Networking isn’t…      SELLING!

For a start it’s much more nebulous - we should never be selling directly to the person we’re networking with. We are exchanging information, experience and help.

Our networking chums may never buy anything from us. But if there is respect for each other and each other’s abilities, we have some kind of common interest and get on well, we don’t know what doors we can open for each other and what the relationship could generate over time.

It’s been said a million or more times yet it’s still good to remember that, in an age when it is increasingly difficult to distinguish between products, services or solutions on offer, people will gravitate to those people they trust and like.

A little point on social behaviour:

Nobody likes the man or woman who eyes us up at networking events to see if we have the word “contacts” writ large on our foreheads whilst looking all over the place to see if they’re missing out on meeting someone better – and then shoves a business card in our hand before moving on to pastures new.

What we do like is meeting someone who takes a genuine interest in us as individuals.

It’s pretty simple, really:

We all need to just remember never to sell to a fellow networker.

Extracted from Opening Doors