Looking for greater levels of personal and profession success?

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This article breaks down exactly what you need to do to network your way to unprecedented levels of know, like, and trust, with buyers, referral partners, and mentors. Following these best practices in networking will take you and your book of business to the next level.

 #1 – Networking is Relationship Building

Networking successfully is done by treating people the way you’d like to be treated. If you are as kind and helpful as you can be to the people you meet, eventually you’ll connect with like-minded professionals who are inspired to return whatever kindness you extend to them.

Do’s & Don’ts

DO: Be yourself.

DO: Be kind.

DO: Be truthful.

DO: Be patient.

Similar to building a relationship with a romantic partner business relationships are built over time so be sure to keep The 30-Day Rule in mind.

According to Jeb Blount The 30-day Rule is a simple formula that says any prospecting or networking activity you do in a 30-day period of time will pay off over the 90 days that follows.

For this reason you need to be patient, persistent, and religious about your networking and sales prospecting efforts to avoid slumps in sales revenue. These things don’t pay off in days or weeks. They pay off over the course of months and years.

The 30-Day rule should also serve as a reminder not to be too eager in your networking. It’s true that givers gain in networking, but if you’re too eager you can overextend yourself investing into relationships that will never pay out.

Like in dating, you should be regularly in search of referral partners and prospective clients, but don’t over commit too early.

With each interaction or transaction you’re feeling each other out. Business is a two way street. You may learn that a potential referral partner or prospect is more trouble or time consuming than they’re worth.

DON’T: Succumb to feeling that you don’t fit into a situation or that you aren’t worth someone’s time.

DON’T: Try to present yourself as anything but who you are. You are probably not good enough of an actor to pull it off.

Pro-Tip: The people who are most likely to lend you a hand professionally are going to be just as thrilled as you are to develop a sincere relationship.  So don’t over think it.

#2 – Make Yourself Valuable

Whether your reason for networking with someone is because you’re looking for mentors, referral partners, or clients it is always smart to have a purpose when reaching out to your network unsolicited.

More often than not, that purpose should be to provide your contact with something they’ll find valuable.

Do’s & Don’ts

DO: Recommend an article or book you think they’d find insightful.

DO: Offer to make an introduction to someone they could do business with.

DO: Offer yourself as a reference of their work as they seek new clients or a new position.

DO: Invite contacts to attend events you’re planning to attend yourself.

Inviting contacts to events has been a game changer for me. I’m an introvert at heart and used to think networking mixers, conferences, and other live events were super awkward, they cost too much, and that attending never resulted in significant enough sales revenue to be worthwhile.

When I started inviting protects and clients to attend the events I was planning to attend however, I started enjoying them. All of a sudden I was developing real relationships with people I hadn’t been able to breakthrough to using my normal prospecting efforts.

And the best part?

I was generating leads and “lay-down” sales, because rather than meeting people for the first time at an event or on an expo floor I was having 3^rd, 4^th, and, 5^th conversations with prospects I had already planted a seed with.

And if a contact is already planning to attend a particular event that’s even better. By simply reaching out to people beforehand, they know to expect you and are likely to seek you out when they arrive.

As it turns out, a lot of people are uncomfortable in large crowds. If you discuss attending an event with someone prior to getting there you become the familiarity they seek when they arrive. As a result your contacts are likely to gravitate toward you rather than you having to chase them down.

DON’T: Reach out to see ‘What’s new with you?’ unless you are very close outside of professional settings. Keep these kinds of calls and emails to a minimum. This type of correspondence can be a nascence to people whose work day is already over-loaded.

Pro-Tip: Genuine inquiry about the family or the success of the company’s softball team is a great way to build relationships. However, correspondence on these topics alone can be annoying to some people and can result in a negative effect on the professional relationship.

Pro-Tip: If the event you’re planning to attend is a conference of some kind, the kind that takes place over several days and people travel long distances to attend, you can use your pre-event correspondence to schedule meetings, dinners, etc. with prospects before your competitors can steal your prospects’ attention on the conference floor.

 

#3 – Speaking Face-to-Face is Irreplaceable 

Just like the bond you share with your significant other, a certain amount of in-person interaction cannot be replaced by phone calls, emails, Facebook, or LinkedIn if the relationship is really going to work.

Dr. Albert Mehrabian, author of Silent Messages, is credited with originating the idea that only 7% of any message is conveyed through the words being used. Another 38% of the message is supposedly conveyed through vocal elements and the remaining 55% through nonverbal elements (facial expressions, gestures, posture, etc).

My own experience tells me that your physical proximity to a referral partner or prospect does a few more things.

First, as human being we’re still just mammals with a primal instinct that plays into who we ultimately trust. Your physical presence in a contact’s life makes you more real than people they’ve connected with online or over the phone. Being more real makes you easier to know, like, and trust.

Second, the phrase “Out of sight, out of mind,” is a very real concept. Your physical presence on a regular interval makes you harder to forget about.

Third, most people inherently understand the opportunity cost of traveling, even short distances to see someone in-person. Business people are especially understanding of this sacrifice. So by making time to visit with someone in-person you’re saying a lot about the importance of a particular relationship.

Do’s & Don’ts

DO: Plan ahead. If you know you’re going to be near someone’s office invite them to coffee or lunch.

DO: Join professional organizations and networking groups. Not only are these kinds of groups a great way to meet new contacts, they also give you something to invite contacts to as mentioned above. This way you can stay in touch and develop deeper relationships with them over time. (Here are a few groups in Phoenix I recommend)

DON’T: Drop by someone’s office unannounced. Colleagues you’ve know a long time might be welcoming to you, but others may view it as intrusive. You can also waste a ton of your time traveling to see people who aren’t even in their offices. Your time is better spend trying to reach people telephonically and scheduling appointments so that you know your time in transit won’t be in vain.

