Networking Tips and do you have any?

As a regular 4 sighter I now have 3 talks that I give: The formula for marketing success; The perfect 40 second script and Networking skills that have contributed to £100,000 revenue through 4N In 2 years.

The third talk appears to have a real impact as I go through how I approach a 4N networking session. I'm told 12 points are covered: I'll try and list them for you:

Before you go networking:
1. Start by defining your Value Proposition
2. Read your business plan and decide what you need from your 4N meeting
3. Define your ideal prospect
4. Create a message specifically for that prospect and no one else
5. Dress like you mean it ( from Lesley Everett). Live out your Value Proposition

At 4N meeting
6. Behave on message from the moment you arrive
7. Bring business cards. Coming to 4N without at least 3 shows you don't care.
8. Identify your ideal prospect by surveying the room. (We buy from people we like and are like us!)
9. Use your 40 seconds only to attract your ideal prospect to a 10 minute one to one. Tell them what you'll give them
10. Use your 5 minutes to give something to your ideal prospect. Ideally let them talk for the full 10 minutes

After the meeting
11. Capture all one to one's in a database. Excel is as good as anything. There's only 3 of them.
12. Follow up within 24 hours with a simple e-mail saying thank you for the one to one and include anything else that will build the relationship commercially.

Now of course I could cover a whole lot more but it is only 10/15 minutes. 

Here's what I'd like you to do.

If you have any tips or tricks to help everyone get more from Networking then add them into this forum and we can share them and make our membership more fruitful.

Thanks for reading

Barnaby

It might sound silly, but smile (and/or try to be generally positive)! People are far more likely to want to talk to someone who is cheerful than someone who looks like they might rather be elsewhere. :)

Be yourself and focus on building rapour with people - talk about topical events over a coffeee e.g  the Olympics Don't just sell sell sell, answer questions but more importantly ask - and show genuine interest in the other people in the room.

Accept it is as normal that you can just walk up to a group of people who are already chatting away and smile and join in. Even if you just stand there and join the group, someone will normally acknowledge you and invite you to contribute.

Best advice I ever recieved - arrive early. It's WAY easier to get chatting to pepople as they arrive than once everyone is already dug into groups of two and three

Never but never take your best pen with you...apart from that turn up,smile and LISTEN...

Why Angus do we have light fingers at 4 N.

I must say i have lost a few networking over time. Not my best one.

Arriving early can be a good strategy but I never let the fact that people are engaged talking to each other stop me from joining in. It's just a matter of mindset. As long as you are polite and professional most people will welcome you into the group.

Hi there -

I was going to start a new post aking for advice on 40 seconds presentation - and then spotted some top tips from Barnaby who has obviously been successful at this.

The tips above indicate that the purpose of a 121 is to try to identify a prospect in the room and sell your stuff to them. Or by 'prospect' do you mean identify a referral partner with whom there might be a fit for you both to refer one another? Or perhaps both?

I know others prefer selling to people in the room. Some don't mind being sold to. Some do. I prefer to look for strategic alliances and 'fit' for how I can help people meet there ideal clients or strategic alliances, build relationships with a way of being of being of service not of 'sales'.

I am not say one is better than the other - what do others experience as the purpose of a 40 seconds and the 121? I'd value your viewpoints.

Andrew