Notes on Networking F2F I live in New York City. The reason many people live here is to "access" other people. These days there are far less networking events because all the VC money that fueled them previously has evaporated. Still, there are trade shows, seminars and membership organizations. What stuns me is to see how many marketing people aren't marketing themselves in these venues. Here are some F2F Networking tips. 1. Have your 20 second elevator pitch down so you can recite it in your sleep but not seem canned when you do so. The question people are really asking when they say "So, what do you do?" is how do you make money, except that that's impolite to say. 2. Use both sides of your business card! Point out that your card has two sides. It will differentiate yours from the rest and allow you to present more information. Europeans have been doing this for years. 3. Write crib notes on the back of their business cards (assuming they haven't read these tips or use both sides already). I'm bad with faces and bad with names, but can easily make the mental association when I have a couple words that spell out what to do with this person. 4. Don't eat anything whilst standing and talking: We humans do not have the three or four hands necessary to take notes, hold drinks, dispense our own cards and shake hands, let alone eat. Anyway, what are you going to do when you've got a mouth full of guacamole and someone asks for your elevator speech? 5. Bring your own badge. This way you can control how large your name is and pump up your affiliation, or tone it down for that matter. 6. In your elevator speech tell them about your email newsletter (you do have an email newsletter, don't you?). This way you can offer to have them subscribed and open up a channel for ongoing communication, assuming you want that. 7. Get out of your comfort zone: Don't just hang with your buddies. You can see them anytime. 8. Study magnet people: You know how people circle around certain characters? Study those characters and see what makes them so charismatic and emulate that in your own way. Don't be them; that would look too weird. 9. Don't say you're an independent consultant who gets $2500 a day: Talk about your benefits and deliverables. Don't have language for this yet? Get it fast. 10. Kill off the namby-pamby words: Use action words and declarative sentences without tentative hedge-words like "maybe" or "I guess" or "I think" or "possibly" or "sometimes." These can make you sound unsure of yourself. LC |
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