September 29th, 2008
Yours Truly Featured in Hartford Courant’s Story on How to Network Without Networking
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I was recently interviewed by Mildred Culp of Workwise (via HARO) for an article on networking and I shared with her my own approach of ‘networking without networking‘.
The article appeared today in Hartford Courant. It’s my first interview for a newspaper outside India and there are one or two more in the pipelines.
Here’s the full text of the story –
The Graceful Way To Build Business Contacts
By MILDRED CULP
September 29, 2008People often talk about the importance of contacts, but they rarely use creative, non-manipulative methods to build them. They glad-hand around a room, giving elevator pitches just long enough to grab a business card, or they offer to refer business when they have none to refer. Effective contact-building requires grace and sensitivity. This column will give you some ideas about how to do that.
It’s Friday, an hour before closing. Sifting through the events of the week, you identify people who stand out because of the help they gave you. Lynne Waymon, managing partner of the training and consulting firm Contacts Count in Silver Spring, Md., suggests that you show your gratitude through “a quick phone call, a funny Hallmark card, an invitation to an event, a handwritten note — not an e-mail, because it’s too routine.”
David Mullings of Real Vibes Media, a Pembroke Pines, Fla., integrated media and entertainment company, maximizes networking events with quiet effectiveness. He says that it’s difficult to crack the ice with people well-known in an industry. First, “I choose an event based on an audience,” he says. Then, instead of going directly to a person, he asks a question of the group that he’s sure that person will want to discuss.
A second method requires powers of observation — spotting the gatekeeper for Mr. or Ms. Hot Shot. “Go to the person who came with them,” he advises. “Get that person’s confidence and get the introduction. The value of an introduction is so important.”
Gaurav Mishra, research fellow at Georgetown University’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy, worked in sales and marketing at Tata Motors, an automobile manufacturer headquartered in Mumbai, India. He is currently researching social media trends in such countries as the United States, India, Russia and China.
Mishra builds contacts naturally, with food, wine and music (iPod). “You meet people because they’re interesting,” he explains. “You understand what they’re doing and take it from there. If you both find each other interesting, you become each other’s contact.” His venue in India consisted of weekly house parties costing about $100 each, minus the wine others brought and left behind. He describes the events as “uncomplicated.”
He would invite 15 people, seven or eight friends/colleagues and an equal number of new people, telling them that he was pulling some friends together. “I told them to bring their own friends,” he remarks. “Every week there would be about 20 people, new and interesting and some I’d already met. It’s amazing what a shared meal can do for friendship. Some people help put others at ease.” Instinctively, he’d introduce people in their best light. Mishra reports, “All are friends now.”
Industries were very broad-based, from marketing and technology to entertainment. Although his global plan is to improve his quality of life, he held a party for a Colombian blogger, the friend of a friend, who was vacationing in India. Once home, she sent him the application form for his fellowship. He has been in this country since mid-August, with social networking skills in high gear.
Sales speaker and coach Terry Wisner, president of Partnering to Success LLC in Grand Blanc, Mich., formed an advisory board to help him and his colleagues. His “Group of 22″ includes salespeople, meeting planners, consultants and board members. “They’re all connectors,” he says. “You can spot this kind of person in a conversation when the person says, ‘You know, I know someone who can use that or give you a different perspective.’ They’re fun to talk to because they’re always looking for opportunities.” He uses conference calls to connect people and watches the shift “from relationships to revenues.”
Mildred Culp is a columnist who writes about workplace issues.
