How does one get connected?

You should develop your own networking style that you feel comfortable with. Play to your strengths and strengthen your weaknesses. Understand that others will adopt their own style of networking and socialising. You need to recognise these differences in other people and work with them. Don’t get critical and tell them they’re networking all wrong! Praise them for trying.

          You are going to be talking to friends, neighbours, business people and anyone else you might come into contact with during your daily activities. You might find yourself networking in the local supermarket or in an upmarket corporate venue. Networking is all about getting to meet people who know other people who need your skills and whose skills you might need. This need does not have to be immediate, but may be something you require at a later date. One of the ways you might be able to help each other out immediately is with referrals, so it is important that your contact understands what networking is about and is equally prepared to help you by exchanging additional contacts and prospects with you.

The first thing that any champion salesperson will tell you is that you need to qualify your target audience. This means in effect that the audience is made up of people who would benefit from your product or service and that they are also able to afford it. These are the ideal contacts that you need to meet. Perhaps they are in a specific profession, such as doctors, engineers, architects and such, or perhaps they are small business people. Whoever they are, you'll need to get involved in their committees, their meetings, clubs and social events that these target clients participate in. This will provide you with more opportunities to meet with them and to obtain contacts in the field in which you intend to do your business. This is niche marketing. It is much quicker for you to build a relationship and to get known by those who operate within your niche. Niche markets also permit you to get straight into conversations that solve or address client issues and problems when meeting with potential clients. Cold calling is also less stressful on both you and your prospect as they may already know you or have heard of your name.

Invariably, it is a great idea to volunteer for certain committees or projects that you believe in, which would also lead to you obtaining recognition from your target contacts. This kind of visibility creates instant credibility and often a measure of esteem when projects are completed successfully. In these circumstances your contacts will often approach you with a view to doing business as a form of pay-back to express their gratitude for the job you have undertaken. This may also allow your contacts to pre-qualify you for the work that they need you to undertake thus cutting out a lot of prospecting legwork for you. On top of this, your credibility will place you ahead of other candidates who might also be quoting for this business.

A strong word of caution: you should refrain from making a sales pitch when meeting contacts in a networking situation. Very few people appreciate being pitched to when all they have come to do is meet new people. Certainly everyone at a gathering of business people or at a social function will expect people to approach them and most will entertain this without taking offence if the approach is friendly and polite.