NETWORK
LIKE A PRO
Want people to talk about your business? Time to take your networking
skills to the next level
February
24, 2003
By Ivan Misner
Entrepreneur.com
Q. I want to
start a business selling products and/or services over the Internet,
and I think word-of-mouth marketing would really help attract traffic.
My question is, how do I overcome the obstacles of being an incorrigible
cave dweller? I have never been a good mixer- it's just not my style.
Are there ways I can work around this weakness, or must I become
an extrovert in order to succeed?
A: In her book,
Skill for Success: A Guide to the Top for Men and Women, Adele Scheele
describes a cocktail party where she met someone who was hesitant
to introduce himself to total strangers. Scheele suggested that
he 'consider a different scenario for the evening. That is, consider
himself the party's host instead of the guest." She asked him,
if he were the host, wouldn't he introduce himself to people he
didn't know and then introduce them to each other? Wouldn't he make
sure people knew where the food and drinks were? Wouldn't he watch
for lulls in conversations or bring new people over to an already-formed
small group?
Scheele's new
acquaintance acknowledged the obvious difference between the active
role of the host and the passive role of the guest. A host is expected
to do things for others, while a guest sits back and relaxes. "There
was nothing to stop this man from playing the role of host even
though he wasn't the actual host," Scheele concluded. And there
is nothing to stop you from being far more active when you're with
a large group of people, either.
Along this line,
I recommend that you volunteer to be an ambassador, or a visitor
host, at the networking groups you belong to -- someone who greets
all the visitors and introduces them to others. If you see visitors
sitting, introduce yourself and ask if they'd like to meet other
members.
If there are
many visitors to meet, ask another member to help you by introducing
the visitor to the rest of the membership so that you can get back
to meeting new visitors. By using this technique, you'll start to
develop excellent networking skills and get great exposure to many
business professionals in a short time. Over the years, I've found
that people who are naturally shy or uncomfortable having great
success using this technique.
A distinguishing
characteristic of self-made millionaires is that they network everywhere.
Most important, they do it all the time - at business conferences,
at the health club, on the golf course or with the person sitting
next to them on a plane. This fact alone should motivate you to
place yourself in situations where you can meet new people. As you
feel more comfortable with this process, you'll find it easier to
sit between strangers at business meetings or strike up a conversation
with people at the spa.
It's important
to find the time to leave your cave and meet other qualified business
professionals regularly, or you'll never develop a prosperous word-of-mouth-based
business. Networking is a contact sport! If you don't develop effective
relationships, you can't possibly create a powerful, diverse and
reliable network of contacts.
Ivan Misner
is the founder and CEO of Business Network International (BIN),
which has more than 2,700 chapters throughout the world.
© 2004
Entrepreneur.com. All Rights Reserved.
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