Never stand alone
Most people are uncomfortable networking. They go to events, seminars, meetings, networking tables and they don’t know what to do next. Most end up exchanging one or two business cards with the people that end up sitting next to them, while missing out on another three dozen good contacts they could have made that would move forward whatever they are doing in foreclosure investing business in Michigan.
The biggest reason for this is that none of us are trained to network in a business setting. We mistakenly think that this thing is just supposed to happen magically or worse we start to believe that some people are “born” with it and some are not.
That is the slack I get all the time when I am talking networking with the members of mentoring group.
“Well Mark it is easy for you to do. You are a natural at this.”
Actually that is not true. I was probably the most shy kid growing up you have ever seen. I was a total nerd, comfortable in reading books in a corner then playing with the rest of the crowd. It took me a while to figure out once I enter the real world and then ended up as a real estate investor that nobody can help me if they don’t know who I am and what I am looking for.
So I started learning about business networking and much to my surprise it turns out to be like any other skill you can learn. There are rules to it. There are strategies that you can use to make yourself a better networker.
The biggest thing to remember: Easy to be selfish and just think about what you want. Good networkers always think about what they can do for the other person first.
Do you ask,
“Is there anyway I can help you? Anything you need right now in any of the deals you are working on?”instead of launching into a conversation about something we need from the other person for a deal that we are involved in immediately, as we shake hands with them.
What would you remember? What kind of person would you want to hang out with? The one who is showing interest in helping you or the selfish one?