Most business owners have tried their hand at attending networking events and, for many, it’s a great source of potential new clients. Watching how people behave is fascinating and, although there’s no right or wrong way, it pays to be attentive, courteous and to be observant. There’s definitely some skill in doing it successfully.
I’m sure we’ve all seen people looking at their phone when other attendees are doing their one minute presentation. I think they should remember that if they aren’t interested in listening to other visitors then why should they be interested in listening to them.
As a business membership organisation we often receive referrals from members regarding people that are potentially interested in becoming members. We received quite a few last week and we duly made contact with all of them. Some of them progressed to phone conversations and one left me totally gobsmacked.
I started to tell the guy about some of the benefits we offer and got as far as mentioning that we provide unlimited free advice and mentoring. The response was something like “I was told you run some networking events. “Unperturbed I remarked that we run one event a week and that members like to buy from one another. The guy then said that he doesn’t want to buy anything and that he is only interested in selling. A little stunned I said that if everybody behaved like that then attending networking events would be a pointless exercise.
Ironically people that go to events just trying to sell tend to come across as a bit desperate and are actually the least likely to sell their wares.
How do you network and what have been your experiences?