By:

Insightful Business Development Consulting & Coaching for Service Professionals

© INSIGHT INFORMATION SOLUTIONS, LLC

Networking events are mandatory for growing your network of connections that can lead to referrals, partnerships and clients. However, they can also be awkward and even downright painful. Here are five tips for you to start rocking the events you attend:

Eat before you go to the event.If you go to a mixer or cocktail event hungry, then you’ll spend the entire time by the food table rather than mingling, which defeats the purpose of attending. Also, eating at least a small meal before you arrive enables you to stay focused on mingling without juggling a plate and drink (non-alcoholic, of course!).

Don’t sit alone.Sitting alone won’t help you make new connections. Find a table with an empty seat and join in. Who knows who you might meet?

Keep your body language welcoming.Closed off body language dissuades people who are likely as uncomfortable as you are from coming up to you to chat. As much as you want to cross your arms or legs, avoid eye contact or slump in your chair –DON’T. People look for friendly faces to join, so be that friendly face.

Set a goal for the number of people with whom you want to connect.Whenever you attend a networking event, commit to talking to a certain number of people that is slightly outside of your comfort zone, but not so far outside it that it becomes overwhelming. A great goal for someone new to networking or for introverted people is 1-3 people per event. Once you have met your goal, you can leave without feeling like you’ve wasted the event.

Listen.You would be surprised what you can learn about people by simply listening to conversations going on around you. When you are not engaged in conversation, such as if your mouth is full during a lunch or dinner event, listen to the conversations of the people going on around you and make mental notes of what they do, what they like or dislike, and what, if any, pain points they have that you or someone you already know could help them solve. Forearming yourself with valuable information like this encourages you to go up to them with more confidence because you have a list of potential topics to break the ice.

Which tip do you think you’ll utilize the most? Hop on over to Insightful Business Development, a free facebook community where we talk all about networking, and let me know.

© INSIGHT INFORMATION SOLUTIONS, LLC