Networking

NETWORKING NUGGETS:
BUILDING SOLID GOLD RELATIONSHIPS

by Dick Bruso

To ensure your networking success at conventions, conferences, and other events entails three important steps – preparation, implementation, and follow-up:

PREPARATION

Create a networking thirty-second “commercial”, describing your expertise and how it benefits others.
Have plenty of business cards on hand to distribute. A one-sheet/brochure can prove useful, as well.
Contact keynoters and concurrent session presenters ahead of time. Ask to sit with them during lunch or schedule time for a cup of coffee.

IMPLEMENTATION

Arrive early and stay late! Spend the majority of your time with people you don’t know.
Network at concurrent sessions, introducing yourself to the presenters and those sitting around you.
At breakfast, lunch, dinner, and networking activities determine to meet as many people, in a meaningful way, as you can.
Obtain business cards from everyone you meet, making brief notes on the back of their cards regarding key information you have learned about them.

FOLLOW-UP

Send short, upbeat, handwritten notes to everyone you met.
Make follow-up phone calls to those individuals you desire to get better acquainted with, and schedule a time to meet with them.
Document and track all your networking contacts using your contact database software program.

According to Aristotle, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Make networking a habit. It’s sure to turn your business into gold – solid gold!

Dick Bruso is a marketing/media specialist, accomplished broadcaster, and professional speaker. His popular keynote presentation on networking shows attendees how to connect with anyone in the world they want to meet through the highly effective “Six Degrees of Separation” Success Strategy. As a consultant/coach he creates powerful marketing and media strategies to position his clients to be Heard Above The Noise™. He may be contacted by phone at 303-841-5122 or via email at dickbruso@heardabove.com.