In this article I continue with the sins of networking theme from my last article.

The next sin is failing to establish a connection.

Effective networking means actively making a connection with the people you meet.  Your goal is not to meet everyone at the event.  You are better off having one or two meaningful conversations than collecting 10 business cards.

Malcolm Gladwell in his book “The Outliers” talks about “super connectors” – these are people who know a vast amount of people and keep in regular contact with them – an example of a super connector was Paul Revere.

In 1775, Paul Revere made his famous ride to spread the word that the British were coming.  He rode North West to warn the settlements and local militaria.

His colleague fellow revolutionary William Dawes rode south.

Because of his many connections Paul was taken seriously by the townspeople he spoke to and the British met fierce resistance in the North.  While in the south they met virtually no resistance and believed the townspeople were actually loyal to them.

As Paul had developed so many contacts he was well known and trusted.  The opposite was true of William Dawes.

The message – get connected and just as important stay in touch on a regular basis!

One last point on being connected comes from the book “The Luck Factor” by Richard
Wiseman.    It was found one of the key traits of “lucky people” was they kept regular contact with a large number of people.  In meeting more people it increased their chance of opportune meetings.

The next sin is inability to articulate your unique selling proposition (USP)

Have you ever met anyone, had a conversation about their business and at the end were no clearer about what they offered in their business?

This has happened to me on more than one occasion.  We need to be able to clearly state what we do for our clients and what an ideal client for our business would look like. Stating “anyone would be a good prospect” is far too broad.  The more specific we are about what we offer and about who we are looking for the more chance we have of getting a qualified referral.

At the next event you attend consider some of the key points we have looked at in this article – put them into practice – and look for the results.

Quote of the Day:

It isn’t just what you know, and it isn’t just who you know,
It’s actually who you know, who knows you and what you do for a living.

                                                                                                                         Bob Burg

Brett Burgess is a Sales Trainer and Programme Developer for Sales Impact Group.