Visit the Sage

Interview on Networking

I had the pleasure of being interviewed for an upcoming business book two weeks ago. The subject was how to be a more effective networker. Following are the questions and my answers.

What is the best way to prepare for a networking event?
There are three phases to a networking event -- before, during and after -- and you must prepare for all three before attending, or you'll waste at least some of your opportunity.

I always work on the after phase first, because that helps me describe my networking goal so I can take steps during and before to achieve that goal.

One of the best decisions I ever made in business happened back in 1989 when I transitioned from residential remodeling to computer technology consulting. The simple rule I imposed was that every Monday morning I would introduce two people I know who need something to two people I know who might be able to provide it. It's 18 years later and I've made more than 3,500 introductions -- most of which have been reciprocated ... many with interest.

One of my after steps, therefore, is to make the Monday morning introductions. To accomplish that, I had to create a during step that reads "Learn about people so you can make your Monday morning introductions without forcing it."

Another after step is to follow up with interesting people and invite them to a one-hour, be-useful meeting. This is a conversation at a coffee house or over a meal where the two parties have no agenda beyond finding one way to be useful to the other party, without either writing a check to the other. It saves a ton of time if I can set these meetings while I'm at the networking event, so a before step is to make sure my calendar is up to date and check that I have it with me.

A third after step is to invite people to whatever event I'm sponsoring, or to an event where I'm the speaker, so they can choose to engage in a process of building a stronger relationship with me. My before step to achieve that is to have information with me about the event.

My point is this. To be fully prepared for a networking event, you must:

1. Have a written before, during and after plan.
2. Review that plan as soon as you put the event on your calendar.
3. Review the plan before you walk out the door so you don't forget anything.
4. Execute the plan during all three phases.

What types of networking events are best?
It's not a statistic that is easily tracked, but I'll bet gold bars to dollars that 99 percent of the results I've achieved networking came when someone I met hooked me up with someone else -- instead of the person I met actually hiring me. Therefore, my rules for choosing an event to attend are quite different than most people:

1. I'll attend any event where I'm reasonably assured to meet five new people. (So a six-person, intimate event is actually preferable over a 150-person networking event.)
2. I'll attend a free event before a paid event. (I attend so many it adds up fast if I'm plopping $35 to $75 down for every one.)
3. I love events where I get to help out. I was at a chamber meeting last year where the speaker's assistant called in sick, so he was left with no one to man his product table -- where his books, CDs, etc. were for sale. I volunteered to man the table for him and stayed in the back of the room the entire meeting. During his presentation he thanked me for being so kind, and told 150 people about a workshop I was holding the following month. (I never would have gotten that much exposure on my own at that meeting.)
4. I'll go to open houses, anniversary parties, association meetings, networking functions, ribbon cuttings -- you name it. Last Memorial Day I went to a barbeque and met a friends neighbor who is president of a local company that is one company of a six-company conglomerate. Last week this six-company group hosted a Yellow-Tie event and now they're talking to me about sales training.

Bottom line: Every hand you shake has value if you look for it. But you don't get to look for it if you aren't shaking hands.

What's a good way to start a conversation?
Contrary to what most people believe, the person who asks the questions controls the conversation. So develop a few favorite opening questions -- event-focused ("What do you think of the event so far?"), generic ("What do you do?") or thought-provoking ("What’s the best board game you've ever played?") -- then keep the conversation going by asking questions about whatever they say.

Every once in a while I'll throw in something like "Hi, My name is Gill, and I'm getting really tired of business small talk. So instead of the usual 'what do you do' stuff, would you be willing to give me your opinion on [insert news headline here]?"

Should I prepare an introduction?
Definitely, provided it's not more than 30 seconds, is sixth-grade level and opens the door for you to ask more questions of the person you met.

Remember, networking is not a process where you tell everyone about you. It's a process where you learn about everyone else and then build relationships during your after-networking activities.

Should I ask for business or a meeting right there?
Discuss a sales appointment only if you have the truly rare experience of shaking the hand of a person who, upon hearing that you're a tire salesman, says "Good God am I glad to meet you, because I just looked out the window and saw that all four of my tires have been slashed." (Get the picture?)

I ask for be-useful meetings all the time, and set them up on the spot if the other person is willing and able.

How should I follow up?
Different strokes for different folks times two.

I like be-useful meetings. You may not. So your first task is to decide the type of follow-up you like and are willing to do.

