Hello my networking friend. Welcome back!

You’ve used the “tourist” technique to attend a few networking meetings, you’re slightly less terrified around the people you are meeting, and you are beginning to feel more comfortable in the networking landscape.

Great! You are well on your way to establishing yourself as the trusted professional in your field, and building the relationships necessary to build your business, or the business you represent.

Remember the WHO, WHAT, and HOW of the exploring I talked about in Part 1?

Now it’s time to hone in on each, and play detective, instead of tourist.

WHO:

If you visited the same event multiple times, did the people seem friendlier, or easier to be around with each return visit? Did any business owners take that first step in building a relationship with you by asking to further connect? This could be as simple as sending a FB or Linked In request.

If the answer is yes, you’ve found great people to join you in your networking journey, the journey of building relationships. In true detective style (perhaps friendlier than the Law and Order ilk) it’s time to find out what makes the people in your network tick.

Remember the person who sent a FB request or email after the networking meeting(s) you attended? Set up a lunch or a coffee with her, and when you reach out, assume the meeting.

Read these tips to ensure logistics of the meeting fall into place perfectly. When you have that lunch or coffee, investigate. The person sitting across from you is full of insight, warmth, and knowledge. Find out what makes her tick, ask her how she came to be in the business she is in, and ask how you can HELP her in it.

Do not pitch!

Do not pitch!

Do not pitch!

Instead, make her your referral partner.

If the conversation turns its focus on you, tell stories about how you’ve helped your clients, or, if you are a new business owner, how you would like to help clients and what problems you have solved or would like to solve for them.

Surprisingly, for the terrified networker, playing detective and creating referral partners means you are focusing less, if at all, on your performance. You’re a fan of less performance driven activities, right?

Detective work is not performance work, there is no grade at the end!

WHAT:

What kind of professions are represented at the meeting(s) you’ve found you liked. With the referral partner framework in mind, could the people in those professions work with you on a shared marketing strategy in the future?

In my window cleaning business, I collaborated on a project with a mobile auto detailer I met and formed a relationship with in my networking group. We each sent an email to our own current clients, highlighting each other’s businesses, and offered a discount to our clients if they used each other’s businesses.

Both campaigns were successful, each of us picked up clients from each other’s pool of existing clients.

Foundational to the successful collaboration was the trust we had in each other, which took place over many months of supporting each other at a weekly networking meeting.

Finally, HOW:

How can I make the most of the format of the networking meeting(s) I attend? Does the meeting have a public speaking component? Play detective and find out best practices for making an elevator pitch to the room.

Check out public speaking resources here, and here. Is there a lot of open networking at the meeting you’ve decided to make your “go to” networking destination? Read Leil Lowndess’ book How to Talk to Anyone before your next meeting.

Her tips are simple and easy to implement. By playing detective and learning how to be “other” focused, you’ll find yourself even less terrified than you were as a tourist, and you will look forward to networking instead of dreading it.

What happens if you’ve attended the same meeting multiple times, but have not become more comfortable, have found yourself dreading repeat visits, and are ready to give up?

Don’t! Help awaits in Tour 4 of this series, which is just a click away.

Go network my friend, and remember;

Make referral partners, not pitches.

Faithann Basore and her husband Dave have owned Window Cleaning Plus (WCP) for 10 years. Growing WCP through networking has given Faithann the desire to guide other small business owners through the networking terrain so they can feel comfortable and build long lasting relationships in their business.

Got networking questions? Email me at [email protected].