Sales Tip - 'Buy my stuff it's great!'

I guess most of us (I hope) wouldn't be using this as a technique to sell our product or service.

But more often than not, this is exactly what we come across when networking; you know the sort, described in many ways but for the purpose of this blog, we'll just refer to them as the 'network bore'. It's all about them, what they do, how good they do it and how great they are at it.

Right now the economic climate is 'forcing' many people to try their wings at this networking thing but as many of us know, networking as a way of meeting potential new clients has been around for years and if you think about it, it's always been around we just never gave it a name. My dad always knew somone who could fix the tap, mend the roof or service the car and if he didn't he asked a friend if they knew someone - that's networking, isn't it?

Except now we've made all formal, it's become a little scary and in recent months I've met many folks new to networking and just don't know where to begin with it all. So, what are the rules?
The way I see it having been at it and run a few of these things over the years, here are a couple of basics:

First, don't tell folks 'Buy my stuff it's great!' ; find out about them, who they are, what they do and what they are looking for.
Second, getting referrals from networking is all about building trust, how do you do that? That's a topic for another time.
And third; try a few, there are lots of networking opportunities out there at it's 'horses for courses', so try a few till you find the ones that suit you, where you're comfortable - but a word of caution, don't be too comfortable.

For many ot you reading this, it's kind of stating the obvious but this is just the start; I'm not claiming to be an expert and be wary of those that say they are - so much of life is common sense and networking is that.