Networking

Networking…We know it’s the key to a successful career. Small business owners know this more than anyone…And it’s a lot of pressure. You’re trying to grow an entire business, all while navigating crowded happy hours. The connections you make can lead to potential customers or profitable partnerships, but how do you take advantage of these opportunities? 

While you might thrive in normal social situations, networking is a different sort of beast. How are you supposed to build a genuine connection with someone while you’re looking for the right opportunity to share your elevator pitch? Don’t worry! It’s not uncommon for confident speakers or even lively extroverts to struggle at networking events. 

Building connections in your business life doesn’t have to feel like you’re a door-to-door salesman, endlessly reciting your memorized sales pitch. There are easy strategies you can implement that will allow you to make the most of your networking events, improve your business writing, and create potential leads.

In order to get the most out of your networking events to convert leads, you have to:

1. Take control of the conversation
2. Offer valuable advice
3. Get vulnerable
4. Identify new pain points

4 Steps To Making The Most Of Your Networking Events

Your networking events can help you grow your business – if you have the right conversations and follow up with those conversations after the fact. 

Do you have strong, converting copy to send to your networking contacts? Schedule a call with the FocusCopy team to learn how we can help. 

Take Control of the Conversation

Taking control of the conversation means asking questions and directing the conversation. In our experience, the more you get the person you’re chatting with talking, the better the outcome. After they talk enough, they’ll naturally flip the script and ask you questions – usually what do you do?

And you better be prepared to respond with an elevator pitch. No, we don’t want to hear a canned response. We want to hear a custom and succinct pitch that responds to everything you just heard from your networking partner. 

Don’t Be Afraid To Get Vulnerable

Even as you take control of the conversation, it’s essential to dig deeper. Surface-level conversations are not going to do anyone any good. That’s why you need to express a little bit of vulnerability. Sharing some of your “scars” increases the likelihood of the other person becoming vulnerable. 

And when there’s vulnerability, there’s a developing relationship. 

Here are a couple of questions to dig deeper:

• What is the biggest problem you’re facing in your business right now? 
• What are your biggest goals?
• How does [insert what they are doing] drive you? 

Make Yourself The Expert

As you’re listening to the other person, it’s important to find opportunities to insert lessons learned, resources, and/or contacts that would help that person find success quicker. Obviously, you don’t want to be a know-it-all, but it could look like this:

• It’s amazing that you’re launching digital courses! How are you marketing those courses? 
• You have a great company name. If you haven’t already, I’d get that trademarked. Let me know if you need an introduction to a great trademark attorney. 

When you offer help or support, you establish yourself as the expert. More often than not, you become known as the person who knows people. This is a very special place to be!

So what are the benefits of this strategy? 

• You have a boosted brand image as being a helper
• The people you help will want to return the favor and help you
• You feel good about serving without expecting anything in return

Need help positioning yourself as an authority in your industry? Contact FocusCopy to learn how to build credibility in your copy.

Identify Pain Points To Use In Your Business Writing

Of course, this wouldn’t be a FocusCopy blog if we didn’t touch on writing!

As you listen to people in your networking events, take note of the following:

• Their pain points
• The way they are phrasing their problems
• What they actually want or need to solve that problem
• The help they’ll actually accept

All of those points can be used and crafted into really effective copy! 

And when you apply it to either written copy or another elevator pitch, you’ll be shocked at how people respond to it. 

Transform Your Conversations Into Effective Copy

Networking events were actually how we discovered the core problems we solve. People weren’t that interested in improving conversions on their copy (shocking, I know). But what they were really interested in was how we could take the one marketing task they despised or took way too much time off their plate. If you’re ready to take what you’ve learned from your networking events, let’s have a conversation about how we can apply it to your messaging. Schedule a call with the FocusCopy team today.