When you meet people for the first time, are you someone who judges a book by it’s cover or abides by the adage that you have 15 seconds to make a first impression on or a decision about someone? How wise are you being with that?
I was at The Ultimate Business Seminar at the weekend and overheard a conversation. The comment made was “that guy over there with the backpack who you wouldn’t give a second look to”. This interested me as the “guy” they were talking about had just left the stage and was one of the featured speakers of the event. He is an incredibly successful internet marketer and an in-demand speaker at events on business and marketing. How interesting the impression that his appearance made. How interesting if you didn’t take a second look or listen and missed out on hearing from this guy.
This is also a mistake that is often made when networking. Many times we judge people, or are judged, when meeting at a networking function as we quickly decide whether the person we are talking to has an immediate or immediately foreseeable need for our product or service.
Who do they know?
As I mentioned last week, networking is about the relationships that we build. I will add to this here that networking is all about who other people know. This should not, and cannot, be judged in a first meeting. The main idea when networking is to build your ability to secure word of mouth referral business. A vast majority of business owners say that they rely on word of mouth for a majority of their new business. Yet many of us sabotage our own efforts to increase that word of mouth through networking, by quickly making a decision whether someone is “worth” talking to.
Let me give you an example; a colleague of mine was networking with a small metal fabrications business owner. My colleague had no need for his services, therefore the business owner made the snap decision that he was not worth taking the time to network with and moved on. What he did not know was that my colleague had an excellent relationship with a major architectural firm, who were looking for people to tender for the fabrication part of a large building contract (worth around $500,000). By allowing his first impressions to count, this business owner missed out.
Leverage
This concept really illustrates the power of leverage and how you should use that in all aspects of your business, not just networking. Wikipedia describes leverage as “using given resources to magnify the financial outcome”. I prefer a very easy definition that I also heard at the weekend which is simply “doing more with less”. Whichever definition you prefer, apply the principle to your networking efforts. By spending time effectively networking you are leveraging the time and effort that those you meet have made by being able to work with those people that they know and you don’t. This is a much better use of your time than having to build those relationships yourself.
Selling is a side-effect
Effective networking is not actually about selling to those in your network. If and when that happens, it is a by-product of the larger goal – to increase that word of mouth business. Think of how many people you know that those in your network do not know. Think of how your own business would grow through introductions to some of the people that your network knows that you do not know. This is the power of leverage and should not be underestimated.
I have a number of networking partners whose services I have never used and maybe never will. However, I am a valuable asset to them because of the other people I know who I will send their way (and because I’m such fun to hang out with!). Referring someone to a person or business that you have never actually done business with requires a huge amount of trust and does involve taking a leap of faith to some extent. As you can imagine, this does not happen overnight and therefore it certainly takes more than the 15 seconds you thought that you had when you started reading this article. | 
