Business Cards = Not Always the Best Ways to Network For Your Business
Networking in business has come to be this word that means, “Hey, I’m going to go to this networking event. I’m going to try and give my business card to as many people as possible.”
Rather than just trying to interact with as many people as possible, I like to start connecting.
My good friend Larry Gioia made me a piece of art work recently. Larry is an expert on connecting rather than just networking. The art piece he made for me says, “#ABCD.”
This is the phrase that he uses. It stands for always be connecting the dots.
I love this phrase, and it’s really resonated with me since the moment I heard Larry on his first podcast, with Aaron Watson. Hearing him speak about ABCD and his tips on the best ways to network for your business had such a connection with me.
I wrote them both immediately and said, “Hey, your podcast really had a big impact, and it’s the thing that I found in the past that always worked for me on social media.”
What it means is always be connecting the dots. Instead of going to networking events and going to business events and just trying to hand out your business card and pitch people on what you do, try and build connections.
When you first meet somebody, ask them what they do. Try and listen to exactly what they offer, what they need, how you can help them, how you can offer them value, and start building up a connection with them and a relationship rather than just going and networking.
Tips for Networking At Conferences
This will make events so much more fun for you. Instead of just trying to push all your business cards and your content on people at your next events, go in and then have the thought process behind it that you always want to be connecting the dots.
You want to take all the things that you learned from people at your networking events and start getting a true connection with them.
Then the next thing that I love that Larry says, and it has to do with the ABCD, is he’s always saying, “Meet people and find a way to connect people that would otherwise never meet.”
If you meet somebody and you know they need help with social media, and then you have somebody over here who’s a social media expert, take the time.
Take a couple extra minutes and say, “Hey, I think you two would really get a good benefit out of having a topic around social media.”
Give an introduction.
“This person needs help. This person can give help,” and that’s a way to connect people together, and it’s a way to also build your connections with the people that are around you, instead of just straight building a network, always be connecting those dots.
Network Marketing Tips with Aaron Watson & Larry Gioia
He has an excellent podcast with Aaron Watson from the Going Deep with Aaron Watson podcast. Definitely go check it out.
He says it way better than me and shares excellent networking marketing tips. But it’s an awesome concept and really gets you thinking about the best ways to network for your business.
Once you hear his explanation of this hashtag, I use this all the time now, and it really does allow you to create better relationships with people.
Instead of just trying to pitch everything and ask people for stuff, you’re creating connections, you’re creating relationships, and the benefits that you get from that will absolutely change both your personal life and your business life.
So, go check out the podcast. It’s an excellent episode, and let me know what you think.