The people you meet will like different follow-up as well. For example, when I shake a single person's hand, here are the ways I might follow up:

• Introduce this person to someone else next Monday.
• Set up a be-useful meeting.
• Add him or her to the Yellow-Tie St. Louis event announcement list (only if I've mentioned Yellow-Tie and he or she ask asked to be added).
• Send a "Nice to meet you" e-mail.
• Send a "Nice to meet you" note card via regular mail.
• Invite this person to hear me speak at an upcoming association meeting -- and offer him or her a discounted rate I negotiated when I agreed to speak.
• Send him or her a book I think he or she will love.
• Send him or her a copy of my book, "How To Build The [Your Name Here] Sales System."
• Invent a personal follow-up step on the spot based on what I learned when I interviewed him or her when we met.
• Don't follow up at all. (Some people just don't fit me and I just don't fit them.)

Have a plan. Execute the plan.

What is the one most important thing everyone should know about networking?
Networking is a serendipity strategy, not a targeted marketing effort, so don't sell.

Instead, simply practice a give-first philosophy and let serendipity take its course.

Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

99 Percent Crap

While this is one statistic I don't actually track (because doing so would take WAY TOO LONG and produce no tangible benefit), I am nonetheless certain that 99 percent of all my ideas are crap.

• Why don't they put weed killer in those blue-water toilet sanitation devices, so I don't have to have my sewers snaked every five years?
• Speaking of toilets, if they had a foot pedal that lifted the seat (and put it back down when released) it would eliminate the second biggest dispute of all time between the sexes. (The biggest is tooth paste squeeze or roll -- Cindy solved that one by giving me my own tube.)
• Why haven't they invented siding, gutters, porch railings and other outside home surface coverings with hidden compartments containing Christmas lights? Time to deck the house? Just throw a switch and all the compartments open with the lights installed and glowing.

Of course I have 10,000 or more ideas per day, so that means I'm good for at least 700 nuggets of brilliance a week. The trick, as you may imagine, is cutting the wheat from the chaff as efficiently as possible, and then boiling them down to the few that are within the realm of pursuing. (If I manufactured siding, I'd actually look hard at the hidden lights idea.)

Here's my three-step process for capturing these ideas, filtering out the garbage and deciding what to try. Maybe it will generate an idea for you.

• Idea Capture: I have a file on my computer desktop (lower right corner -- almost always visible) titled Ideas.Txt. Whenever an idea flashes, I click, type, save and close. (I don't even bother to decide how valid the idea is.) That clears my brain of the idea without losing it, so I can get back to the task at hand. I also carry a pocket recorder (it's one of the 20-year-old models with the small tape) just about everywhere I go. Same concept, click, record, click -- idea captured. In fact, one of my favorite things to do is jump on my bike for two hours with my recorder. That's usually good for more than 50 bad ideas!
• Filtering The Garbage: Once a week I scan the idea file and delete all the obviously stupid stuff, plus I listen to the recorder and transfer the good ones to the Idea.Txt file.
• Try It: Once a month I go through the Idea.Txt file and pick one to five things to try the following month. Sometimes I run them by trusted advisers. (But to be honest, most of the time I just pull the trigger and ride the bullet.)

Two years ago one of my seemingly stupid ideas was the spark that launched Yellow-Tie.

Between Christmas and New Years two weeks ago, the main idea I decided to implement in 2007 was this one:

• What if I helped salespeople for free, with coaching and training, and charged only when I helped business owners and sales managers with higher-level issues?

Of course, only time will tell whether this idea joins the 99 percent group.

Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association

Customer Appreciation For 2007

How are you thanking your supporters in 2007? If you're doing something special, I'd love to hear about it. Just tell me by either replying or using the comment function of my blog.

Any person who tells me a customer-appreciation story will receive every customer-appreciation story I'm told. (That's the give-first philosophy in action.)

As for me, I'm giving a discount and free tele-seminar to the people who support Yellow-Tie -- the nonprofit trade association I launched a bit more than two years ago.

First, have you ever sat in an audience and literally gotten goosebumps listening to a speaker? Last week, I was listening to some of the speakers who were practicing their material for "The 18 Percent Solution" on January 23. Every one made my skin tingle almost as much as when ...

Anyway, I've been a speaker for more than 20 years and have never experienced such a dynamic group of individuals who so clearly "get it" when it comes to providing real value from the podium.

So here are two things I'm doing for anyone who attends this Yellow-Tie event and uses my name when registering:

1. Saving you $20.
2. Giving you a free seat to my February 13 tele-seminar on "Championship Networking: Using Business Networking To Become A Sales Superstar." (It will be at 10 a.m. Central Time.)

To save $20 and get the free tele-seminar, type "Wagner" in the [Special Instructions] field when you register, then just pick the member's rate of $75 instead of $95. (Note: Register before midnight tomorrow, Jan. 3, or the prices will go up another $30 -- that's when the early-bird deadline ends.)

Full event details can be found at http://yellow-tie.com/18.

Gill E. Wagner, Sage of Selling
President of Honest Selling
Founder of the Yellow-Tie International Business Development Association