The ROI in networking goes far beyond securing jobs. Professional networking can help you boost sales, land new business opportunities and build strong business relationships that may eventually become invaluable to your professional life. Networking can shape your net worth in many ways.
In this article, we will focus on in-person networking. From strategies to find good networking opportunities to steps to track networking results, you’ll learn key tips to help you maximize your networking ROI at in-person events.
A strong ROI in networking can be a reality. Powerful benefits of networking at in-person conferences include sales, partnerships, and professional relationships, among others. To obtain the best results, set clear goals, research attendees at networking events, and build real value through thoughtful conversations. Focus on good communication skills, follow up meaningfully, and track networking outcomes to help maximize the value of your networking efforts.
How to Prepare to Network at a Conference
Before you step out to network, make sure you are foundationally prepared for it and are clear about your networking goals. This preparedness consists of three steps:
Step 1: Decide What Kind of People You Want to Network With
Consider your overall goals and how networking ties in. You may want to connect with professionals from a specific industry. Or, you might be interested in a specific category of professionals, such as founders, C-level executives, or VPs. This clarity will help you zero in on relevant networking opportunities and network with more focus.
Step 2: Set Clear Networking Goals
Networking can give you three types of outcomes:
- Measurable: Leads, sales, referrals, collaborations, partnerships, etc.
- Intangible: Industry insights, business strategy tips, insider info, guidance, etc.
- Long-term: Business relationships, reputation, increased visibility, etc.
If you are after multiple outcomes, prioritize your goals and network accordingly. Try setting SMART goals for networking.
Step 3: Research Your People
Once you have decided to attend a professional networking event, do the following:
- If possible, find out who else is (or might be) attending the event. Then, make a priority list of the people you are most interested in connecting with.
- Research the attendees. This will help you strike up conversations and stand out to them as someone familiar with what they do.
- Find out where your business overlaps with someone else’s. Then, identify opportunities for collaborations.
These three steps will help prepare you even before you attend an in-person event. Now let’s talk about what happens inside an event—in other words, networking.
In-Person Networking Tips to Build Business Relationships
In-person events are opportunities to start new business relationships. A great relationship often starts with a single conversation. That’s why you should try to make the first conversation as interesting, impactful, and memorable as you can.
But the big question is how? Here are some tips:
1. Ask Thoughtful Questions
If you want to truly connect with people, you need to be genuinely curious about them. Show this curiosity by asking thoughtful questions about them or their business.
Instead of yes/no questions that often lead to dead ends, go for deeper, open-ended questions once in a while. This will not only keep the conversation flowing but also tell the other person that you are interested in them.
Related: Master the Art of Conversation to Network More Effectively
2. Speak Less and Listen More
While asking questions is crucial to forming new connections, active listening is just as important. Pay attention to what the other person says and ask follow-up questions to dive deeper into their story.
Avoid cutting people off. Nobody likes being interrupted or ignored. Give them their time and space and let them finish before you respond with your side.
3. Share Value First
The first two tips are about expressing your interest in someone. But how do you make someone interested in you? One promising way to do that is by offering them something they’d like or that they would benefit from.
It can be a valuable business insight, a referral, or even just honest appreciation. By sharing value without asking anything in return, you build a foundational rapport that makes it easier for people to trust you.
Following these tips will make you better at forming new connections.
4. Be Ready With a Strong Pitch
Prepare or refine a strong elevator pitch to share with others at the conference. It should cover the key things you’d like others to know about you and be tailored to the type of event you’re attending. Begin with a strong hook. A good pitch also generally includes a brief summary of your professional background, why you’re attending the event, and your unique value proposition. It should include enough specific detail that it drives interest. However, it should also be brief—generally no longer than 30 to 60 seconds.
Tips for Networking at Conferences That Drive Real Results
Consider the following tips to build value and get a strong networking ROI at in-person conferences and events:
- Connect with people most relevant to your business: Remember that quality trumps quantity when it comes to relationships—both personal and professional.
- Participate in panel discussions: Connect with fellow attendees and exchange business cards or LinkedIn accounts with them. Participate in the post-discussion Q&A to increase your visibility. If possible, try to exchange a few words with the panelists before or after the panel.
- Volunteer at events and conferences: Depending on your volunteering role, you may be helping attendees or speakers. In turn, you could receive ample opportunities to connect with them.
- Follow up: Many budding relationships go cold simply because the people involved never bother to catch up again. If you are in it for the long-term networking game, don’t make this mistake. Try reaching out a day or two after the initial interaction by sending a “Hi” via LinkedIn, email, or even WhatsApp. While the first conversation is a one-off effort, staying in touch is what actually builds strong connections over time.
