Have you ever felt or caught someone at a networking event, disposing your business card in thrash? It may be once or quite often, however even the thought of it is forbidding. You cannot build successful business relationships by just handing over business cards to your potential clients. In fact if you don’t make much effort then you might miss your golden opportunity to attract the clients.
It is difficult to be prominent without making a lasting impression on the prospects in such events; hence you have to make a first impression that last for a long time. Making lasting impression sounds to be complicated while making lasting impression within 5 minutes seems to be more complicated. However, it is not as tricky as you think. In networking events you get limited time to sway the people but if you follow thoughtful approach, you never know you might find a new customer or even business partner.
Don’t get mystified, here are few strategies to impress and establish relationships within a brief time:
Ask how you can help them:
Don’t instantly start chatting about your products and services, the moment you encounter any prospect in the event.
- First identify if the clients are interested in your products or services then only proceed with the presentation
- Helping the person by understanding what they want is the best strategy to make an impression
- Once you make out that this particular person need your help then you can start introducing yourself and precisely focus on the points which would be helpful for them
This to – the- point approach will help to build strong relationships.
Smile and maintain eye contact:
Confidence is the key to success. If you appear to be nervous or arrogant when you meet people for the first time, then certainly it will have a poor impact on them.
- Smiling and confident personality are always remembered and liked
- Making eye-contact and smiling shows that you are kind and really interested to develop relationship with people
Give them a compelling reason to remember you:
To make a lasting impression in initial 5 minutes, you have to do something that you will be remembered for. This is one of the best ways to make quick impression.
- Present some unique quality about your product or service, offer something exceptional or do whatever positive you can to look impressive
- In a networking event, people would come across many businesses but to make yourself stand out of the crowd, you have to do something which is memorable so that the new associate remembers you next time for that reason
Retain information like their name and story:
A smart way to make a great impression on people is by referring them by their identity.
- When you converse with other professionals in networking events, let them know that you are familiar with their work and identity, this will have a positive impact on the professionals and may be they would soon turn into your business partners
Quality matters not quantity:
Collecting or handing over maximum business cards doesn’t matter, how strong connections you managed to make is what matters at the end of the day.
- Rather than concentrating on quantity of business cards, focus on quality connections which will actually boost your business.
Ultimately strong relationships will get you clients, not the number of business cards.
It is not about how much time you take, it is about how much value you add to the deal. Thus, even 5 minutes is more than sufficient, if you are positive and clear with your motive. The real key to make lasting impression is by building meaningful relationships.
