Business Networking Book Excerpt: Listening

How do I get YOU to remember me and what it is that I do?

Networking is natural to some people, while others need to learn techniques to become more successful at it. For those people who network easily, there appears to be a commonality among them. They have good eye contact and good listening skills.

To be a good listener, one needs to concentrate not only on what is being said, but also on both verbal and non-verbal communication techniques. Being a good listener is key to hearing all that is being said. At the same time, carefully observing body language can reveal a lot about what is not spoken. When you listen carefully and observe and translate body language correctly, you not only portray yourself as a professional, but increase your probability of building successful business relationships.

As a good listener, you still want to be engaged in the conversation. One way to do that is by asking “open-ended” questions. Asking “open-ended” questions invites a variety of responses, and may encourage people to provide important information about themselves and their businesses. For example: “Tell me about your business” or “What makes your products/services unique?” Such open-ended questions generate many different kinds of responses after providing useful information about the person and interesting facts about the company. These types of questions demonstrate your interest in the business and in the people who operate it.

An “open-ended” question suitable for networking events could be, “What kind of business referral works best for you and your business?” This could open the conversation, generate interest, and be the start of a new relationship. When you have demonstrated genuine interest and have started to build good rapport, you create the possibility of developing a good future business relationship.

Other examples of “open-ended questions might begin with, “How can you…,” “What kind of…,” “In what way did you…” or “When do you expect…,” The information you gain from such an exchange may, for example, give you new ideas on how you can help move a project forward. Asking how and why a person made the decision to start his/her own business can provide valuable information regarding the character and the decision-making abilities of this person. Another way to elicit this same kind of information is to ask, “What was the defining moment that made you decide to start your own business?” Asking the question in this particular way may also, as an additional benefit, bring forth an interesting personal story. As importantly, the particulars of the defining moment may give you special insight into how your products/services could support his/her mission.

On the other hand, “closed questions” generally begin with words such as, “is, are, can, may, do, will,” etc. For example, “Are you new to the organization or this area?” This type of question brings a response of “Yes or No,” or other “one-syllable” answers, and typically produces information that is less beneficial to you.

Another approach to start out with, particularly if networking seems a bit foreign to you, is to have a set of questions ready to use. This technique can be a confidence builder, especially for someone new to business or new to networking meetings and/or events. With some planning and practice or some professional training and development, your ability and skill in asking “open-ended” questions should improve and enable you to more readily adapt or rephrase your questions to make them appropriate to the person with whom you are dealing.

You can also improve your communication and presentation skills by…more in the book. (order now)