Have you ever seen one of your fellow networkers trying to sell, sell, sell to someone they’ve just met? Sometimes that works – but 99+% of the time it doesn’t! Here’s what happens:
There’s been no qualification, just hard sell. So they’re very unlikely to make the sale.
They will probably have left the other person feeling uncomfortable. They were there to network, not to be sold to.
They have no chance of introductions to the other person’s contacts.
They’ve only done their reputation harm.
That goes for their own reputation and their business.
Good networkers go networking to develop relationships. Their focus is on the other person, asking questions, developing rapport and encouraging a two-way conversation. When we do that – and keep doing
it – it’s likely the other person will be happy to share information and make introductions to their network.
So it’s hard sell to one person for no results. Or no sell to lots of people for great results.