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Onto the good stuff… Picture this. You are busy working late one evening and a message pops up from a business colleague you get on well with. You pause Netflix and take a look. "Hey Reader, why don’t you come along as my guest to the XYZ networking event taking place next month, you will love it! I met a number of new people today who I think I can work with and so I am sure this would be great for you and your business. Fancy it?" You are intrigued. New business eh? That would be nice as it has been some time since yoReaderu closed any new deals and you did set yourself a target for the year which does seem quite a way off. You check your diary. You are free on the day. This could work you start to think! You still have a few old business cards and so you are good to go! You send a message back to your colleague saying ‘Yes I would love to come along thanks, book me in’ and you add it to your diary. And just before you press ‘play’ on the next series episode you even start to imagine what you might do with the income from 2 or 3 new clients!! Roll forward 4 weeks and you look at your diary for the coming few days and the event is nearly here! You have a busy week but you don’t want to let your colleague down and so you arrange family schedules to ensure you can make it and start thinking about what to wear. The day of the event arrives and you get everything in place ready to attend. The business cards are packed, you wear your favourite outfit and you get ready to meet some new people! You feel nervous and are not sure what to expect but you have committed to it. You get to the event and meet your colleague. It’s nice to see them and they immediately introduce you to a couple of people. You start to enjoy yourself and then the event organiser calls order and asks everyone to sit down. They introduce the event and explain the format and then tell everyone they have 1 minute to introduce themselves. And then reality hits… What the hell are you going to say? You didn’t realise you had to stand up in front of 25 other people and say something. You start to sweat profusely. Maybe this wasn’t a good idea after all. They are going in a clockwise direction and there are 11 people before it’s your turn. Now there are 8. It’s now down to 5 2 to go. Your heart starts pumping. You feel a sense of impending stress. “What the hell did I agree to this for” you say to yourself. The person sitting next to you stands up. They are so confident and speak so articulately. They share a joke and finish just before the organiser says their time is up. Its time. It is now your turn… You stand up and can sense your face already going red. ‘Hi my name is Come on be honest with me, who can resonate with this story? Going to potentially meet new buyers is exciting but all too often when it comes to introducing ourselves at events, many people panic. If you are not a natural people-person, then meeting new people at events can be incredibly daunting and it becomes even more challenging if you have to stand up and say something. Times that by 10 if you haven’t prepared and practiced something in advance! I am a big fan of networking events and I try to attend as many as I can, but that’s because I have learned from the best people in this space. One of those is my good friend Bradley Hatchett who has run networking events for a long time and who has created a brilliant newsletter called ‘The Networker’. Bradley has made it his mission to help as many people as possible get the most from networking events they attend and I really encourage you to sign up for his newsletter. It is full of golden nuggets on how to get the most out of networking, what to do and what not to do. I shared in my email last week how not to come across as an Elevenarifer when you meet new people, and although it's difficult, we have to resist the urge when we are meeting new buyers. I am going to let you explore the full library of content that Bradley has to offer. He has so many good insights on networking skills such as active listening, asking interesting questions, and following up after the event. But before I go, what should you say when it's your turn to stand up/you meet someone for the first time? Here are 5 simple tips that I always try and use when I attend events.
I hope you found this week’s email useful and it's given you some pointers on how to ensure that when the time comes to say ‘Hi my name is xx, that you are prepared!’ But if you want to become an EXPERT in networking, then sign up to Bradley’s The Networker email. It’s a brilliant weekly read. Wishing you a successful week ahead and see you next Saturday. Until then, stay focused on becoming a fly on the wall on the brain of your buyer. James How would you rate this edition? 🤏🏻 So-So |
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