If the thought of networking gives you the shivers, try changing your mindset.
Most people are put off from networking because they think the objective is to try and find new clients. Whilst this may be the desired result, experience shows this can take time to achieve. Setting yourself a sales (or sales lead) target for each networking event puts greater pressure on yourself to ‘perform’. For many accountants (and business people) this skill doesn’t come naturally and they feel they have to take on a ‘sales persona’ in order to attract new leads. Also, if we feel like we have to perform, we can come across as being too pushy or desperate!
Don’t try to be someone else
The first rule of networking is to be yourself. People will engage more with you if they get to know the real you.
Go with the aim of learning not selling
Secondly, drop the idea of going to networking events to try and sell your services. Instead, go with the aim of meeting new people and finding out what businesses are operating locally which could be of use to you or your clients.
Look for common ground, probably not business-related
Thirdly, don’t think you have to jump straight in and start talking business. More often than not we start conversations with strangers about mundane things, such as the weather, taking the kids to school, the outcome of the football match last night etc. By having these non-business conversations you’re just having a friendly chat, no pressure to sell anything. But what you are doing is starting to get to know other people who work in or run businesses in your area. Remember people buy from people, which is especially true in professional services firms, so the aim of the conversation is to find out more about other people and potentially find some common ground between you. This may be business related, but may also be because your kids go to the same school, you support the same football team etc. Whatever the reason, once you’ve started a conversation it’s easier to talk to them at the next event or possibly arrange to meet up with them afterward. It’s also easier for them to introduce you to other people and vice versa.
Be a regular attendee
Finally, don’t expect to go to one networking event and sign up your new friends as clients. You need to maintain your profile at these events throughout the year. As a result, you’ll speak to more people, develop new contacts and most all start to develop trust and rapport with those that you meet. It gives you an opportunity to demonstrate your skills and expertise so that when they are in the market for an accountant (or any business supplier) it will be you they think of first.
Getting clients from networking events is one of the most common forms of signing up new work. However, it can take weeks, months, sometimes years. So don’t give yourself an impossible target to achieve overnight, instead go out, start the conversation and see where it takes you.
