Most people I meet while networking think they’re great networkers, but a lot of them are still making some of the biggest networking no-nos in the book.
I went to a local networking event this week and saw one guy blatantly trying to gather as many business cards as he could, never spending more than a minute with any one person. This type of behavior indicates that he only had one goal–to acquire a nice, big stack of business cards to add to his cold-calling stockpile. Confusing networking with direct selling, as this guy was obviously doing, is one of the biggest mistakes a networker can make! Here’s my list of the three biggest networking faux pas that no networker should ever commit.
Faux pas number one: Not responding quickly to referral partners
This one really troubles me. I can’t imagine getting a call from a networking partner and not responding immediately. Unfortunately, it happens with regularity.
Faux pas number two: Confusing networking with direct selling
Networking is not simply about gathering contact information and following up on it later. That’s nothing more than glorified cold calling. It gives me the chills. I used to teach cold-calling techniques to businesspeople. And I did it enough to know that I didn’t ever want to do it again. Since then, I’ve devoted my professional life to teaching the business community that there’s a better way to build long-term business.
Faux pas number 3: Abusing the relationship
I’ve seen people abuse relationships with their networking partners by misleading them and doing such things as inviting people to a “birthday party” that turns out to be a business opportunity pitch. Never mislead your networking partners in any way; for that matter, never mislead anyone. Trust is everything when you’re talking about relationship networking. You need to be honest with those whom you want to build a trusting relationship with.
All three of these faux pas directly relate to good people skills. The prevailing theme is to treat your referral partners and potential referral partners with professionalism and care.
Use networking opportunities to meet people and begin the process of developing genuine relationships. As you do this, treat your referral partner the way you would a top client. Finally, always network in a way that builds credibility and trust–be candid in telling your referral partners what you need and what you’re asking of them. Do these things and you’ll avoid some serious mistakes in relationship networking.
This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 6:00 am and is filed under Connections, Emotional Intelligence, Networking, Networking Education, Networking Prep. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.3 Responses to “Networking Faux Pas”
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May 20th, 2008 at 4:53 am
At my young entrepreneur group’s monthly event last night, our speaker Amy Langer of SALO LLC, said to be a creator of fun. Taking that into context with networking, one of my friends in the group does a lot of networking events, where he provides an atmosphere he likes, and in theory that fun activity will resonate with the people he’s inviting. That way there can be a true connection to some extent to create conversation, and start the trust building process. Marshall O’Brien http://www.c3teambuilding.blogspot.com
http://www.c3teambuilding.com
June 3rd, 2009 at 1:00 am
[...] Read Dr. Misner’s complete article on Entrepreneur.com. [...]
June 3rd, 2009 at 3:34 am
[...] Read Dr. Misner’s complete article on Entrepreneur.com. [...]