UK
IRE
AU
CA
US
ZA
NG
Events are a great way to make connections that will benefit your business – you just need to make sure you approach them properly.
This time of year is party season: between September and New Year’s Day, you’ll find many calls on your downtime. But can you justify slipping out from work early to put on your glad rags? What about the loss of productivity the next day when you’ve got a dry mouth and a stubborn headache?
There are good reasons for saying “yes” to the right invitations: you could find yourself making new connections outside your usual circle, or strengthen old relationships (I’m often finding myself speaking with people I’ve met peripherally elsewhere).
Help is at hand. As Swoop’s #1 Champion Networker, here are my top tips for getting the most out of a networking event.
Understand the tone
Getting the tone right is everything. Some events are more sociable and some are more business-focused. Why does this matter? Because it informs a lot about your approach: what you can expect to get out of it, how you’ll approach people and even what you wear.
Can you go straight from the office with a pocket full of business cards? Or do you need to spend a bit more time getting ready? You can get some mileage out of confounding expectations – I once saw a woman in the construction business wearing a pair of steel-toed boots with her designer ballgown. An unforgettable look.
You might need to read between the lines of the invitation to get the right answer. If in doubt, you can always call the organiser and confirm expectations.
Give before you take
Don’t go to events expecting to walk away with a full-order book. Instead, take along your ideas and your experience and give them away like they are going out of fashion.
If you have a book, branded merch or something else that’s a bit more exciting than a business card, make sure you have a few of these to hand over to people you get chatting with. It helps if they are useful things to keep around.
Giving advice at parties is risky, particularly if talking shop is frowned upon. But you can cloak your advice in a case study: “I had a client with that problem last week. They were able to do XYZ which saved them a couple of thousand a year – you should check it out.”
Polish your pitch
We all know “what do you do?” isn’t a great opening question, but it is the most common, so make sure you have a great answer for it.
Try to frame what you do as a solution to a problem – so rather than “I work in finance”, you might say, “I help SMEs find the funding they need to grow”.
Specificity helps. I was at a party where someone said, “I work with computers.” I thought, “It’s 2024, we all work with computers.” Making a solution out of your job or business helps people think about how you might help them.
If you have 60 seconds to introduce yourself, don’t go over the time. Practice an elevator pitch. Again, if you can make it about solving their problem and throw in something about yourself that makes you approachable, you’ll have plenty of people ready to talk afterwards.
A couple of other things you might find useful: have the QR code to your business or LinkedIn page easily to hand. I have mine as a lock screen on my phone (I’ve created a “networking” mode just for these kinds of events). I also have the QR code on a branded shirt (for events) and on a magnetic badge (because the badges you usually get at networking events are those awful-looking sticky labels that curl up and fall off within half an hour). Wear name tags on the right not the left – it’s easier for the other person to read.
If someone gives me a business card, I always find it helpful to write something on it as a memory jogger for follow-up. If they see you doing this, it cements in their mind the idea that you are going to continue the conversation. If you have a business card, make sure there’s a light space and it can be written on.
Imposter or introvert?
The two big reasons for not going to networking are that you don’t feel you belong there, or you’re an introvert. Neither of these is a real reason.
If you’ve got a touch of imposter syndrome, go up to a random person, and say “I feel completely out of my depth here, I don’t think I fit in at all.” You’ll find they feel the same or they’ll take a minute to talk you into why you do actually belong.
If you’re an introvert, that’s tough but you’re not there to represent yourself, you’re there to represent your business, so hide behind that.
My top tip if you’re as introverted as I am: grab a bottle of whatever they’re serving (I try to get a bottle of red and a bottle of white) and suddenly you have a job to do. You can go up to anyone and offer them a drink. And if they bore you, you have an excuse: “That lady’s running low, I’d better go and top her glass up.”
If it’s a good party, people will think you’re responsible. If it’s a bad party, people will think you’re gamely trying to rescue it.
This is my favourite thing to do at parties, and I’m only telling you this because I’m confident the extroverts will have skipped this section.
yet? Register here!