Having the right focus at Industry Networking events
Posted on November 4th, 2009 by Paul McArdle – No CommentsA few questions that I have been asked on a couple of occasions (e.g. after All-Energy and EUAA events) started me thinking – and what seems apparent is that some perhaps have the wrong impression of the purpose of being involved in events like this.
Meeting people has to be done right in business
I would urge everyone to read this blog post by the same name (it’s a 2-minute read).
What is especially important are the statistics shown in that page. I’m not sure if the statistics are exactly correct – and that’s irrelevant – what matters is the general message.
What this means is that:
1) When we meet people at conferences like these, and immediately launch into a spiel about what we do, that’s doing a disservice to the people we meet (some people will even find it offensive).
2) When we prepare for, or return from, the conference and have our primary focus on sales – then:
(a) we are likely to be disappointed.
(b) we are also likely to miss opportunities.
What’s top of mind?
Yes, I know, “I have heard this before”. Everyone has.
However, it’s a simple principle – what is top of mind is that which gets the most mental attention. And if our minds are focused on the wrong thing, then we’re going to miss out on opportunities, big time.
Hence, if the first question a person asks me is “did you find any sales prospects” then that goes a long way to indicating that the person might have heard, but not really understood, the main principle above (given I have been asked this by a couple of people, I thought it warranted a post).
The author notes:
Establish that you are in the right place in order to understand the people around you.
I would change this to:
Establish that you are in the right mind-space in order to understand the clients around you.
In simple terms
We go to industry events events to learn about the client NOT to sell them anything (of course if someone gave us an order on the spot we would not turn them away, but that’s not the point).
This is the reason why I have been keen on ensuring that everyone writes posts after any such events (such as Adam’s and Stephen’s) – in order that, through this process, we can:
1) Crystallise our own thinking (which is probably not going to be as clear as it might first seem when we first sit down to write the article), and
2) Through writing, communicate our learnings to others, so we all benefit.
3) Stimulating ongoing discussion would also be great, which is why I try to return to the topic at beer o’clock.