Not many people find it easy to Network especially the introverts. When I say not many people I meant me.
Love it or Hate it, networking is the most relevant business skill.
Networking for business is about making friends and building alliances.
The best business leaders understand that your network is your net worth, and they do everything they can to invest in the relationships by building trust-based business relationships.
Networking is a great strategy for small business owners – people want to do business with other people (that they know, like and trust) not with some faceless company).
“Networking is a marketing strategy that facilitates developing relationships which can generate referrals or business.”
However, I searched online, read books, and listened to some networking experts and came up with these 5 basic steps to follow to ensure you are successful at networking.
5 basic steps to incorporate into your networking processes:
Free your mind and the rest will follow! There are plenty of techniques and tips to make us better at networking, but the real key is approaching it from the right frame of mind.
- Understand that networking is really just a process of meeting people and having conversations. It’s not a sales call and it’s not a job interview. Know that knowledge is the foundation of smart speaking so you should at least know to a reasonable amount what you are speaking about.
- Identify Your Target: Have you ever seen a fly fisherman that pulls in fish after fish? He knows what he’s fishing for and he knows what those fish like. Do you know what you are after?
- Identify where to network and prepare your meeting strategy: Sure you can network almost anywhere, but there are only 24 hours in the day so you should identify what will work best for you and reach out for those periods and moments. Also, one of the best ways to overcome fear is to be prepared.
- Ask Questions: People enjoy being listened to. The secret to being a great listener is to ask the right questions. Go with open-ended questions that will get people to talk. In the book, How to Win Friends and Influence; Dale Carnegie emphasized on talking about what interest the other person and not you. People get excited by you asking or talking about what they are interested in and give a little concern about what you do (the selfish nature of man). So, get to ask about the other person (likes, interest and all). And in no time, you build a strong rapport and relationship with them.
- Follow-up: If you were a farmer, you would have spent a lot of time determining the best thing to plant, preparing the field and going to pick out the seed. However there will be no crop if you don’t actually plant the seed and water it. There are a lot of ways to follow-up, including phone, email or even chats– the key is to make sure you do something with the contacts that you make soon, to keep the ball rolling (when it makes sense).
“Nurture relationships and follow up on everyone of them.”
Conclusion
These are basic steps to have a successful networking experience. You can always include some other relevant and helpful steps here to help us all learn.
As you go about your daily chores and businesses, you will be surprised, as a business person, what you do most of the time is actually networking. Practice the basic steps and see yourself improve in your networking with the people you require for growth in your business and life generally.
Your Network is your Networth. You must be a person of value to convert your network to your Networth. So never stop adding value to yourself and to others. contact us now to get you started!
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