fciwomenswrestling.com article, Wikimedia photo
Would more women wrestling events be possible if we did more networking as an industry?
There are many benefits to doing so including having the competitors make more money and stay in the industry.
Isn’t it a goal that we should keep in front of ourselves and continue to make strides towards?
Perhaps we can look at some advice, suggestions, successful methodologies and interesting ideas from other industries regarding positive networking that we might apply in our female wrestling industry.
If you can use just one idea from the following two authors, then you’ve won.
These are suggestions from a writer named Glenise Anderson.
Glenise Anderson is a successful business woman who wants to share her knowledge and skills with other women. Her organization Self Confident Women, provides tailored education solutions that meet the personal and professional development needs of women.
She states:
Networking is a skill which is extremely important in order to make contact with different people. Not only is networking required within the workplace, it is also required outside in various other situations. For a woman to have positive networking skills is very important. Not only is a woman usually in charge of the socializing of her family, she is also sometimes responsible for gathering more clientele for the business she works in. If she has her own business, networking becomes a mandatory skill. For all these circumstances, positive networking skills are extremely important.
Some people just meet others in order to add as many names in their database and hence disregard quality and give more importance to quantity instead. When networking is used incorrectly and for quantity purposes only, it is known as networking abuse or when it comes to emails may be regarded as spam. As a woman entrepreneur, you must avoid this where possible as your name is your business.
In order for networking to be positive, women must develop a well thought out network game plan. Focus initially on getting to know the people, who you meet, make a decision about whether they are a match with your business and if they aren’t move on. Always be polite, however, don’t go to networking events expecting to hand out many cards work on quality and not quantity and your business will reflect this decision.
In order to develop positive networking skills, there are some tactics which you can follow. Seven of these tips are mentioned below:
1. Always smile: A smile shows a person is warm and friendly. When meeting new people, smiling is welcoming and appropriate.
2. Look at people in their eye: When talking to someone, look them in the eye while you speak. This is seen as a compliment and is the best way to interact with someone new and whom you have just met.
3. Listen to the other person speaks: When having a conversation, it is polite to listen to what the other person has to say. This shows interest and if the person with whom you are conversing is likely to be someone whom you can deal with in the future, active listening skills will help immensely.
4. Have appropriate body language: Whatever impression new contacts will have of you the first time you meet is bound to be the lasting impression. In order for them to remember you in a positive way, have good body language and be relaxed and friendly.
5. Do not be pushy: No one likes a person who behaves strongly or acts in a needy manner. Hold your head up high and do not be afraid to show people who you are and what you believe in. but remember not to go arrogant.
6. Give a compliment: Everyone likes to receive a compliment. Ensure it is heartfelt and truthful. Most people can judge if a compliment is genuine or not, so be careful about what you say.
7. Have a business card ready: You never know when these may come in handy!
These are suggestions from Dean Lindsay – Progress Agent (TM)
Here are seven proven strategies for making contact at networking events.
1. Go it alone.
When attending networking functions go by yourself or at least communicate to your carpool buddies that you should all fan out. Moving about a networking event solo encourages people to approach you and makes it easy to mingle and initiate conversations. It may be more comfortable to have a friend right there with you, but remember: you are there to grow your network, not hang with the people already in your network.
2. Stand near the registration table.
After you have registered and put on your nametag, take advantage of the many opportunities to make small talk with new arrivals after they have signed in. These are the couple of minutes when most people are alone and interested in someone new to communicate with. Even something really easygoing like, “Looks like a good turnout…” is probably good enough to get a friendly conversation started. Remember that like you, people are there to make new contacts. And if they are not, they are in the wrong place.
3. Study the tags.
If nametags are preprinted and on display at the registration table, scan the tags of the other attendees to see what opportunities await you. Here’s something, though I have not tried this myself, Rachel Wood, a top financial advisor in the Boston area who introduced herself to me after one of my CODE Crackers Networking seminars, does something pretty neato. If she spots a nametag on the registration table of someone she would like to meet, she asks the people manning the table if she can clip a note to their tag saying she would like to meet them. She swears by it.
4. Circle and scan.
Before diving into the event, try circling the room and checking out the nametags for people or companies you definitely want to make contact with while there.
5. Look for people standing alone.
These folks may be nervous, and your initiative will often endear you to them. Plus, one-on-one networking is the best networking.
It is hard to join a group unless invited.
6. Sit between people you do not know well.
If the event is a sit-down affair, do not sit by a friend or business associate. You already know that person! You might be sitting there a while, so make sure you are going to be sitting by someone you can form a new relationship with. Plan who you want to sit by, but wait until the last minute to actually sit down so you can keep making new contacts.
7. Hang out at the food table.
I know it sounds like I’m joking, but people tend to be easily accessible around food. Stand near the food table, but not the bar. People tend to grab their drinks and move away from the bar, but are more likely to linger near the grub.
As people check out the buffet table, small talk comes more easily. “That Danish looks good…” is as good an opener as any. Once they have their hands full, people often look for a flat surface where they can place their plate and beverage. Take a spot next to them and get to chatting.
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Sources: brainyquote.com, Wikipedia, fciwomenswrestling.com, fciwomenswrestling2.com, FCI Elite Competitor, https://femcompetitor.com, photos thank you Wikimedia Commons.
Articlecity.com
Recognized as a ‘Sales-and-networking guru’ by the Dallas Business Journal, Dean Lindsay (Dean@ProgressAgents.com) is founder of The Progress Agents LLC (www.ProgressAgents.com) – a workshop and seminar company and dedicated to Empower Progress in Sales, Service and Workplace Performance. Lindsay’s bestselling book, Cracking the Networking CODE: 4 Steps to Priceless Business Relationships, teaches valuable skill sets and strategies for building solid business relationships and achieving success in networking opportunities.
Lindsay’s Cracking the Networking CODE has been endorsed by a who’s who of business leaders and performance experts including Ken Blanchard – author of The One Minute Manager, Brian Tracy and Frank Bracken, the President and COO of Haggar Clothing Co. Jay Conrad Levinson – the author of Guerrilla Marketing, thought so much of Cracking the Networking CODE that he wrote the book’s foreword.
For more information, log onto: www.CrackingtheNetworkingCODE.com, www.ProgressAgents.com and call 1-877-479-5323.
