Business Networking

“The successful networkers I know, the ones receiving tons of referrals and feeling truly happy about themselves, continually put the other person’s needs ahead of their own.”

Bob Burg

Whether you are self-employed or working for an employer, you will need to master the art of business networking. Networking allows you to remain in the loop, stay informed of future developments that are not yet made public and to capitalise on people’s knowledge and expertise.

Business networking requires a systematic approach. You will need to identify what you want to gain from networking, how to allocate your resources, which people to focus on and where to find new contacts. Before attending networking sessions you will need to know how to present yourself using a carefully crafted but casually delivered personal pitch. Your aim is to create a positive and memorable impression on the people you meet through networking. The entire process is simply something that you need to practice on until you become good at each part.

The course helps you analyse your current networks and recognise your key contacts which can then be targeted. This helps to optimise time spent while networking.

The course provides you with a systematic approach to business networking. The exercises allow you to examine your current approach to networking and update them based on best practice guidelines.

The Business Networking training materials comes with plenty of exercises, case studies and examples that help to illustrate key points. The course finishes with an end-of-course exercise designed to get the delegates practice a variety of topics covered in distinct sessions. The package contains comprehensive trainer guidelines.

In this highly practical course participants will learn:

What Is Networking?

• What are the benefits of networking?
• What do you aim to achieve while networking?
• What are various types of networking?

Six Stages of Relationships

• Why some relationships stagnate and don’t progress forward?
• How can you classify your relationship with people you know using the six stages?
• What strategies would help you to take your relationships to a new level?

Set Your Networking Goals

• What goals are bad?
• What goals are ideal?
• How can you use strategic positioning, much like in marketing, to promote your personal brand while networking?

Build an Efficient Network

• How to take advantage of corporate networking and position yourself in a way that helps you achieve your objectives
• How can you analyse your network systematically?
• Which class of people should you focus on more?
• Which class of people should you avoid more to increase your networking efficiency? How can you improve your network step by step?

Find New Contacts

• Where to find new contacts?
• How to use a systematic networking plan
• What are the biggest mistakes while searching for new contacts?

Develop Your Pitch

• What is a pitch all about?
• What are the qualities of a good answer when someone asks about what you do?
• What are examples of poor answers and why should they be avoided?
• How to use a Two-Part Statement Formula to generate a pitch that has the qualities of a good answer

Attend and Perform

• What should you consider when attending a networking event?
• How to handle social discomfort
• Why it is important to get out of comfort zone?

Audience: Anyone

Prerequisites: Consider taking this course in conjunction with Making Small Talk.

Course Duration: 1 Day

Course Level: Beginners & Intermediate 

By the end of this course the delegates will be able to:

• Appreciate the power of networking and discover how, if done correctly, it can empower you
• Progress your relationships forward systematically and avoid getting stuck at a certain level with people you want to interact with more
• Decide what you want to achieve when networking while avoiding poorly formulated goals
• Shape and expand your network based on proven principles
• Search for contacts systematically and avoid common mistakes that lead to poor networking attempts
• Design a personal pitch and deliver it with positive impact to gain attention and be remembered
• Use best practice guidelines on social interactions and networking to maximise making contacts and improving your relationships

Business networking is an ideal topic to teach using an interactive course as opposed to expecting people to read books or use e-learning solutions to learn the skill. The exercises in the course will place delegates in realistic situations where they are encouraged to interact with each other, talk about what they do and aim to impress. All of this can take place under the supervision of the trainer. Group discussions and feedback will further help them and through a number of iterations, delegates can quickly improve their business networking skills. They will get work on their personal pitch, the manner they approach others, making conversations and so on.

The ability to engage in conversations while networking is an important skill. We provide a separate course on Making Small Talk. It is highly recommended that delegates who go through the Business Networking course also go through Making Small Talk so they can cover the skill in more detail in a dedicated course on this topic.