Today more than ever, people have lost the art of personal contact. Sure, there's FaceBook, LinkedIn, and a host of other social sites to connect, as well as email. But these media are flat compared to the richness of a face-to-face conversation where you can see the other person smile at your joke or show their concern for you in their eyes. Smilies just don't cut it.
Networking face-to-face is one of the best ways to grow a business quickly and surely - when done well. But many people consider this good networking:
- Enter a room
- Find a group of people
- Hand out your business card to all of them
- Go to the next group
I call it rude. The "networker" probably interrupted a great conversation in his/her quest to "get known." But all the person got known for was as a person others don't want to know.
A much more effective approach can be summed up in a single phrase:
Be helpful, useful, and valuable - first
Before you ask for anything from the other person, make sure you add value first. If you can't help the person, you don't need to give your card or ask for anything. That's a pretty strict interpretation of networking principles, but we have found that people who are most successful are valuable to others first. Like Zig Ziglar so eloquently put it:
"You can have anything you want in life - as long as you can help enough other people get what they want."
Next time you're out meeting people, make sure you actively try to help the other person first. Then you can legitimately ask for help in return. It's not an "I'll scratch your back if you scratch mine" perspective, it is one of being valuable before you receive value. I honestly believe that the more you help others, the more you will be helped. You will become known as a valuable person - and will get valuable referrals because of it.
Get Connected!
