Making the business case for your RSVP this holiday season

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.

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.”

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.