Dynamic Speed Networking Skills
Sian Jones is on a mission to help people communicate more effectively. And, with a background that includes presenting on some of the most well respected programs in the business, including the financial news on Bloomberg TV, she’s walked the walk when it comes to now talking the talk on presenting and communication skills.
Sian was on the Isle of Man once again this week. I had the pleasure of attending a session she ran last year on communication, which was a fascinating insight in to figuring out how to tell “your story”.
This year she provided a high level insight in to how to become a “dynamic speed networker”. If you weren’t able to make the event or grab yourself a ticket — here are my top three takeaways.
H2H
It’s not B2B, it’s not B2C, it’s H2H. Human to Human. As Sian rightly points out, people follow people. We know how important it is to see the “whites of their eyes”, however we sometimes need to be reminded that it’s important to communicate your message in person. Sian did just that. While emails, and DMs, and tweets all serve a purpose, they can’t give you the connection and understanding of an individual’s perspective, product or purpose that you get when in person. Face to face networking events can be real places of opportunity… with the right approach.
Stratergise
Preparation, preparation, preparation. You can prepare for a networking event and it can give you a feeling of confidence, especially if you’re a bit nervous in networking situations. Sian shared some techniques on how to structure your conversation, and whom to approach.
- find out the ways you can help or connect someone, approach the situation not seeing what you can get out of it, but what you can assist with
- 4 of more people in a gripping can be a challenge to join the conversation
- look for that person stood on their own, and do them a favour by talking to them
- a little bit of chat about the weather (or kids, locations, food) can actually can make some feel comfortable and less nervous. You can get to the more interesting conversation further along.
- include more listening in your strategy. Two ears and one mouth: keep to that ratio — 2:1 on listening to speaking.
Some of these points are nicely summed up by Dale Carnegie in the quote below:
You can make more friends in two months by being interested in other people than in two years of trying to get people interested in you.
Be Memorable
Tied in to the point above about strategy, because you can prepare for this point in advance.
What do you want to say?
What are your USPs?
What are the idiosyncrasies that make you, you?
It’s important to consider this before your networking event and have a few of things in your head in advance to make your ‘first impression’ memorable. (There could be a whole seminar topic on this alone…) Sian mentions that you need to consider your wardrobe and get your “patter” down, among other things. Inevitably, you need to tell someone about yourself see the benefit of networking, and this can be prepped.
Both Sian’s presentations I’ve attended have really given you something to grab hold of and takeaway. There were in fact so many takeaways and practical ideas to aid communication and networking skills in Sian’s 30 minute presentation (such as how not to handshake, the importance of remembering names and the killer of all networking “shoulder surfing”), I can’t put it all down in this one article.
At the end of the session we had a real life speed networking session and we were able to put in to practice and solidify our knowledge from the earlier session. Really importantly I made really interesting new connections!
Thanks to Isle of Man Business Network for organising and Estera for sponsoring, to enable this wonderfully authentic speaker and communication coach to grace our Manx shores in 2018.
