How to Power-Up Your Business Networking | Coach Steve Gunn

Face-to-face business networking is an important part of an effective marketing program. But if you are not getting the results you need, it might be time to take a look at your approach. How you see business networking determines how you perform and it that, in turn, determines the kind of results you get. This article is about how to get better results:

• By observing and shifting the way you see the process of business networking
• Shifting the way you do face-to-face marketing.

There are two ways of seeing the purpose of networking. ?

1. ?To get the word about my business out to as many people as possible in the shortest amount of time.
2. ?To get to know, like and respect the person I am interacting with, and find a way to support their success.

The short version for these two contrasting approaches is promotion versus attraction. The promoter is trying to get something and the attracter is seeking to give and in the process draws potential customers to him.

During networking events, do you ever have conversations (with yourself) like these?

• ?I?m disappointed with the turn-out. I met most of these people at the last event.?
• ??I?d better move faster. I?ve only hit half the room so far.?
• ??I wish this guy would shut up so I can end this conversation and move to the next person.?

If you approach networking interactions this way, you might feel stressed, concerned about the effectiveness of your efforts, pressured, critical of others and impatient. However, when you focus on getting to know, like and respect the person you are interacting with, and looking for a way to support their success, you are likely to:

• Enjoy the conversations.
• Feel connected with the person you are talking to.
• Want to connect good people to other good people
• Feel satisfaction when you can refer them to a potential customer or business connection.
• Feel relaxed.

Who would you rather do business with, a critical, pressured, impatient and stressed person, or someone who appreciates you and is interested in you and your success? Being an attractor is absolutely crucial to success.? The Beatles described it like this:

?And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.?

An Action Plan for Powering-Up Your Face-to-Face Networking

1. Observe your promotion and attraction approaches to face-to-face networking interactions.
2. If you are focusing primarily on promotion, play with the attraction approach for a while.
3. Make your goal for a networking event to create 3-5 quality interactions (rather than seeing how many business cards you can collect.
4. Find at least one opportunity to connect someone with a potential customer or business connection.
5. Find something to appreciate about each person with whom you interact.
6. Find an attractor and observe what she/he is doing to develop business relationships.
7. The day after you meet someone, write a simple note of appreciation to the 3-5 people with whom you had a quality interaction.

Try it out and let me know your results.

Be well.

Coach Steve

Source: http://www.coachstevegunn.com/powerup-business-networking/

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