Biz Chick Gets Schooled: 4 Important Lessons Learned from Networking

Last Tuesday, I attended a women’s lunch hosted by a local business networking group I belong to here in Tucson. It was a great experience, and so different from networking online. To me, there is nothing like the feeling you get from actually shaking hands with someone, or sitting down and enjoying a meal together while talking about your businesses.

Since February is connection month here at bizchickblogs.com, I thought I’d put together a handful of the lessons I came away from that experience with. If you are a regular face-to-face networking pro, definitely share your lessons and tips, too!

4 Lessons Learned While Getting Out and About

1. The human desire to connect in-person still exists.

This luncheon was attended by about 50 women. We were seated at four rectangular tables. The biggest complaint that the people at my table had was that they could not see everyone. From what I gathered, the people who were there really liked to see the whites of your eyeballs.

2. Many business owners are NOT online (seriously).

This lesson is for those of us who spend our working lives online. I was astounded – believe me, astounded – to discover that out of the approximately 50 women in attendance, I was the ONLY one who worked with blogs, social media, or online marketing. In fact, most of the women in attendance were not even in business-to-business fields.

I suppose this is different than it would be in Silicon Valley, or New York, or even Phoenix. I live in Tucson, where there are more small, local business owners than cactus trees (it seems).

3. Contrary to popular belief, printed marketing materials are still effective.

There was a round table central to where everyone was seated. This is where all of the business cards, flyers, handouts, etc. went. I put out maybe 25 business cards, and had just 3 left to take home. I ended up grabbing a handful of things for myself – not business cards so much as postcards and flyers. Every now and then, I like the feel of paper in my hands, and because it is so rare now, I pay much more attention to it than before.

Extra takeaway: During a presentation of this nature, people are far less likely to whip out their smartphones, brazenly displaying their lack of interest. However, people ARE likely to pick up your handout and pretend to look at it. You might as well take the chance on them actually reading it by having it available.

4. Talking about your business out loud can bring clarity and sharpen your vision.

This was probably the best lesson learned. We were asked to give a 30 second commercial about our businesses, starting with the phrase “Have you ever…?”

Example: “Have you ever been ready to go to work when your seemingly healthy child upchucks as you’re headed to the car? Well, we have, and that’s why we created Tucson Nannies On Call…“

(That’s just an example; however, if you like that business idea, feel free to take it, and please call me because I need a babysitter!)

I was a little panic-stricken, actually, because I haven’t had much practice talking about my business out loud! If you’ve never done it, I encourage it. You might discover that it sounds kinda stupid, especially if you’ve never asked for a critique of your website before.

The takeaway for me personally? The way that I talked about my business out loud sounded much better than what I had written on my site. I realized that I should speak my copy out loud more often to test how it comes across, and whether or not I like the sound of it.

Please share your networking experiences! I would love to hear them. I’ve made a commitment now to attend at least two monthly.

Tagged as: Networking