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SUCCESS
SECRETS EZINE IS HERE
If you want the inside secrets of how women
just like you propelled their businesses to levels they
never dreamed possible, sign up for my new "Success
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1.
Network Your Way to Sales
I hate walking into a room full of lots of people and not knowing anyone. I'll bet you do, too.
But I have to do it for business all the time. Sometimes I'm really good at it and sometimes I'm not. Frankly, it often depends on what else I have going on in my life at the time and whether I feel emotionally strong or not.
But over the years, I have figured out a few "tricks" to help me get past the fear so I can network effectively.
The Basics
I always put my name badge on my RIGHT side. This forces the person you are meeting to look right at your name badge when you shake hands. Their eyes naturally follow the line of your arm and end up at your name badge. So when they hear your name, they can automatically reinforce it by reading it at the same time. And their eyes don't have to sneak over to your left side to do this.
After I check in, the next thing I do is go to the bar to get a drink. It doesn't matter if it's water, a soft drink, or an alcoholic drink. This does 3 things for me.
1) It gives me time to survey the room and not look stupid or lost.
2) It gives me something to hold (which works like a pacifier and calms me down).
3) It gives me a small group of people to talk to as I wait in line, narrowing the room from "HUGE" to "intimate."
I'm very organized when I go to a networking event. I have MY business cards (lots of them) in my RIGHT jacket pocket and put the ones I collect in my LEFT jacket pocket. That way I avoid doing the business card shuffle, trying to find one of mine in a handful of cards. It also prevents me from giving away my own cards that I have written something on.
When I receive a card from someone, I try to make a note on the back of it about the person: where I met them, the date, and pertinent facts I find out about them. This helps me remember who I meet and gives me something besides contact information to put in my database back at my office. Because I will want to FOLLOW UP with these folks when I'm in my office the next day.
Okay, so now I have a drink in my hand, I may have met one or two people in line, and I've looked around the room to see who I might like to talk to.
Who do I look for? I look for "loners" -- people standing all by themselves and looking forlorn -- and small groups where I know one or more people, but not all of them. Then I walk up to these "targets," extend my hand to shake hands and SMILE.
I stay only a few minutes (I don't want to overstay my welcome!), running through Dale Carnegie's 5 things to talk about (work, family, home/live, travel and hobbies) one right after another until I've exhausted all the small talk. (By the way, this works at parties, too!)
If you remember these 5 topics, you'll always have something to say and so will the people you are talking to. Of course, in a work situation, I pay more attention to the "work" portion of the conversation, trying to find out if the person I'm talking to is a potential client. I ask questions like, "Where do you work? What do you do there? How many people are employed at your company? How do you market your business?" and so on.
When I've exhausted that topic, I move on to "home" -- "Where do you live? What kind of a house is it? Do you like Victorian (or whatever) houses? How long have you lived here?" They may mention that they are married or have kids. Bam! You're into the "family" topic. I think you get the picture.
I always ask for the other person's card first. I've found that people are more receptive if you are interested in them and what they do instead of trying to SELL them on what I do. And of course, networking is just another way to SELL, isn't it?
Oh, and I almost forgot. One of the MOST IMPORTANT things you can do to be comfortable and successful at a networking function is to learn how to introduce yourself in 30 seconds or less so that you are clear, intriguing, and get people to say, "I need that!"
But that's another article...
If you need to sell, but you need help improving your closing ratio, you're in luck. In just 52 short lessons, you can learn to be a SALES CHAMPION with SALES SUCCESS! STRATEGIES FOR WOMEN (yes...the same strategies work for men). You can download three sample chapters and read more about it click here.
Learn to network your way to sales!
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Published by:
Lois Carter Fay,
APR
Marketing Guru, Marketing
Idea Shop, LLC
411 Rainier Road, Massanutten, VA USA 22840
Voice 540.289.3840 or 800.203.8660
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