As I was very busy lately doing a lot of research and networking, I tried to sum up with a couple of basic rules that one may follow for reaching high efficiency in terms of expanding the number of business contacts and opportunities of further branding.
There are a couple of my personal insights:
- Do not forget to have enough business cards in your wallet. If the list of participants is open, try to have at least enough cards for each member of the audience. In general, you should have an average of around 20 business cards. If you are out of it, send your details to those that gave their business cards.
- Food and drinks are always part of the networking events, but be sure that you are not too hungry for spending all your time running from a plate to another. It is not extremely polite to talk business with your mouth full. And anyway, try to keep yourself as sober as possible.
- Be fast! Do not spend a lot of time with the same person. Remember that you are there to network and thus, try to get as many contacts as possible. Try to plan beforehand what are your objectives and what do you intend to achieve - how many contacts, what people may be of interest for a next meeting etc.
- Be short but efficient. If you are not a good speaker, do a short rehearsal before the event. You should not lecture, but to have enough humour for introducing your company and services. Try to find point of connection with the other members and to make the conversation pleasant yet useful.
- Continue with the networking. Get the advantage of the first impression - the sooner the better - and get the connection at a next level: find your contacts on Xing or LinkedIn or Twitter. Establish as soon as possible a next meeting in order to discuss in detail about your plans.
What is your recipe of successful networking? Feel free to share your experiences!
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