When it come to networking and making connections, either you love doing it or you hate it. Whether you like it or not, you still end up in positions where you have the opportunity to meet new people who can positively influence your business. When these situation arise, you need to make sure you make the best use of your time. With that being said, I will give you my top 2 things to try when you’re networking to make better connections.
My top 2 techniques from making great connections are listening and asking great questions. If you are like many, you are going to be bombarded with get togethers this holiday season so you will have ample opportunity to practice your networking with regards to these 2 tips.
Listening is certainly not ground breaking but it’s funny how bad we have gotten at listening to people when they are talking. I love text messaging but it has almost killed our ability to stay focused on people and stay in the moment with our conversations. Most of us try too hard to multitask when we should be just seizing the opportunity to make a new connection. Where we really run into problems is that some people are still great at connecting and if you can’t engage them properly and show the person that you are talking to some respect, you risk turning that person off to you.
While listening is the key starting point to building connections, asking great questions is the next step to really deepening the conversation. This skill comes natural to some and takes practice for others. I like to approach a conversation with someone new to find out two things: what they are up to and what support they need in the future.
When I know what a new connection is up to, it allows me to ask deeper questions about what they are doing so I can have a better understanding. This not only makes the other person feel like you care but it usually teaches me something new about a topic that I didn’t know about before.
By finding out what needs a person may have in the future, this allows you to keep an eye out for opportunities that create value for that relationship in the future. This is a great way to not only create value and great connections but also a great way to expand your reach by having an impact on your network.
In the digital age where phones can do so much to distract us in our daily lives it’s important to remember that some of the old ways of doing things are still fashionable. Listening to people and giving them your full attention is one of those things. What other tips do you have for making better connections?