The Freelancer’s Guide to Networking Like a Boss
All too often, people put far too much emphasis on events and conferences for the sake of networking.
This is not to discourage you from going to events and conferences, but it’s important to understand the principles of supply and demand at these kind of gatherings: high supply of people also trying to hand out and collect business cards — in effect — and relatively low demand among people who you and every other person there wants to meet.
Even if you’re the only person at an event or conference who is offering a specific set of services, you’re still competing with other people who are trying to get the time and attention of the same people as you.
That’s why, in addition to traditional networking events and conferences, I recommend the networking of life.
The Networking of Life
The Networking of Life (NoL) is a concept based on building and developing relationships with people in everyday situations, every day.
NoL doesn’t require business cards and sales pitches, nor do you need a fancy website or even something to offer.
NoL is about:
- Genuinely showing interest in other people by getting to know who they are, what they do, and what passion and pain points they have, and then
- Staying relevant in these people’s lives through social media, content marketing and email marketing
Here’s what I mean
Let’s say you go to a restaurant, and at the restaurant you happen to meet the manager or owner.
Start a conversation with them by asking certain questions about their business (assuming it’s my first time there). When did it open? How do they market themselves? How are they using the services you provide, if at all?
The key here is to truly show interest in their business. Ask follow-up questions as they make sense, but don’t make it feel like an interview or interrogation. Just be social, as if you’re talking with a friend.
Now that I have a better understanding of their business, I can better understand their passion and pain points. Passion points are things that make them happy (e.g. new customers), while pain points are things that annoy, upset, frustrate or otherwise make them unhappy.
With regard to pain points, I’m keen to understand what annoys, upsets, frustrates or otherwise makes them unhappy about my services (digital marketing) — again, as it pertains to their business. Listen very closely to what they say, and always read between the lines.
For example, if they tell me that it’s hard to get people to “like” their Facebook page, that really means they want new customers, or that they want more people to know about their business. If they tell me that they don’t use social media, that really means they haven’t figured out a way, or don’t know how, to drive real results from it. (Otherwise, they’d be using it.)
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Now, leave your mark
At some point during the conversation, you can chime in and let them know who you are and what you do. (Again, be social, not sales-y.)
Offer some simple tips or advice about how they can improve in the areas related to your services.
Always lead with a willingness and readiness to help and give.
Finally, get their business card and/or email address, and tell them you’re going to:
- Connect with them on LinkedIn (and then do it)
- Add them to your email list (and then do it)
If you haven’t set up your email marketing program, check out this post about how to do so:
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