The Networking Cure!
- William Sammons
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
I was never good at networking meetings, being on the introverted side when put into new settings, I rarely got value from meetups and was easily forgotten. However, when I was able to add two skills, it made networking events more effective for me and I actually started making solid connections.
The networking lie goes like this: show up, join the group, pay the dues, shake the hands, give out the cards, and the business will come. And as you read this, you know this is not true.
However, you need more leads, so you do it. You drag yourself to the 7am chamber breakfast, or you take the open seat at the BNI table, maybe it is standing at your booth at the expo with a bowl of branded pens. You have forty short conversations and hand out a stack of cards.
And then you go home, but nothing happens.
You tell yourself it's a slow burn, that these things take time, that you just need to keep showing up and paying more fees/dues. So you keep showing up and continue to stay invisible.
Here is what I learned, and you know as well: attendance is not the same as being remembered. Handing someone your card is not a relationship, nor is a two-minute conversation about the weather and what you do for a living, make you memorable. It makes you one of the thirty forgettable people they talked to that morning, plus the fact that not everyone you meet is a good referral parnter for you anyway.
The problem was never the room; the problem is that you walked in with no idea who you were actually there to connect with, and no plan to be anything other than forgettable by running out of business cards.
That's the lie and you know it, I am not preaching anything new here today.
So let me ask you this. Think about the last networking event you went to. Can you name three people from it who would remember you today? What did they do differently? What value did they add to your life that helped them stand out from the other 25 business cards you collected that day?
This week, let's fix your forgettable approach to networking. I want to start with YOU: by Wednesday, you need to know what values are the most important to your business as well as what value you can add to a meaningful conversation once you finally meet the right referral partner. Once you know these two things, we can build your skills...
If you're tired of showing up and disappearing, the system that fixes it lives at www.ReferralBlueprint.com.
Comments