How many times have you gained new business immediately after you met a new person? I assume not many times, if ever. What if I tell you that I am aware of immediate ways to connect and convey trust to a new person and create great relationship? Are you interested?
Many of us, especially those who understand the power of connecting to other people are tired from the routine common networking. I think it is a time to change all these common networking tools as handing your business cards, participating in your industry conferences and all these common techniques that turn many times to be insufficient and not authentic enough.
Please do not get me wrong. I am not suggesting changing all the networking routine completely (it takes time!). But what if we could add some unusual components to the daily routine of networking? What if we can perform similar connecting tasks but in unexpected ways?
What do I mean? Let me share with you some ideas for unexpected networking that can be used by every person. I am comfortable sharing them with you, since I adopted many of them for many years and it brought me a lot of great success, in my professional life as well as personal life.
WARNING: These tools will challenge your creativity. They will boost your courage. And they will test your abilities. But above all they will create for you new innovative ways to develop new relationship and valuable connections with other people.
1. Share your Story
You probably do not believe it, but many people are interested to know how did you start your business? What is the real story behind starting your business? Do you have any special anecdote to share from behind the scenes of your company or firm?
Remember – your real life story is easier to share with others than your (practiced smooth) elevator pitch. People are interested to hear real stories, to connect to authentic person. By sharing your story you give the other person the ability to give you their authentic attention. Moreover, in most cases they will automatically share with you their story. This will give you much more insight into their business, their passion and their vision and will surely connect you more with them. Direct result from this, people remember stories and probably will share it with other people. So you continue building your brand.
So you probably asking where do I start? As always, first write the story for yourself; add some inspiring or funny points you want to share. This will avoid your story to be a boring list of facts. Practice it in front your family, friends and other people, so you can get useful feedback.
2. WOW with your Immediate Attention
How fast do you react to a new opportunity that came your way to meet a new person and connect with him/her?
I use it on a regular basis. I like to surprise others, simply but in unexpected ways.
For example, when I receive an email from a company or organization who want to hire me to speak in their next event or to train their personnel or even just to get my advise with regards to building relationship and getting new clients – I use this opportunity to WOW them immediately. How do I do it?
Lets take you as example. When you receive such an email, you will probably send a reply email back. For some of you it will take few days, some will do it within hours and some will do it immediately.
But here is the difference. I will call the other person (who send the email) right away with great enthusiasm. I call this sort of action “Attention surprise”. Some of you will think that it is maybe too aggressive. I disagree. I am doing it for years and every time I use this tool, I got a wonderful surprising reaction from the other person. I literally WOW them.
This ability to give an authentic immediate attention to another person, especially in the moment the other person did not expect it – is powerful and get surprising results. I recently got a new mentoring project from a very prominent firm, just because of my sincere “attention surprise”.
3. Share with personal touch
When was the last time you send another person valuable information or a personal note? I assume many of us, due to busy working schedule forgot to do it and do not find the time to do it.
Imagine you read in a magazine an interesting article. You think that a specific person in your network may find it useful. What will you do? I want you to share it in the most personal way. Do not be lazy. Cut the article from the magazine, add a short hand written note that will say – “I trust you will find it interesting” and mail it to this person. Yes, mail it by post (not by email).
Of course, I am aware of the fact that in nowadays many magazines can be found online and you can also send an electronic version of the article by email. But the whole idea is to be unexpected. You want to give your sincere attention to the other person and you can only do it by sending a hand written personal note. The other person, know that you did real efforts to send him the article and will appreciate it a lot. I hope you understand, that even though you did not write the article yourself, the other person will appreciate your unexpected action and thank you (and not the author of the article).
4. Prepare and become the Expert
I was asked many times by people in my industry how did I get to write articles in top professional magazines and become the expert on networking and building relationships. So let me share with you. I see this process also as indirect unexpected way to network with others that will definitely get results and position you as the expert in the field. What surprises me is the fact that many business people did not tap into this effective way of networking.
How do you get started? First, do a research online and offline (for example in your specific magazine for your industry) and find what are the current hot topics in your industry that people write about. Then find which online and offline websites, newsletters, magazines that host the articles you read. Contact the editors of this publication and inquire about the guidelines to submit your article. Start writing!
I must admit that nowadays the potential is amazing huge. For example by simple posting an interesting and valuable article on LinkedIn you may reach enormous amount of readers worldwide.
I should add, that writing an article has definitely other interesting value added: you get to share your own opinion and insights with others; you are able to give sincere attention to larger audience in unexpected way and you definitely developing yourself and your knowledge.
5. Go for the top
One of the facts that people many times tend to forget is that people on the top are very lonely. What I mean is, that many of us fear to approach people who reach the level of authority in their industry. How many times did you approach a great speaker on stage and compliment him for his presentation? How many times did you write a personal email to an author of a book to share with him/her your sincere endorsement? How many times did you approach the president of your association with a simple sincere compliment?
Also people who are on top of their industry would love to get authentic attention. As you can imagine, the more known you become, the harder it gets to receive sincere attention from other people (that is not driven by selfish interest). Please remember, also top people are approachable. Try it for yourself and get surprised. I can guarantee you; sincere people will remember you for this unexpected and authentic act!
All these unexpected, unusual and uncommon tools that I shared with you are not being used by a lot of people. To be an authentic networker and build sincere relationships you must do what others are not willing to do. While others using common networking tools, you need to be authentic, you need to do it in your own way. So are you willing to practice telling Your Story? Would you use ‘attention surprise’ and call people right back when they do not expect it? Will you find a way to write a helpful article and share your expertise in unexpected ways? And are you willing to try to approach people in the top of your industry?
I hope so – because eventually, the common ways of networking just aren’t enough!
Do you want to get new clients? Can I show you how to expand it in unexpected ways? Contact me to discuss tailored ideas for your specific needs!