The ferocious act of flinging of business cards to whoever, whenever, wherever, is becoming a lot more prominent- not only at networking events. Now, this brutal nature of networking is suffering a backlash. New business networking events are being formed in light of a more personal connection between businesses, those who do not comply to the more selfless rules are Not Flippin Invited.
Dr Ivan Misner of Business Network International is suggesting the personal touch of networking has been lost because of the misuse of massively popular sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn yet even though he would still say, "Absolutely do social media."
As one of the world's leading business networking guru's, Misner is on a mission to hit out at the people hitting on others to do business through the social networking sites. Too many people, he said, were being 'tapped up' for business by people they did not know or trust. This is purely bad networking; the rush of exchanging details without bonding resulting in a pocketful of business cards but with no real knowledge of the person who they're dealing with. When pushing your business sales pitch, your potential customer is trying to do the same, no one is listening to each other yet everyone is claiming they have 'networked'. Misner presents the idea of more giving, and not taking, saying not only does it feel good but also an engaging listener will be remembered more in a crowd of talkers.
"Networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. It's about cultivating business relationships." says Dr Misner, commenting as BNI released the findings of a survey of 14,000 of its members about their networking preferences. The customers, it has been found, don't want to be shoved business cards, they want to nuture a bond.
Back-Scratching Business
This is where the concept of 'business karma' is enforced. Back-scratch, be selfless, give advice and favours and you will reap the rewards of networking. Don't follow the 'premature solicitation' crowd of bulldozing potential customers with generic sales spiel. Instead, be individualistic by attending a networking event and actually listen to other people.
Those on the Not Flippin Invited list are those that tend to swarm into such events with more business cards than help to hand out. Businesses guilty of such behaviour and sectors that are always well represented at networking events like life coaches and business coaches amongst others will be finding themselves taking the bus home after being turned away; others feeling the pangs of rejection include NLP practitioners, lawyers, accountants, financial advisors, money-lenders and those who call themselves 'entrepreneurs' without actually defining their business interests. If selfless enough you may just be joining the new sector of people in the business world, and you may just be slipped an invite.
Sign up for the NFI groups on http://www.meetup.com// or http://www.linkedin.com/
You could even register to be on the accepted list at http://www.nfinetworking.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment