Justin G. Roy

It shouldn’t be new news to anybody; today’s market demands a different approach to networking. In fact, this has been at our heels for quite a few years now.

Is the change driven by a generation of work to live, rather than live to work? Possibly the change is due to people wanting to really connect with others outside the office, becoming a human and not the corporate robot.

How does dress-code affect your strategy? No longer are people seeking out the person with an Armani Suit. Rather, people are choosing to dress business casual; a nice pair of slacks, shirt, possibly tie or sweater.

Here are some tips on how to market and build your business development efforts in response to some of these “new age” approaches.

Find their pain point and solve it. Only if you really can. We live in a give-to-get business world, unless you can give, there will be limited amount of receiving. Connect with professionals who are outside your normal realm of business, other consultants to the industry you serve, or individuals who have similar interests as you. These people either know who your target clients are and can become a cheerleader for your business, or know who you are and will feel comfortable referring your name to their connections.  Think degrees of separation.

Are you handing out more than 15 business cards? If so, stop. How can you have good, solid, connecting, conversations with more than 15 people at one event?

Chances are the attendees are not at the event searching for your service so stop selling and start helping. Try having just 5 good conversations where you talk about each other, learn about the other persons outside work activities and interests and make sure you take note.

Follow up, follow up, and follow up again. Don’t become a telemarketer, but make sure you follow up after an event along with a 30 and 60 day follow up conversation. Offer your connections more than just a coffee conversation during the follow up and ask them how their needs have changed in the past 30 days. You would be amazed at how much people will have new changes and needs. Your connections for a tax accountant may not be needed any more, but you might have the need to know a good catering company.

Would you rather 10 people who drop what they are doing to take your call or 100 people who you need to leave 5 voice messages for? Build emotional equity with everybody you meet by truly caring about their business and connecting them with other like-minded people in your network.