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If you’re going to networking events to grow your business, chances are that you’re not nearly as effective
building relationships as
you could be.
That’s because most of us spend
too much time
at networking events chatting with friends.
That is the conclusion of a study conducted by Professors Paul
Ingram and Michael Morris of Columbia Business School.
For the study, the
professors staged a networking event at the business school,
inviting about 100 business people. To get a precise record of who
met whom during the course of the night, attendees wore a small
electronic device called an nTag to track all encounters.
While most
attendees knew fewer than a third of the other participants, most
didn’t take full advantage of the chance to meet new people.
The nTags showed that the average guest had 14 encounters
during the night and that friends accounted for a disproportionate
half of these encounters.
Most people fail to
maximize the value of networking events because they aren’t
comfortable chatting with strangers.
Of course, the key
to chatting with strangers is simply to ask questions and listen.
The best networkers have a series of ice breaker questions.
“Where are you
from?”
“Do you have any
plans for the holidays?”
“Do you have any
hobbies?”
The goal is to find
a point of commonality. Usually it only takes a few questions to
find that you’re both into motorcycles or cooking or golf. From
there, the conversation usually takes off.
Next time you’re at
a networking event, make it a goal to spend more time chatting with
strangers than friends. After all, connecting with new people is the
reason the events exist.
At Speechworks we
help our clients learn how to communicate in a way that connects and
persuades. If you’re interested in becoming a great communicator
give us a call at 404-266-0888 or check out our website at
www.speechworks.net. |
