain, 4 pm Pacific
Length: 60 minutes
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  • “Profitable Proposals For Contracts Beyond One-Time Events” with Warren Evans, CSP
  • “Make More Money By Doing Less: How to Leverage One Engagement into Profitable Results for Your Clients and Your Bottom Line” with Lorna Riley, CSP

With your order of Rogene’s teleseminar, CD or MP3, at checkout you will be offered these tapes and transcripts at a special discounted price of $10/each. This offer expires July 15.

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Mavericks at Work

Why the Most Original Minds in Business Win

by William C. Taylor (Author), Polly G. Labarre (Author)

From the Reviews

 

This is a business book thankfully written by people in the business of writing. The writers' lexicon and grammatical use well exceeds that ordinarily used by the "big names" in corporate America who too often attempt to engage in writing about business. This is comforting.


In Mavericks at Work, Fast Company cofounder William C. Taylor and Polly LaBarre, a longtime editor at the magazine, give you an inside look at the "most original minds in business" wherever they find them: from Procter & Gamble to Pixar, from gold mines to funky sandwich shops. some well known and others making for fresh and inspiring copy for the jaded business reader.  There's an underlying theme here - that old school business methods will lead to financial quagmires. In that context the likes of Ford (yesterday's hero company in books like Built to Last) look like today's losers.

 

William Taylor and Polly LaBarre argue that the real head-to-head competition in business today isn't process versus process, or even idea versus idea, but rather "values system versus values system." The business leaders who inspire them and who, they argue, are leading the way into the future, are the ones who have rethought the very idea of business, the market, and both internal and external collaboration. A big part of their book applies the model of open-source software and technology-development to the business, and describes how various corporations have harnessed technology and the world's intellectual resources to solve business problems.

 

But the technological angle is only part of what makes someone a "maverick at work." Another major focus of the book is on companies that have created an energetic and innovative corporate culture that truly inspires employees and delights customers.

 

This book is basically cut into four components: (1) business should be contrarian; (2) group thinking far surpasses the thoughts of individuals; (3) businesses succeed when they increase/improve customer relations; and (4) businesses are only as good as their employees.

The premise is that the successful businesses of the future must not follow the success stories (models) of the past. Instead, if the business has an asset of value -- e.g. technology, personal service industry -- and implements the above-recited four components, it may succeed. The authors imply that if same business uses the old model, it shall fail.
Want to stop doing business as usual? Then take some lessons from the 32 maverick companies Taylor and LaBarre profile.

 

It's often hard to tell, when reading a book like this one, whether the authors have really hit on an important insight grounded in solid evidence and research, or instead invented a marketable idea and cherry-picked instances and examples that "prove" their point. Although perhaps the passage of time is the only way to tell for sure, I argue "Mavericks at Work" really has seized on something important. That makes this a valuable read, not only for current and wannabe-future business leaders, but for anyone who ... well ... works for a living.