I am an Introvert. I much prefer to stay home and read instead of going out and meeting people. This is one reason why networking online is so much easier.
Networking face to face is important to grow your business. It can give you new contacts, clients, alliance partners, and you can also come away with some great ideas to help you grow your business.
Here are a few tips that helped me at networking events, I hope they’ll help you too:
- Go alone – you have no idea how important this is. I found if I went with someone else, I would stay and talk with that one person the whole time & wouldn’t make any new contacts. Going alone forced me WAY out of my comfort zone and helped me make new contacts.
- Find a seat – especially if it is a lunch or dinner & people are being encouraged to sit down, find a seat and people will come to you. This can backfire – once I found myself sitting on a table full of people who already knew each other! That didn’t go so well, but when I’m finding mingling and chit chat too much, finding a seat helps.
- Have a goal – your goal can vary from event to event. Sometimes the goal may simply be to meet one new person! Think about the event, why you are going, and focus on that, it will help, trust me.
- Choose the event carefully – it can be tempting to go to any event that comes your way in an attempt to get out of your comfort zone. Instead, choose the events with the most relevant speakers or where you are likely to make great contacts.
I hope these tips help any other Introverts out there. If you have any tips to add, please share them with a comment.
