Ultimate Business Networking Events
ultimate business networking events
Seven Guidelines for Professional Networking: Legacy of the Three Martini Lunch
By Mike Schultz
Life Before Blackberry…
Thirty-five (even twenty-five) years ago, heading out of the office for a leisurely three hour, three Martini lunch with professional colleagues wasn’t so out of the ordinary. (Or, at least, that’s what my father tells me, though I believe he preferred the Gibson to the Martini.) With no internet, no email, no cell phones, no fax machines, no Blackberry, no video conferences, no webinars, and less complexity in our work lives, this kind of meeting was not only common, it was necessary.
In those days, especially since ‘marketing’ for professional services was virtually unheard of, the only way to build a client base was by building a professional network comprised of either potential clients or potential referral sources. And it was relatively easy to network in the ‘old days’ as there were significantly fewer options for professional networking. You knew where to go, you met colleagues there, and you began business relationships which, for better or worse, usually included gin, dry vermouth, and a few olives.
Fast forward to today. We have:
- Hundreds more professional networking options with conferences, associations, trade shows, seminars, technology-based meetings, technology communications methods, and the like.
- Greater awareness of both our markets and our competition. This increases our potential for professional networking because we can easily identify new people to meet, and intimidates us because we feel like small fish in a very large pond. Anyone remember the days when, if you wanted to learn about a company, you had to call and ask them to send a brochure…and it took 3 weeks?
- Many more demands on our time. We’re expected to produce more, bill more, and contribute more to our offices than ever before and with fewer resources. It seems so long ago since everyone had a secretary (before the term ‘administrative assistant’ even made sense to everyone) to answer phones, file, and manage calendars.
- Less value placed on professional networking because we can now, of course, find just the professional we need by typing a few key terms into Google. Thus, who needs to go meet people?
- Less practice interacting with people. Conversations that used to happen face to face, even on the same floor in the same office, happen over instant messenger or email.
So we have less time to go out and interact, less time to maintain relationships if we start them, and more ability to find people quickly anyway. Why bother with the pain of networking at all?
Why Network
It might seem like professional networking is a thing of the past, a dinosaur, a convention of slower times when relationships were more important than the ability to move fast and be flexible. As we struggle to produce deliverables on time, keep our teams and our tasks on track, or bill more hours, networking is often the first item that falls off the to-do list.
And, of course, given the reasons listed above, why bother networking? It takes a lot of time, you never know what results (if any) it will produce, and it’s hard work for the majority of us who are not hard wired to be networkers and relationship builders.
However you might be wired, think about the following seven professional networking guidelines. As you read these, consider them as both guidelines and reasons to network. Implemented consistently, you’ll find the dividends they yield to be both worthwhile and long-lasting.
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Show up. With increasing numbers and types of services providers out there, and with everyone calling themselves a ‘consultant’ and expert in an area, buyers of services are becoming increasingly wary of engaging business relationships with people they don’t know.
The only way to get to know people is to get out there and meet them. If you don’t make the effort to get out there consistently, you’ll simply be another so-called expert with a small network that nobody really knows.
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Really show up. I can’t tell you how many people I’ve seen show up physically to networking events, conferences, and seminars and then don’t make an effort to meet people. They stand around, have a conversation or two (often with people they already know well), and then call it a day.
Most people can get literally 10 times more leverage out of events if they simply make the effort, after they show up, to create as many conversations as they can that might go somewhere.
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Build relationship momentum. As you might imagine, showing up and having conversations isn’t where your networking efforts should stop. That only gets you in the game. The power of professional networking is not in accumulating business cards, but in doing something with them. And what you do with those cards – how you continue your relationship with people you meet – dictates what those people begin to think of you.
You can think of this as building your brand with your network. Your contacts should know who you are, know what you do, and ultimately prefer to work with you in the appropriate situation. This is how you can build professional relationships that will yield career dividends.
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Provide value. Most networking conversations are never followed up upon. But those that are tend to be straight sales calls. “Hi there. We met at the ABCD Association meeting last week. Want to buy my services?” This approach rarely works. The best way to build relationships with people is to provide some value to them with your interactions. In other words, as you network, your mission is to give, not get.
Send an article that might be of interest. Give them a new business referral. Invite them to an event they might think worth their while. Comment on an article they wrote. You might be surprised at just how responsive people will become to you if they see you, right from the start, as someone who is valuable to them.
- Connect. The most successful conversations, and the relationships that ensue, tend to be strongest when you can establish real rapport in your conversations. The old adage, ‘people buy people first’ is truer than ever. In an increasingly impersonal business world, people are looking as much to find fulfillment and enjoyment at the workplace as well as make money. If people see you as someone they can work with and like at the same time, you’ll be in great shape.
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Use technology, yet add the personal touch. Technology makes keeping in touch with people much easier. Technology can help you set reminders to make follow-ups, write emails on planes and between meetings, and make cell phone calls during off-times in your day.
Realize, however, that the people on the receiving end of your communications also understand that technology makes staying in contact with them easy. Activities like writing personal notes and sending them through the snail mail, or faxing something to someone that you can’t easily send via email, are particularly memorable and will help you build strong relationships. (Yes, I guess faxing is old fashioned and personal nowadays.)
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Find a way to enjoy it. Professionals’ disdain for anything they might consider a ’selling’ activity, including networking, ranges from slight dislike to vehement disgust. Many simply don’t like to do the things they must to develop business. As much as motivational speakers would like us to believe, there is no secret, easy formula for learning to love it.
The truth is that most of us have to go through some highly personal process to psych ourselves up for making telephone calls, going to networking events, or working those events when we are there. Whatever your technique, you have to force yourself to view networking as a necessary component of your professional career (that is, if you want to advance in that career), and find a way to make the most of it.
If you can actually become enthusiastic about professional networking – and most people can if they work hard enough at it – you will not only have more conversations through sheer effort and determination, you will have more positive and productive interactions.
The pace of our work and personal lives leave us with difficult challenges for building meaningful connections through our professional networks. But, as with most things, the more difficult a task the fewer people will do it. This creates an opportunity for great success and career growth for those who make the effort to build a network filled with rich and rewarding relationships. And besides, while the three martini lunch may be lost in the olden days, I’d rather have my email.
About the Author
Roy Jones v. Silva, Trigg, Diaz?
People are getting all upset about this, I just read an article about how it was “pointless” which I’ve heard before as well.
This is sports, why does everything have to have some epic or salient point? We are already bad enough were we need/allow single games or fights to determine huge and ultimate issues.
Roy Jones v. any recognizable MMA fighter (by the way that elminates 99% of MMA fighters when it comes to the rest of the world) could be a sort of cool event. To see if Roy can stay off his back long enough to display world class boxing against a guy offering a completley new kind of resistence.
It won’t determine who the best MMA fighter on the planet is, or whether every boxer can beat every MMA fighter, but so what? Owner, promoters, sports writers, networks, already are too far gone, but when FANS start treating sports like a business its just not going to be fun anymore.
roy jones wont fight any mma fighter with mma rules and jones would kill silva,trigg,and nick, in a boxing match , but why would any1 wanna see roy on his back , thats just crap, and ppl should stop talkin about mma and mension boxing cuz its a totally different thing, im getting sick of hearin that an mma fighter will beat a boxer , there two totally different sports so ppl should just stop bringin this up
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