Related: Expanding Your Network by Leveraging Existing Connections
How to Increase Your Networking Skills for Long-Term Success
When everything is said and done, networking isn’t a task you need to get checked off your to-do list. It’s a soft skill that helps you wherever you go. If you want to get the best networking ROI, it’s important to improve two core networking skills: being confident and communicating well.
These practical exercises can help you enhance these networking skills:
Practice Speaking in Front of a Mirror
Before you talk with others, practice talking to yourself in front of a mirror. Notice how you appear while speaking. Pay attention to your posture, body movements, facial expressions, and the way you speak. If any of these things feel awkward, make a note of them.
Record Yourself Speaking
Besides noticing yourself live as you speak, you can also record and analyze yourself. Prepare a short imaginary script or maybe even a speech. Record yourself as you speak, then watch the recording and observe closely.
- Note your body movements and posture.
- Check if you are speaking too fast, too slow, too loud or too low
- Notice if and when you become nervous
Keep practicing this way until you feel confident speaking and watching yourself speak.
Mirror Talk
If you don’t feel confident speaking yet, observe people who do it very well. Notice their behavior while they speak and try mirroring those actions, such as posture, vocal tone and body language. While it might seem like mimicking or copying their behavior, this exercise can help you indirectly adopt their confidence, too.
Practice Talking With People
You don’t have to dive straight into talking with strangers. Instead, start by engaging more with people you know. Strike up conversations with your colleagues or practice small talk with familiar people at the subway or bus stop. Try to participate more in conversations if you usually tend to hold back.
Work on Feedback
Constructive feedback, whether positive or negative, is gold. Actively ask for advice on your communication skills—and use that information to improve. It can be especially helpful to ask those you know and are comfortable with, such as colleagues, team members and friends, for their honest input.
Networking is like any other skill—there is always scope for improvement. Continue practicing networking skills such as active listening and asking questions in your daily conversations. After all, networking happens outside professional events—you may meet your next business partner in a subway or at a friend’s party.
Related: 7 Tips on Overcoming a Fear of Public Speaking
How to Increase Networking for Business Growth
Efficient networking demands consistent efforts, much like watering a sapling every day. Thankfully, just as each sapling that eventually grows into a tree, your networking efforts will also start offering fruit and shade.
However, the ROI in networking isn’t always obvious. The results can be immediate or gradual, direct or indirect and tangible or intangible.
For example, someone you connected with at a conference may become your client or customer within a week of the first interaction. However, someone else may remain a LinkedIn connection for a year or more, only to later refer you for an appealing position in their organization. A third person may not do any business with you directly, but recommend your services to people in their network, increasing your revenue.
While there are many benefits of networking, the specific ROI is generally more difficult to measure. Still, by tracking some aspects of your ROI, you can also improve it.
Tracking Your Networking ROI
You cannot measure every aspect of your networking ROI. But it can be helpful to track as many things as you can. This can help you identify what works and what doesn’t.
Here are some things you can measure:
- Time spent networking and commuting to and from the event
- Money spent on event fees, travel expenses, memberships, etc.
- New connections you made at an event
- Business metrics such as the number of sales, contracts, partnerships, etc.
- Revenue generated via new clients and referrals
Once you have these figures, you can create a simple spreadsheet on Excel or Google Sheets that includes the following details:
- Metrics such as costs and time make up your networking investment.
- Figures including sales, referrals and partnerships make up your quantifiable networking returns.
- Note business insights and the number of connections to keep track of everything you gained.
You can create a separate sheet for each networking event or record all events in a single sheet, depending on your convenience.
Once you have these details in one place, you can compare your networking returns across events and analyze which ones perform better or worse. These insights can help you better understand your networking ROI and improve it in the future.
Finding Offline Networking Opportunities Beyond the Conference
In-person conferences represent powerful opportunities. Yet there are also some other ways you can network in person beyond the conference. For example:
- Join small meetups or cohorts with people from your industry—for example, a get-together of marketing professionals or CXOs at a cafe or community center. You’ll get a chance to meet a lot of potentially relevant people in these gatherings.
- You can also host a meetup yourself. Reach out to your existing connections to find people to invite. Send out invitations and encourage people to attend the meetup. Personalize your invitations for the best impact.
- Join workshops and seminars to connect with like-minded people while you learn a new skill. You’ll likely meet a diverse group of people who may or may not be related to your industry.
Network With Purpose to Maximize ROI
Networking is an investment that can yield both short-term and long-term returns. Maximizing returns from networking is no different from maximizing returns from any other investment. It takes clear goals, careful planning, and consistent efforts for networking returns to compound.
The strategies in this article will help you make the most out of your networking efforts. So start from the very beginning. Set clear goals, strengthen your networking skills, and start finding networking opportunities around you. With a well-defined purpose, a little prep, and a few tips, you can network well for lasting professional benefits.
Photo courtesy of Jelena Zelen/Shutterstock
