Getting the most from business networking (1/3)
Part 1 – Six things to do before a networking event:
Networking, in the real world, you know face-to-face, should definitely form part of your small business marketing strategy. But, we’ve all been there, at some evening seminar, networking lunch or other business event – only to find ourselves suddenly struck dumb for anything to say that sounds remotely professional. Or, looking around the room desperately hoping to catch a kind eye. Or faffing around in a pocket or a bag for a business card that is more than bit dog-eared.
To avoid these, and a number of other similarly embarrassing networking faux pas, here are a few things that have worked for me over the years.
Find relevant events: keep a track of events in your industry and make sure that you only attend those that are completely relevant. A handy free way to do this is to run key organisations web feeds into a reader, like Google Reader or Netvibes. For a little money, you could brief a virtual assistant, or get a licence for a service like Year Ahead to alert you to events in your space.
Find out who is going: Ask for a delegate list, look at online bookings (many list attendees online). See if the event is listed on LinkedIn, where people may have marked themselves as attending. Tweet that you’re going and ask if anyone else is.
Find out about them: Look up the attendees’ profiles on LinkedIn, Google them, look at company websites, and see if you can find them on Twitter.
- Narrow it down: From this, work out which 5-10 people you would really like to talk to at the event and research them a little further.
- Get the detail: If they are on LinkedIn, do you know anyone in common? If yes, perhaps you could pick up the phone to that person to get a little more background. If they’re on Twitter, follow them and look through their old Tweets. Note a few key things to talk to them about at the event. There’s nothing more flattering than being able to compliment someone and ask an insightful question… “Hello {Name}, I recognise your face from Twitter. I was interested in your Tweet last week asking about XYZ. It was a great question, what sort of response did you get?”
- See if you can find a photo. On their LinkedIn profile, Twitter profile, web page or on a Google image search. It will be handy for spotting them in a crowd.
Reach out to other attendees: Tweet that you’re attending, pop it on your LinkedIn status, asking if any of your contacts are planning to go. If so, perhaps you could go together – an instant ally. If people you don’t already know respond and you want to hook up with them, set-up a specific time you’ll meet them at the event – say, at the registration stand.
Prepare a call-to-action: If you’re a regular blogger, or have a thought leadership programme in place, you have a ready-made opener. You know that people are going to ask “So, what do you do?” – the ready-made elevator pitch is one thing, even better is something really current and useful – have it prepared in advance. For example,
“I run Clear Thought, we provide marketing support for small businesses – we’re the marketing director that small businesses can’t afford on payroll, but can’t afford not to have on the team. At the moment we’re doing an awful lot on social media, in fact I’ve just published a presentation of top tips on the subject, would you be interested in receiving a copy?”
Now, here’s where you really stand out! They say, “Oh yes, that would be great” and you pull out a business card with a bit more detail and the URL to the download on the reverse… “Do you know anyone else who would be interested? – perhaps you’d like to take a couple. Do you have any useful pointers my business could benefit from?”
This means that need to have prepared a specific business card, with the download details (or blog, or video, or case study, or whatever) in advance. Most online digital print for business cards is about 5-7 days, so you’ll need to think about this ahead of time.
Quick re-cap on those six key points:
- Find out who is going
- Work out who you want to talk to
- Find out about them
- Work out an opener for your conversation with them
- Pre-arrange a couple of people to hook up with whilst you’re there
- Have a call-to-action with hand-out in your pocket
In Part 2, I’ll give you my own top tips for face-to-face networking and we’ve also invited networking expert Melissa Kidd to provide tips on how to stand out whilst you’re there, and in Part 3, we’ll share powerful follow-up techniques.
By Bryony Thomas | Chief Clear Thinker | Clear Thought Consulting Ltd | @bryonythomas | www.clear-thought.co.uk
If this blog is of interest to you, you my also like to read:
- Blog: Get the most from networking (2/3): Making yourself memorable
- Blog: Get the most from networking (3/3): Key things to do after an event
- Blog: 10 ways to weave a little marketing magic into everyday activities
- Blog: 10 marketing resolutions for the new decade
Clear Thought Consulting works with small businesses, equipping them with the marketing strategies, suppliers, skills and set-up that they need to become bigger businesses. We do this by planning and delivering 12-month marketing transformation programmes – supporting a small business through a step-by-step process to making marketing pay. We firmly believe that when you can’t out-spend your competition, you have to out-think them.
What do you do to prepare for a networking event?
Please use the comments function below to share your own pre-event tips.
Published on 3 August 2010
