There are many ways we should do to improve our business networking performance. Here are things we should do to improve networking performance:
Do small talk: The largest amount of networking activity usually revolves around small talks. It’s quite rare that people would get straight to business, so it is a good idea to incorporate more serious topics during small talks. They are the foundation of good relationship among professionals. It isn’t possible to do huge business without having small talk at first. In fact, people like to do business only with those they like. There are key similarities we need to consider, so we can keep conversation moving forward. For many, small talk is relatively easy to do and this should keep us prepared for any changes in the industry.
Ask questions the right way: Many business professionals are actually rather reluctant, when it comes to asking business-related questions. They don’t want to be known as intrusive or pushy. But, it is a simple fact that we should uncover the needs of our potential business partners, if we want to solve problems. It is important to ask precise, good questions to help us gain more benefits from the network. First, we should be quite clear on things that we want to know and we should mentally prepare a collection of questions that can give us an understanding relatively quickly. Questions should be phrased properly, so we can get good answers. This should allow our prospect to understand our needs and they will be more interested to provide new information. It is essential to recognize the key questioning techniques and implement them properly.
Listen effectively: We have two ears and we should use them well. We have only one mouth, so it is a good idea to listen twice as much, as we speak. So, during business networking, we should become active listener and respond actively to information that others provide. We should suppress incessant clutter in our head that cause us to chatter continuously with little results. Too much talk won’t yield profitable opportunities and we could simply miss them. Business professionals will appreciate it if we give them our full attention. Listening is an art, so we should try to be better at it.
Avoid reverting to “selling mode”: Many businesspeople are encouraged to change gear from “relationship-building” mode into “selling” mode. Others will easily spot this through changes in body language and focus of the questions. Although people love to shop and buy, they could hate it when they see a salesperson during a networking event. The outcome won’t be good and people could feel being pressured into listening to our sales pitches. To be fair, switching into sales model can be an automatic reaction, but we should try to respect other professionals during a networking event. Hopefully, we will be able to establish good relationships with other businesspeople. There is nothing better than having a big business network that can profit us in the long run.