Relaxed . . . Non-aggressive Networking!

I enjoy meeting people, don’t you?  As I was growing up, my parents warned me not to talk to strangers.  Then I became a business owner and found that in order to generate new business and/or referrals, I had to talk to strangers!  Now what should I do?  Without funds available for a marketing budget, I determined early in my career, that I would have to use my God-Given talents to build my business and the one thing I could surely do was talk!  So, I began attending every networking and business event available.  I found that most people entered the event and started passing out their business cards to everyone, whether you wanted one or not.  Then, when talking, the subject quickly became a sales pitch from them.  What ever happened to just plain old talking  . . . getting to know someone, their likes/dislikes, their personality and in the case of business, what problems were they having?  As a result of those experiences, I realized most business people did not know the first thing about networking!  So I set out to learn all I could about how to do it and to do it the right way!

I really enjoy meeting people and am now very comfortable striking up a conversation with just about anyone.  My research told me to start by asking simple questions and trying to find a way to solve problems for my new acquaintance.  If I personally didn’t have a solution, possibly someone in my business connections could help and I could facilitate a referral between the two of them!  Little did I know that I was actually Netweaving!   People are pleasantly surprised when you approach them with a genuine interest in learning more about them and their business, with no attempt to SELL them anything! 

When you are genuinely interested in learning more about them, trying to help them solve their problems, keeping in touch with them to see how their progress is, you are setting the groundwork for becoming a trusted resource.  We all know that people do business with those they know, like and TRUST!

My challenge to you is this . . . try Netweaving for one month – use this approach at all networking and business events.  See for yourself the impact it makes on developing your Circle of Influence.  Then stop back here and tell us about your experience.  Stay tuned, we’ll have lots more posts about Netweaving and learning to effectively and efficiently network to build your business, but more importantly, to be known as the Best of the Best in your industry!

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