The follow-up can be used as an opening line, too.
Body language is crucial in the follow-up. Keep it open (no crossed arms). Smile. Make eye contact occasionally, but don’t stare.)
“The key thing is being present,” says Yamini Naidu, a director of corporate story-telling consultancy, One Thousand And One. “Not looking around the room, or looking at their phone, or Facebook. If you are able to just give someone high-quality attention and make it an authentic attention,that is one of the most important things.”
Once you have built a bit of rapport with a few comments, asking your companion about the highlight of their week can take the conversation into interesting directions. “You want it to be interesting and fun,” says Naidu. “I also ask, what have you been reading because I am always looking for books.”
Don’t talk
The best networkers do not talk most; they ask questions. “The best thing is being interested,” Naidu says. “Quite often it is the listening piece that it is important, rather than talking at 100 words a minute and being witty and entertaining.”
Your contact is likely to come away thinking they have had a fascinating conversation with you and will never realise that you asked the questions and they did most of the talking.
However, responding to questions with a “healthy level of self-disclosure” will make the event more fun, says Naidu. “Otherwise networking sounds like hard work.”
Levels
“When I get asked about the art of conversation, I always suggest they think about it as different levels,” says Johnston.
For example, at the Melbourne Cup, level A might be, “Do you think you have picked a winner”, or “Which horse do you think will win?” The B level is: “What company are you with, or are you here with a group?”
“The C level is to bring in the work context,” says Johnston. “You might say, we have recently merged with such and such a company. If you have A, B, C & D levels in your mind, you can progress the connection depending on the direction that your conversation partner takes. Some people really want to stay light and frothy.”
The graceful exit
If the connection is just not happening or has reached a logical conclusion, champion networkers exit gracefully. A simple handshake accompanied by, “So nice to have met you” will suffice, but offering to introduce your conversation partner to one of your own acquaintances, or convincingly observing “I have just spotted someone I need to speak to” will free you both to look for a new opportunity.
Be satisfied with meeting just a few people, or even one. Naidu says, “In the 90s it was all about getting 50 business cards at every event, but these days I try to focus on one or two quality conversations.”
