Do you find yourself leaving networking events feeling like you’ve just wasted a perfectly good evening which could have been better spent working on your business, playing with your kids or even watching TV. Sometimes you shake your head and wonder, “I wasted gas driving to this?”
The problem may be that you are attending the event focused on the short-term outcome, rather than on your long-term intent.
Let’s say you attend the event wanting to make a sale. You scan the crowd looking for your ideal client. When you don’t find anyone that meets your criteria, you grow disgusted with the waste of your time, and give up. But suppose instead, you went with the intent of letting as many people as possible know about your business and your search for your ideal client. Each person you meet is a potential connection to that ultimate sale. You don’t know when or with whom that light bulb is going to go off. Then the evening becomes filled with possibilities as you chat with everyone and learn about them - subtly seeking that connection to your ideal client.
The following steps can be repeated sincerely with everyone you meet:
1) Introduce yourself and really listen to who the other person is
2) Look for commonalities - shared interests, concerns, lifestyles
3) Look for ways you can help them - through who you know or what you know
4) Let them in on who and what you’re looking for - they’ll want to help in return
5) Exchange information to follow up
The people you meet might not be your ideal client, but they might know someone who is. Or they might be able to give you a new perspective on a direction your business should take. Or they might know someone wanting to invest in your business. Those are all opportunities you would have missed if you had focused only on the short-term outcomes you wanted rather than your real long-term intent.
Do you want to learn more about overcoming the everyday challenges of building a business? Sign up for my free special report Getting Out of Your Own Way: 7 Steps to Sustainable Success for Women Entrepreneurs:Small Business Success
Liz Fuller is a MicroBusiness Development Specialist who works with Women Entrepreneurs to grow their business to greater levels of sustainable success.
The problem may be that you are attending the event focused on the short-term outcome, rather than on your long-term intent.
Let’s say you attend the event wanting to make a sale. You scan the crowd looking for your ideal client. When you don’t find anyone that meets your criteria, you grow disgusted with the waste of your time, and give up. But suppose instead, you went with the intent of letting as many people as possible know about your business and your search for your ideal client. Each person you meet is a potential connection to that ultimate sale. You don’t know when or with whom that light bulb is going to go off. Then the evening becomes filled with possibilities as you chat with everyone and learn about them - subtly seeking that connection to your ideal client.
The following steps can be repeated sincerely with everyone you meet:
1) Introduce yourself and really listen to who the other person is
2) Look for commonalities - shared interests, concerns, lifestyles
3) Look for ways you can help them - through who you know or what you know
4) Let them in on who and what you’re looking for - they’ll want to help in return
5) Exchange information to follow up
The people you meet might not be your ideal client, but they might know someone who is. Or they might be able to give you a new perspective on a direction your business should take. Or they might know someone wanting to invest in your business. Those are all opportunities you would have missed if you had focused only on the short-term outcomes you wanted rather than your real long-term intent.
Do you want to learn more about overcoming the everyday challenges of building a business? Sign up for my free special report Getting Out of Your Own Way: 7 Steps to Sustainable Success for Women Entrepreneurs:Small Business Success
Liz Fuller is a MicroBusiness Development Specialist who works with Women Entrepreneurs to grow their business to greater levels of sustainable success.
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