Ah virtual networking – the most efficient and yet the most time-wasting activity entrepreneurs are tied into during COVID.
It’s wonderful, fun, and efficient – how else can you network with entrepreneurs all over the world, across all time zones? How else can you attend 3, 4, 5 events in one day? How else can you set up one on one connection calls and make new LinkedIn connections at 4 times the rate that we used to, pre-COVID?
And what a time-wasting activity when we wind up “in the zoom” with the wrong folks? People who are not understanding or are not interested in 
what you do in your business. People who monopolize the conversation. People who talk amongst their buddies and leave you out cold. And those people who mistake networking for sales calls and use their time to sell to you on the spot.
How To Increase the Efficiency While Lowering the Annoyance.
Take a look at your calendar and create some time-blocking. In a perfect week, how many hours do you really need/want to spend networking and still get all your client work done and still make time for one on one calls? And do other things like eat and sleep? Just because you CAN network with Australia at 4:00 in the morning, doesn’t mean you should.
Take a look at who is on those calls. Do you see your perfect prospect? Can you spot some strategic alliances? If you’re looking for people in the manufacturing industry and all you see are health and wellness professionals, make a note to leave that event off your calendar next month.
Take a look at the ability to engage. If there is a 30 second opportunity to introduce yourself and a 1 hour presentation, you will need to see value in that presentation to continue attending. You will also need to spot people during intro time that you’ll want to engage with off-line.
Do You Say Yes to All One-On-One Connection Calls?
No. You must be very protective of your time. Take it from me, I’ve been in many a disastrous call, and I know how to spot the red flags. So now I’m very careful of who I invite to a 1 on 1 and whom to reject. You can still reject someone’s request kindly and gracefully. Let them know you have so much already booked on your calendar, and that you’re already working with a professional in his/her industry, and that you don’t feel you can offer much value to that person at that time. People usually thank you for being honest (and polite).
How Do You Determine If You Should Buy a Membership?
List what is of utmost importance to you to derive from a paid membership to an organization. Here’s my list – yours may be quite different:
- Can I gain education, and specifically business education?
- Are there plenty of great prospects and strategic alliances here for me to meet?
- Are the members folks that I can look up to and learn from and be inspired by?
- Will the programs motivate me to make a difference in my personal or professional growth?
If I pay for a membership into an organization, attend their events and fall flat on all 4 of the above areas, there is no reason for me to renew my membership.
How do You Determine If You Should Connect With Them on LinkedIn?
No you don’t need to connect with everyone – if they pass the test on setting up a one-on-one call with you, they make it into your LinkedIn connections. If they are outside of your target market or you can sense they are anxious to sell you something, then ignore their connection request. You are a business and your time is valuable.
Please do share your networking stories with me! If you’ve been networking like crazy but don’t feel your business is going anywhere, it doesn’t mean you should blindly triple the number of events you register for!
Instead, why not start with a free discovery call? Click here to schedule yours:https://calendly.com/susana-f/phone-consult