I am trying to present how to make Professional Networking efforts more effective. In this blog post and in my previous posts Professional Networking and Tips for Professional Networking, I have been talking about the face-to-face meetings or across the table meetings. Today I will discuss about the communication skills for Professional Networking.

Keep in mind that networking is about being genuine and authentic, building trust and relationships, and try to find how you can help others and also how others can help you.
Who cracks a stimulating conversation is important to leave an impression. Most of the time it helps to understand who is initiator and who is the follower. Comfort level during meeting is decided by the openness of the participants. If you can crack the silence starting with some digestible jokes, it helps you the most. Everybody feels you are easily approachable and you will have better choice to make contacts. Don’t forget everyone of you are there to make best contacts out of the meeting. Instead of caring about you, the participants care about themselves most. If you want to build your presence noticed, present yourself with attraction and after you make people attracted to you, give the others chance to introduce themselves. Listen to others very attentively and provide your views on the topics under discussion. Only that way, people enjoy your company and value your presence. So the first impression is the license to you to be there and enjoy the rest of the networking efforts. I always try to follow the 5W+1H principle of Communication - where, who, when, why, what and How. You should know the context and based on that you have to be prepared yourself. I did not know about this until I attended a training on “Master of Ceremony” about 20 years back. Answer all 5W+1H questions yourself first and they you go.

Introduction:
Knowing the techniques for effective networking, and practicing a few of them each time, can make everyone a very good communicator at networking events. As soon as you enter the room with a smile, introduce yourself to the first stranger you see standing alone. Remember everyone there attending the event for networking with the almost same agenda as you have. Learn to act as host & invite them to come with you to join with you. People love to be included and appreciate your initiation.

Introduce yourself with your first and last name. Make sure to repeat the name by which you want to be remembered by the peer. Also give your short professional introduction. Use a skill keyword from your professional domain, with that tag word your peer can always relate you when he/she comes across with that in future. If you achieved something astonishing, mention it for sure. But make sure you won’t stuff your peer with many things, which will make him confused to differentiate you with so many others in the crowd. If you are representing your company, introduce your company in brief telling its core business. Don’t forget to drop a message about the achievement of your company if something publicized recently. When your peer makes introduction, ask him by which name you should call him. Make sure you use the proper name, especially if you are attending multi-cultural gathering.

If you are introducing your guest or another person at the meeting, mention both first and last names and also tag him/her with something memorable.

Communication:
Your first communication starts from your eye contact with the peer. Study the eye and posture of the peer, if some invitation interest to further continue discussion is offered or not. If not, you should now take control of the opportunity to introduce yourself. You can start the communication with the relevant current news, event or self opinion about the networking gathering itself. If there are many other people around, meet everyone there. But always try to sit next to someone you don’t know. In most of the networking gathering, I have seen that people always try to sit or be around the people they already know. Remember, you are there to make new contacts, prospects with completely new people.

If you already know, who else attending the event, be prepared up front. Google or visit their web site, blog or published materials and find some information about those people and companies. If you can make impression that you are well informed about the peer, the networking will be more stronger and useful.

If you keep on talking about yourself, its not going to work. Take some time to get to know others first. People don’t care about you until you give a reasonable care to your peer. The very first few minutes are important to build trust each other. Don’t spend all the time with only one person or group. Try to meet as many people as you can. Not necessarily everyone take interest on you. If you find the peer supportive, then you can spend some time there, but leave your mark.

How much promote yourself?
Adequately enough. But you should be able to articulate what you are and what you are looking for and how your peer can help you to attain your objective. Don’t become so pushy. Most of us are often so excited about ourself that we forget, we are talking to the person for the first time and we still don’t know if he/she is the right person to share everything. Once you become comfortable with the peer, then you can bring out your agenda on table skillfully. Remember, you are not making formal business presentation. If you can communicate informally, that works pretty well.
Again eye contact is very important. If you are looking at your peer, he/she will not have chance to look around others and there is more chance that your peer listens to you more carefully.

Good listener:
The principle is - if you listen to your peer, your peer will listen to you. So listen attentively, smile and make a steady eye contact appreciating what your peer is saying. Don’t interrupt but give brief facial gesture to show that you are listening attentively and you understand what he/she is telling. Eye contact encourages further conversation and a good listener can get expected information with minimal effort. If you want to give your opinion, wait until your peer stops. Try to balance your listening and talking.
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