3 Classic MistakesWhen Networking

By John Fisher - Business for BreakfastSeptember 2010

A Few Initial Thoughts

Networking is a great way to sell yourself - potential customers can get to know and trust you; joint ventures can be formed and extra income streams created.It can also be a great way to put your foot it in and wind up looking stupid and over the top if you say something thoughtless without engaging your brain.The following are three classic networking conversational gaffes to avoid like the plague!

The 3 Mistakes(1)

1. TALK, TALK, TALK• You start a conversation about your business, followed by some

in-depth details about yourself, then round things off with a history of all the people that you do business with.

• By this point you will probably be talking to the wall - your poor listener will have fled to the nearest even vaguely animated being (a pot plant, say).

• Don't fall into the trap of just trying to sell yourself whenever you chat to someone at a networking event.

• Take the time to find out about them.

The 3 Mistakes(2)

2. COMPLAINING• "I never meet anyone new at these things"..."These

pitches go on forever, don't they?"...and so on.• Start moaning & grumbling in this way and people will

be put offFirstly because they don't want to hear more

negativity than necessarySecondly because they might just take your

complaining personally ("Is my pitch really that bad?").

The 3 Mistakes(3)

3. BAD-MOUTHING COMPETITORS

• As tempting as this might seem, as justified as you might feel - don't do it.

• When David Cameron was asked to comment on Gordon Brown's 'She's-a-bigot' gaffe during the 2010 election campaign, he replied that there were bigger issues at stake and he refused to comment on this one incident.

• Whatever you think of the Conservative leader, it illustrates perfectly how not stooping to put competitors in a bad light shows you as someone with a great deal of integrity.