The Anatomy of a Room
When you enter the room at a networking event, you will encounter 3 types of people:
prospects, suspects, and fluff.
Prospects are great strategic contacts for you.
Suspects are great people for your current set of strategic partners to meet.
Fluff are people who don’t have a positive or negative impact to your strategic network – they are just there.
In a room of 60 networkers, 2 are prospects, 40 are good for your network (suspects), and 18
are fluff.
| Prospects (2) | Suspects (40) | Fluff (18) |
| Room of 60 at a Networking Event | ||
When you’re meeting new people at a networking event, notice that the best thing that you can do is work for your strategic partners, and build a team of strategic partners who are working for you. This is annuitized leverage at its best.
Don’t get discouraged when you meet people at an event that aren’t a good fit for you or your strategic network; you’re supposed to. The key to effectively managing a networking event is to know exactly who you want to meet on your strategic tree, and meet enough people in the room to get introductions to those people.
You won’t get there by chatting with 3 people. An effective relationship marketer meets at least 10-15 new people per event in order to find good introductions to new strategic partners and good introductions for their strategic partners.
Jamar Cobb-Dennard is a business development strategy and implementation expert, and the President of Rainmakers Marketing Group. Click to learn more about Creating a Word of Mouth Marketing Machine.