Networking Face 2 Face to advance your career

The reason many people live in the ‘City’ is to have "access" other people, a network of fellow professionals that can be so useful in our day-to-day work.

There are trade shows, seminars and membership organizations, special interest clubs, local chapters of our professional bodies, training and development courses, board of trade meetings and so on.

Last issue, I wrote about how to make these events more fruitful for you, and it seems I hit upon a nerve.

What stuns me is to see how many professional people simply aren't marketing themselves in these venues. I guess it’s because they’ve never been shown how, so let’s look at ten quick tips to help you go one step further - and actually start to develop those networking skills;

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.

BUT please, oh please, do not simply respond by saying ‘I’m a CA/CGA/CMA’.

As I mentioned last time – and I’ll say it again, that’s what you ARE, not what you DO.

Interpret the question as really being, ‘How do you add value to people’s companies in order to warrant a fee?’

I have a client who used to introduce himself, when asked what he did, by saying “I’m a Brain Surgeon” and after a double-take, he’d smile and say, ‘Just kidding, I’m a CGA really, but that’s nowhere near as interesting, is it?”

While he had the right idea, the application was terribly wrong. He was remembered, for sure, but not for being a tax genius, he was remembered as the Brain-Surgeon-CGA!

Think of an interesting way, in three sentences or less, to describe what it is that you actually do – and include some benefits to the client in them – so that the natural response is ‘That’s neat, how do you do that?’ Because then, guess what? We have a real conversation going!

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 card – when you get one (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 while 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. Instead, find a way to take what they do and make it yours.

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 redundant 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.

© 2004, MFA Group Inc