Contacts to Connections . . . On the Way to Building Relationships

Ok, you’ve just “survived” attending a new networking event.  Congratulations!  It’s new to you because it was your first time attending.  There were quite a few people there that you met for the first time.  You’ve spent a few minutes “socializing” with each of them, asking the typical ice breaker questions and you feel as though they could now be considered a new contact for you.  Now what do you do?

Invite someone to have coffee or lunch with you.  If that doesn’t work, at a minimum, ask for a time to put on your calendar to have a more personal chat with them.  The goal is to learn more about them – remember it’s always WIIFT (What’s In It For Them) and not WIIFY (What’s In It For You).  Find out what their interests are both professionally and personally.  

When you get to know your contacts on a personal level, they will begin to trust you and the relationship developing process will continue.  Information will start to be shared freely with you and if you listen carefully, you can quickly find out what they need to become successful.  At that point you can search through your own personal database of connections and find someone to refer them to or refer to them.  Think about making an introduction or a referral to your new connection and someone else in your network without either party requesting you to do so.  Do you think that your new connection will feel like you care?  You bet they will.  On top of that, your new connection will feel like they want to reciprocate and will start to ask you more questions about what you do, how you do it and find out more personal details about you.

Are you following me in this line of thought?  Isn’t this a much easier way to build your connections instead of attending an event, becoming part of a conveyor belt – collecting and exchanging as many business cards as possible in a given amount of time?  When you go for quality and not focus on quantity, people will be willing to chat.  As the relationship develops, so will the trust and when people trust  you, they buy from you and they refer you to others.  You can’t begin to put a price tag on that type of relationship.  Show them you care – get to know, like and trust them and ALLOW them to reciprocate and you will have a long-lasting relationship that is producing results for both of you.

As always, I’m happy to chat with you about your netweaving/networking needs – just contact me through email, Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn or an old-fashioned telephone call!  If you would like to know more about my face-to-face weekly group coaching sessions, please visit my website and become a fan on FaceBook .

To Your Networking Success!

Carol

P.S.  Your comments and thoughts are always welcome – please post them below!

  |  | Subscribe to It!