Understand Networking

My name is Chris Ward, and for a little of my background; I was in the military for a number of years and at the tail end I worked in Human Intelligence Collection, which was a difficult job by design. However, the premise of the job was to network. As most people network in order to promote their business, find work, or find a date, I was looking for war criminals, terrorists, and war profiteers. So, although we are all looking for something different, I think that the philosophies are still the same. However, many people have a networking problem.

I like this clip about Networking from Dave Murphy of the San Francisco Chronicle. Dave states that, "too many workers see networking as a game of "Who Can I Exploit Today?" So they are clumsy at it. Or worse. Networking means helping others as well as helping yourself. Certainly some people will meet with you either out of the goodness of their hearts or because of some sense of obligation, but you'll do much better if you try to help people in the process." read more...

Networking by definition is a supportive system of sharing information and services among individuals and groups having a common interest. So, what do we do wrong, and how can we network more effectively. Honestly, you don't want to network more effectively, you want to drive people to purchase your good or service more effectively. In there lies the networking problem. Infants know how to network. We muck it up as we get older.

I dare you to talk to ten people today, shake their hands, remember their name, and don't say a word about your business. This is very difficult for most of us because often we define ourselves by what we do. You cannot imagine the awesome power of seeing someone for the second time and remembering their name and where you saw them. That will inflate someone's ego 10 fold. Sometimes, I joke about what I do when I talk to new people. They may ask, "Hey Chris, what do you do?" I reply with, "I'm an out of work Vegas lounge act." Say it with a smile. They will recognize you are kidding, unless you aren't, and immediately respond with a question about anything. This is not the time to talk about yourself. You want to know as much about this other person as possible because you only have 5-10 minutes before they move on in life.

Draft a list of 10 questions that would determine if you can help them in any way. That is the mortar that will seal your relationship. Someone may tell me that they are looking for a wedding photographer. Guess what, I know the best wedding photographer in town. You now how? Because we met a few weeks ago and I told him the name of a venue manager that would put him on their preferred venue list.

This does not mean to be clandestine with your business. If someone asks what you do a second time, don't come up with some elaborate story. By the way, on a side note, always carry a half dozen or more business cards. In California, dogs carry business cards. I live in a tourist rich area and people constantly ask me for directions. As long as they are not going to the hospital for a heart transplant, I'll ask them where they are from, how long they will be here and recommend a good restaurant. People love that. When I travel, I always want to go where the locals know to eat and not where some tourist website says I should go. Then, I tell them, "hey, I pride myself on being a man about town, if you need anything else, feel free to give me a call"; and I give them my business card.

At a networking function, be someone that knows everyone. I'll actually take new members around to introduce them to others. I will not talk about my business to a person I am just meeting. I want to be their friend and help them first. Eventually, they will subscribe to my good or service and be more apt to refer me to others. Don't you always try to "hook up" your friends?

Every once in a while I get someone who meets me for the first time and spits out a 30 sec commercial about what they do. I usually respond with, "that's nice". I want to know that you are a fun and positive person that I would want to spend time with outside networking events. That's a clue. Grade yourself on how many people are calling you when it has nothing to do with business. You cannot be a hermit. Another aspect of networking is participating in other people's events. I know people that only sit in their store day in and say out and never go to an event. Be a face in the community. Volunteer. Once people see that you are willing to give your personal time for a cause, the one commodity that we never get back, they are apt to look into what you do for a living a little bit more.

You attract more flies with honey, than vinegar. This is something we learned as children. Be a fun person when you enter a room...REGARDLESS of the event. If you look around as if you don't know why you ever walked in the room, you might as well turn around and leave. If you walk in like you are the guest of honor and everyone is waiting on you, you'll attract more people to you.

Anyway, networking, again, is about building relationships and discovering how you can help people. The money will come. The business will flourish. Just be calm, have fun, and don't focus on the hardships when you are talking to people. You want everyone to assume that business is grand and you are going to be around for decades. You can use the Q & A with veterans in your industry to get helpful hints. People love to talk about themselves. When I meet a top income earner in my company, I shake their hand, ask a question, smile, and shut up.

Please leave some remarks if you have some other tricks to the trade. If you have negative remarks, just write them down on a piece of paper, throw some tobacco on top, roll it up and smoke it, because that is the only way you will get any benefit from it. I look forward to you all having a lot of success in your next networking endeavor. God bless you and yours.