Effective networking in 5 easy stages
The Introverts Guide to Networking
Before the pandemic, I used to go to a lot of networking events and despite being someone who was not traditionally outgoing at school, I loved them. Now in-person networking events seem to be back again and they are certainly a re-adjustment from all those Zoom and Teams calls.
When I network for work, I see it as a process. I think about my aims and goals and plan how to achieve them. So what do you do when you walk into a room full of people and you are trying to get the best out of it? This article breaks down my process into 5 easy stages.
1. Preparation
It may feel a bit odd to prepare for social interaction, after all, you don’t prepare to go a meet your friends, but preparation really helps to get the best out of an event. Before I go to an event, I prepare the following:
- I think about the kind of contacts I want to meet. This helps me choose the conversations beforehand and gives me some aims and goals for the event.
- If you have access to a guest list, make a list of who you would like to meet and check if you know any contacts (or if your colleagues do). It’s great to have common ground straight from the get go. You can use networking events to build on relationships, as well as make new ones.
- Think about what to wear. Make sure you are comfortable, that it is going to be what you want and how you want people to remember you from the event. Personally, I like to wear something quite bright since it will help people remember me afterwards when they picture a room full of grey suits.
2. Initial conversations
Being the person to first start a conversation can be daunting, but it doesn’t have to be. Initial conversation should be much more about listening than it is about talking. You want to ask open ended question so that you learn a lot about the person you are talking to. This will help you understand whether they are the kind of contact you are looking for and identify whether you have any common ground.
So here is where it is helpful to have a few conversation starters in your back pocket. Of course, you can always start with pleasantries (how was your journey, where are you from etc.), but these tend to not last long. I find these kind of questions helpful to keep the conversation rolling:
- What did you think of the [talk/event/lecture]?
- Did the [event/talk/lecture] provide what you was hoping for?
- What do you do in your role?
- What kind of businesses do you work with?
- How would say [insert topic of event] effects your business?
3. Making effective use of your time at networking events
In person networking events require you to manage your time, rather than Zoom networking calls which can move you from room to room. You are generally hoping to have valuable conversations, these are ones where you and the other person have common ground.
Examples of common ground include: your roles are likely to cross paths, you do similar but different enough work that you could refer work to each other, your business would be interested in them as a customer or supplier etc. or perhaps they are just a great friendly person to know so that you can chat and bounce ideas off.
However, sometimes you can also get stuck in a conversation which is not helpful and you can feel the clock is ticking. I used to worry about being impolite but now I protect my time and find a way to move on. I will say something like “thanks for your time, it was nice to meet you, but I’m going to go mingle around the room now”. If you feel like this might offend the person you are speaking to, you can always make an excuse that you are just going to the bathroom or you’re going to get a drink/food.
4. Getting contact details
Arguably the most important goal of going to a networking event is to come back with contact details. Sometimes this will happen naturally, someone will openly give your their card — but in this new digitized world, lots of people won’t have a business card anymore, so you will want to get their digital details.
A great way to do this is using LinkedIn! Lots of professionals have a profile and so you can add them straight away as a contact. LinkedIn lets you add people easily to your profile by scanning each others QR code on the app. If you want a breakdown of how to do this, I have shared a link here.
If they don’t have LinkedIn or you didn’t add them at the event for whatever reason, make sure you take their name and business information, so you can always find them online and send them a follow up message.
5. The follow up
Once you have been to an event and made contacts, its easy to think of it as done and dusted, but you can get the most value from your relationships if you follow. If you don’t send them a message afterwards, they might easily forget the conversation you had, even if they were a great fit for you or your business to work with.
After a networking event, I think about who I want to talk to again and craft them a personal message. They might have met a lot of people so it’s really important to remind them of who you are and why you should keep in contact. Here is an couple of examples of messages I would send after an event.
It was great to meet you at [name event]. I really enjoyed our conversation about [insert topic]. I’d love to hear more about [your role/your business etc.]. Do you fancy a follow up catch up over coffee?
Or, if you want to keep in contact but if you don’t want to immediately follow up I would amend the last part of this message to something like:
I’ll look forward to reading your posts on LinkedIn. Let me know if you ever fancy a catch up.
The wrap up
Networking can sometimes feel very vague — what to do, how to do it, but it’s possible to have a plan of action to help you and everyone you meet get a great experience from it. Of course, everyone may have their own way of doing things, but these are just my ideas and I hope that by sharing them, you are able to find them a useful tool for your own thought process about networking.
Do you have any networking top tips? I’d love to hear them in the comments.
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About me
In my day job, I am UK qualified lawyer specialising in data protection advice and technology contracts. You can find me on LinkedIn here.
This article does not contain legal advice and only my personal opinions
