5 reasons to become a con merchant

No I’m not suggesting any shady dealing! A merchant is a person involved in wholesale trade and I’m suggesting your wares should be positive words beginning ‘con’.

There are over 60 words on my positive con list but I’ll spare you the dictionary and focus on 5 that I think can make a big difference in our networking (and business).

Confidence

Confidence will help you make a good first impression and then to build on that.

If you can’t be confident in your own offering how can you expect others to have it? Try making a list of what you are good at and what the strengths of your products and services are. Keep that list where you can find it and refer to it when you have a dip in confidence. Then present yourself and your offer with confidence but humility.

Networking can really help boost your confidence too. Being a member of a supportive group should mean encouragement from your fellow members. It’s also a great place to test out new ideas and get honest feedback so you can be confident when you launch those ideas in the wider world. Maybe you’d like to boost your confidence in public speaking… giving a talk to your networking community would be a good place to start.

Connection

The whole point of networking is to make connections with people who can help you in business. Your connections may become your clients, your suppliers, your team, your inspirers, your teachers or your cheerleaders.

Focus on building the connections not the sale, people don’t go networking to buy. When the time is right they’ll buy from, or through, their connections.

Don’t be too quick to judge people. You may find the people you have least in common with are well connected with the kind of people you want to meet. Perhaps they have positions of influence in organisations you want to get in to. I once heard a story of someone who was very dismissive of someone they met networking only to find, when it was too late, that the person they had rejected was friends with their dream client.

Consistency

A friend of mine posted the other day that she’s had received 10 invitations to speak recently, far more than usual. She attributed this to consistency of content on social media, especially video. She showcases her ability to string coherent ideas together and she shows up where people are looking regularly. As a result she has a sound following of her own which is often welcomed by event organisers, podcast hosts etc. They feel confident in booking her.

Are you consistently doing the things that will make a difference to your business? Showing up regularly to networking with a consistent and coherent message will help. However following up consistently will yield even better results.

Posting consistently on social media will also help you to reach your goals… note I said consistently not frequently. One post a week delivered consistently with a clear message and with a focused audience will be far more effective than a scatter gun approach delivered every day for a fortnight followed by silence.

These things take time and it can be far too easy to throw in the towel just when you are about to have success. I know from personal experience that social media can take an age to yield results but if you are clear about what you are trying to achieve and post consistently then eventually the results will come.

Concise

Many networking events allow you to make a pitch in 60 seconds. Some only give you 40 or even 30 seconds. We’ve now ditched the one minute at Fabulous Networking for other, more interactive ways of finding out about each other. Sometimes this means that you may have just one sentence to get your core message across. Can you be that concise? Practice makes perfect.

Contribute

I understand that many people find networking intimidating. If you are shy it may be difficult to contribute when there are others filling the space. However you want to be recognised for your skills so you need to find a way you can contribute. Perhaps you have contacts you can introduce other attendees to. Maybe you have some skills or knowledge that would help another person.

You might want to start by contributing in a one to one, or small group, conversation. You could try asking the speaker a question. If you’ve had some interaction with another attendee perhaps you could put in a good word.

Contributing might push you out of your comfort zone so choose a networking community which will support your endeavours. You want to be able to be you. If you have to adapt who you are to fit in with your network then you are not in the right place. When people are not seeing the real you they’ll be forming the wrong impression of you. You’ll become stressed by trying to fit in with your network’s expectations of you and any work they refer to you will not be a good fit.

Seize opportunities to contribute in a way that showcases who you are and what you are about. Dr. Ivan Misner the founder of Business Network International talks about Givers Gain. He’s not wrong!

Glenda Shawley is the Managing Director of Fabulous Networking, a community of business owners supporting each other at every step of your business journey. Find out more at www.fabulousnetworking.co.uk ?