11 Bad Networking Habits
Do You Value Networking to Grow Your Business?
Personal communication skills are taking a beating during the current pandemic, don't you think? We are all online Zooming here and there. That famous 'mute' button is taking a lot of our natural human interactions away. The subtle smile, the glint in the eye - I mean, has humour exited stage left?
And because humour is a great way to get a message across a lot of the time, I reckon that we just might be missing an opportunity to grow relationships in a meaningful way. This thought made me reflect on the number of events my colleagues in MX3, and I used to attend each month, pre-covid, and how humour was an integral part of them.
Every time we were at an event we used to try and spot the various networking techniques being employed and the number of people that overtly displayed their intentions, in any situation. Maybe they're still there online, just not as noticeable.
So in this post I’m going to chat about networking events and being allowed to act in a human way again. The main objective being to help us grow our business. I'll finish my observations with some examples of bad networking.
I am conscious of the fact that for many people reading here, this is an old and well documented topic. However, for us, it never seems to be a waste of time reviewing how to communicate clearly and effectively. For start-ups and other SMEs, how to go about building relationships from a standing start, is an important task.
The first consideration is always going to be how being more prepared can help get rid of ‘cold feet’ Of course your personal style at a networking event will play a part in getting your message across. But it is the preparation for what you say and how you listen that will make a significant difference.
OK so – hands up – how many people think success at an event is a case of counting the number of people (business cards) that you encounter (distribute)? One might even measure it as a personal brand awareness driver by spending an evening chatting with acquaintances over a ‘free’ glass of vino! Either way, here are some thoughts that might make your networking efforts, actually worthwhile.
Some Positive Pointers.
Above all else – have a short and simple description about what you do. At MX-3, 'we help, mainly, small businesses to be smarter about their marketing activity'. If you can’t ream what you do off naturally, how is your ‘listener’ going to understand what you do without further clarification? More than likely, the listener (?) will have switched off, as you continue to elaborate.
Prepare before you attend i.e. find out who is going to be there that you would like to chat to and while preparing your strategy – decide on some objectives (2/3 is fine). This way you can judge whether your evening was a success or not.
A trick I always like to use is to go and say hello to the speaker. It’s amazing how many people you meet that gather around the speaker before or after a presentation. If there is no speaker, use the organiser instead. Even if they are not relevant to your business – they are usually well connected, and you’d never know who you’d ‘bump into’.
The best thing to do at any networking event is to really listen. However, if you are talking, try to use similar terminology and follow the body language of your counterpart. Someone pointed out to me that the word listen is an anagram of silent. – which is a good way to remember this point.
This is an old one but, where possible get them to talk about their work, career, interests or even their opinions. We know that people tend to have positive recall of a conversation if they have spoken about themselves. Give the other person your undivided attention and if that’s working both ways, then a relationship commences.
I believe that the hardest thing to do is to get out of your own comfort zone. It is all too easy to talk with somebody all night that has the same interests as you have. Mingle and listen to different stories.
Personally, when networking, the two things I focus on the most is being helpful, where and when I can, during a conversation. Secondly, I make a note to follow-up where I have said that I would.
Bad Networking Habits to Avoid.
There are no hard and fast rules about what not to do so here are eleven examples of what I consider bad networking:
- You move on after an introduction because you believe that the person isn’t useful to you.
- You don’t allow the person you are speaking with to speak in a 60 second period.
- You remain in the company of a colleague/friend that you attended with.
- You give a business card to people you haven’t spoken with.
- You forget to keep a note of who you promised to follow up.
- You are there for the food and/or the booze.
- You stay talking to a person you know already.
- You spend your time on your smartphone.
- You gossip about others at the event.
- You ask closed (yes or no) questions.
- You sell.
Even in the current advent of forced connectivity online, I believe that it is more important nowadays that we don’t lose the original skills of good face-to-face networking. Of course online networking is an integral part of building and growing a business, but offline follow up is essential, if a relationship is to be developed.
It is a skill to feel confident in a networking situation, but with experience and some careful planning you should be able to capitalise on the value of networking to grow your business.
Thanks for reading and stay safe - Jim Kelly
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