(Of course, if the contact is truly a qualified lead that’s gone dark on you when trying to engage them telephonically then an unannounced drop in might be warranted.)

Pro-Tip: Offer to buy lunch. Generosity looks good on everyone and the offer of a free meal is likely to create available time in even the busiest of schedules. Small gestures like buying lunch or coffee go a long way for increasing your likability and the chances of your networking contacts returning the favor through referrals or through buying form you.

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Networkers to Learn From….

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Chris Spurvey – Virtual Coffee Dates

A regular part Chris Spurvey’s networking and sales prospecting effort makes use of what a many people would call ‘Virtual Coffee Dates.’

Just like it sounds, Chris invites people to have a 15-20 minute chat over Skype as a way of getting to know each other a little bit. It’s similar to the kind of conversation you’d expect to have with a new acquaintance over coffee in the middle of the week.

Each weekday Chris invites roughly 3 three people to have one of these virtual coffee dates with him. Out of those 15 people he invites each week roughly half accept the invitation.

As Chris suggests it is important to make these conversations about the other person, the things they are working on, or want to accomplish in the coming days, weeks, or months.

The funny things about this approach of getting to know a new acquaintances (i.e. The ‘Tell me about yourself.’ approach) is that after about 15 minutes of the other person talking about themselves, they feel compelled to ask about yourself. At that point in the conversation it would impolite not to.

Over the course of minutes you’ve become interesting to your new acquaintance or prospect, not because of anything you’ve said but by simply being interested in them. You’ve validated their views and aspirations simply by listening to them.

This makes people feel good. Most want that good feeling to continue and return the favor by asking about you, even if only because they realize being overly selfish could turn you off and end that good feeling of validation that you’ve afforded them.

This also means their guard is down. They are ready to listen to just about whatever it is you want to share.

In this 15 minutes or so of your contact sharing you’ve also probably learned enough about their world to know if they might realistically want to buy from you. Which means you might also know exactly which version of your value proposition you could present to them that might get them to raise their eyebrow with interest.

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If by now you feel the building of relationships through networking seems to rely heavily on catering to the self-interest of other people….

Then you’ve been paying attention. Good for you!

“People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care”

― Theodore Roosevelt

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If your virtual coffee date conversation hasn’t made it painfully obvious that this other person is someone you can sell to, you might also want to mention the type of person you’re looking to connect with in addition.

Ideal connections to mention you’re looking might include people you can learn from (mentors), people you could sell to (prospects), or non-competing providers who also serve your ideal customer and could send you regular referrals (power partners).

Andrew KoliKoff – Networking Follow-Up

Andrew Kolikoff is more partial to in-person coffee dates, but it’s how Andrew follows-up with contacts after coffee dates that I love.

Because we’ve already talked about it, you know how powerful I believe real face-time can be in developing relationships. However, we’ve also talked about the opportunity cost of traveling – even across town – which is why I’d prefer in-person coffee dates, lunches, and dinners to be a secondary event when networking.

Similar to the way many B2B sales organizations deploy Sales Development Reps to pursue and qualify prospects before introducing an Account Executive to prospects, having a tiered networking process insures you protect yourself against over investing in relationships that will never produce.

For the B2B sales organization the company is protecting the time of its most expensive sales talent from being wasted on missed connections or in meeting with unqualified prospects. As an individual a tiered approach keeps you from wasting the one thing you can’t get back: your time.

This is also very similar to dating, by easing yourself into the relationship through an escalation of ‘dates’ rather than jumping straight into the sack with someone you increase the likelihood that could-be relationships take root rather than being overlooked in the race to achieve unearned milestones.

By slowing things down with a tiered networking process (i.e. having a virtual coffee date before meeting in-person) you are more likely to make an impression.

And making an impression is the name of the game while networking. It’s less about who you know, but more accurately who knows you, who remembers you, who will think of you when they meets someone that can buy from you.

That’s why I love Andrew’s brand of follow-up after coffee-dates.

After having met someone in-person Andrew likes to…

1. Send a Thank You email. In this email he’ll mention what a pleasure it was meeting the person, but more importantly he’ll remind them of the kind of people he helps (what his ideal customers look like) and who he considers to be power partners (people who can send him direct referrals regularly).
2. Send introduction emails. Andrew makes his existing network available to his new contacts by sending out emails to connect his new contact to hand selected contacts he’s already known. The goal is to connect new contacts with the kind of vendors, power partners, and prospects they expressed interest in meeting during the in-person coffee date.

People don’t forget those who send them new referral partners and eager buyers. That’s why the type of follow-up Andrew talks about is so powerful.

If you want to be unforgettable, be of service.

Azul Torronez – Organizing Bolt-On Events

We’ve already talked about how powerful it can be to invite contacts and prospects to events or to simply get on their radar prior to arriving at an event.

Not only do you benefit from people gravitating toward you as the familiar person in the room, but in mass this creates a situation in which you are surrounded by an entire group of people that know, like, and trust you. Prospects and power partners seeing this is the kind of primal social proof that just can’t be replicated through technology.

And then there is Azul Torronez…

Not only does he get on the radar of attendees before arriving at an event, he’s been doing through the mechanism of being the one to organize bolt-on mixers and happy-hours prior to a larger event.

These free events serve as a value add to the attendees. Many of which have traveled great distances and don’t know how else to use their down-time.

This tactic also allowing Azul to borrow the authority of the influencers with enough to attract the crowd in the first place.

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