Networking Meeting – What’s Interesting and What’s Relevant

Here’s how I rated my networking activity:

- Getting an introduction – Interesting
- Setting up meeting – Interesting
- Preparation for the meeting - Relevant
- Having the meeting – Interesting
- Actions following the meeting – Relevant

The preparations before and actions following are where to focus your attention as they have the most benefit toward getting results.

Here are three tips to help you:

One: Schedule time on your calendar to prep for a meeting – I cannot emphasize how important this is.

Two: Spread out your follow-up across your week. Try to avoid waiting until Friday to send all your follow-up notes, by then you are usually tired and less effective.

Three: Record all of your prep and follow-up. As your networking continues, trust me that things tend to run together you cannot remember everything – no matter how good your memory!

Here is the tool I developed during my search, to prep and follow-up:
http://candidateschair.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/networking-meeting-checklist.pdf

Hopefully, this will serve as a good starting point for making something work for you.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards
www.candidateschair.com
Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Advice and tools for search organization and networking

Candidates Chair LinkedIn Group:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=2328268


http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

The 3 Question Test after Networking

At the conclusion of a networking meeting, my goal for the person I met is be able to answer three questions about me:

1. What are the top 2-3 unique skills I possess?
2. What job am I seeking?
3. What connections do I need?

I adapted this style after asking several people these questions. The result was mixed. So I took a new approach to the meetings, I tried to deliver these items three times.

To eliminate interference to this message, I eliminated details around my career. I found it was unrealistic to expect a busy person (with loads of other items on their mind) to sort out these points as I droned on about how I did this or that.

As I look back at my 600+ networking meetings, no one has ever said to me “I’m looking for a self-starting thought-leader who led a cross-departmental team and saved at least $2 million through an integration project”. I get something like “I want a CFO who has international experience in the service industry”.

Help your contact help you - Keep your message simple and repeat it so it sticks in their mind. Leave the details to your resume, LinkedIn profile, blog, etc.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards

www.candidateschair.com
Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Advice and tools for search organization and networking

Candidates Chair LinkedIn Group:
http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=2328268
Candidates sharing job search tips with one another

http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

Preparation for a Networking Meeting

Think of every networking meeting as a sales meeting. You’ll never catch a good salesperson just ‘winging it’ – they plan every meeting.

They find out what they can about who they are meeting (this is where LinkedIn comes in handy). They plan the outcome and how to reach it. They respect that someone has granted them time and use it effectively as possible.

You are competing against budget requirements, project deadlines, and anything else that is filling your networking contact’s day… and oh yeah, loads of fellow candidates. Good advance planning will help cut through all of this and help you make the most of each meeting.
Before each networking meeting, plan the following items:

One: Purpose of meeting – what do you want the person to do for you (provide some contacts, connect you into a specific firm, etc.)

Two: Connections with this contact (your colleagues, same school, etc.)

Three: How do you want to position yourself to this contact (e.g. role in large company, start-up, etc.)

Four: Contacts you can provide

Five: Contacts this person can provide to you

I wrote down these items and brought them with me to the meeting – nothing too fancy, just a few items for each item.

To help you understand more about the company the person you are meeting does, see my blog post “The question that ends a meeting quickly”.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards
www.candidateschair.com

Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Advice and tools for search organization and networking

http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

The Question that Ends a Meeting Quickly

“So tell me what your company does?”

When I get this one, I start thinking about what else I need to do today. Why? Despite having LinkedIn, ZoomInfo, Company websites, etc., it tells me that this person across the table has not even taken 5 minutes to do a simple search.

See the tool “10 Questions to Understand a Company” (visit www.candidateschair.com) – whether your contact is a CEO, CFO, lawyer or banker – you can use these questions to understand what they do.

If you are meeting a service provider (lawyer, banker, etc.) most of them have extensive websites with explanation of services, biographies, etc.

Use your time for discussion to understand their background and clarify issues about the business. The more you move beyond chit-chat, the more you connect and find out ways to make yourself memorable.

Remember that this person will be likely networking/meeting with a dozen more people – so being memorable is important.

Good luck today!

Mark Richards
www.candidateschair.com
Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Advice and tools for search organization and networking


http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life

Networking Meetings – Tips that helped me be more effective

Welcome to September – we officially re-engage the networking season as people come off summer holidays. Here are a few tips I’ve picked up in making my meetings a more productive:

One: Start each meeting by stating the purpose for meeting - sets the table for the whole meeting

Two: Do a time check after you state the purpose - so you know how much time you have

Three: Save the idle chit-chat to the end, they have agreed to meet and help - use the time wisely

Four: Start with how you can help them - to show this is a true networking meeting

Five: Do your homework - try to have 2-3 contacts that may help them

Six: Keep your pitch short - treat it like a commercial. Get them interested to learn more

Seven: Use a Marketing plan - a great tool to help express the role you seek

Eight: You take all the notes - confirm the actions each of you agreed to - starting with your own

Nine: They pick up the Blackberry or close their notebook - the meeting is done. Says thanks and close it down.

Ten: Send the follow-up note within 48 hours. Put your name in the e-mail title – they will remember you.

Nothing too fancy here – but helped me get loads of connections (a couple hundred!).

Good luck today! (and this month!)

Mark Richards

www.candidateschair.com
Job Search from a Candidate's Perspective - Advice and tools for search organization and networking


http://TwitJobs.co.uk - Jobs Fed Into Your Life