Most businesspeople network – but plenty don’t know the game’s first rule.

Do you?

Bruce Lee

“Learn to become a good listener,” say Edmonton’s Ted Greer and Calgary’s Bruce Lee, who this month have been conducting networking workshops in their respective cities.

“Networking is about building relationships, and that takes two or three meetings,” says Greer. “The more information you gather, the better opportunity you have to present your product later.”

The advice holds whether you are a small-business person in a room full of corporate CEOs, or about to enter a gathering of 300 people you don’t know. “Networking opportunities have different protocols,” says Greer, who founded Alberta Corporate Event Services in 1996.

“A lot of people are not efficient, waste a lot of time . . . and fall into some common traps.”

Greer and Lee teach networking as a small component of their overall business operations. Both feel networking is critical to a person’s business or personal success.

In their workshops they have slightly different techniques, but do share common strategies. They include:

* When attending an event, have a goal of how many contacts you are going to make.

* Be clear what your message is, if and when you are asked what you do.

* When the event is over, review the contacts you have made. Are they worth pursuing? Can you do something for those contacts (i.e. find them a useful contact, information, maybe some business?) If so, do it.

* During the course of conversation, if you promise to do something for a contact you’ve made, follow up. It’s a “deadly sin” not to do so.

The rules provide a solid foundation for all networkers. Etiquette, however, dictates different approaches depending on the social situation.

For example, here’s how Greer would behave if he were a small-business person attending a luncheon speech that included 30 leading business executives.

To get business out of that one session, there’s a small window of maybe 20 minutes, he says. Focus on the person next to you at the luncheon. Engage in conversation. Ask about their business. Have them talking, and make them ask the questions about you. If they don’t ask about you, don’t force the issue.

“Never, never push your product, never push your services or what you do,” he says. “If you do that, you turn them off instantly. And they’ll never want to sit with you again. And they’ll tell their friends about you.”

Greer suggests that people trying to break into that elite corporate circle should listen carefully. Don’t hustle around trying to meet everyone.

Just be seen.

“Listen and find out other events this group will attend and buy tickets to those functions, too,” he says. “They get to see you on a regular basis, get to know your face and they start talking to you on their own. That’s the ideal way to do it.”

What about walking into a room of 300 at a party?

“A real big mistake people make, is that they head straight to someone they already know and cling to them,” says Lee. “You have to have a goal and focus on meeting new people. Pretend you are the host. Meet everybody, because you never know who you will meet and how they will help you.”

In his workshops, Lee provides basic strategies around making a good first impression, how to keep conversations going during “dead time” and how to catalogue contacts.

Like Greer, Lee believes it’s critical to engage people in conversation. “People love to talk about themselves, and the more you hear, the more opportunities you see.”

Lee teaches people to use names in conversations and to remember them forever.

He uses a FACT system for the business cards he collects during networking functions. When the event is over, Lee writes four simple notes on each business card:

* F is for Facial features – and who that person looks like, he says.

* A is for Activity – the location you met.

* C is for the Contact date – when you met.

* T is for topic of interest – what they talked about.

The cards serve as little reminders the next time you attend a function these people are also likely to attend.

“People find it impressive that you remembered something about them even though you maybe only spoke for 10 minutes.”

People also must be clear on their mission statement. When someone asks you what you do, make it interesting and concise, says Lee.

“I remember asking a photographer (in a workshop) to explain what he did, and he launched in on this long, boring explanation. I said, why not say something like: ‘I capture life’s special moments.’ ”

Clarity is important. In networking events, people don’t have a lot of time to make an impression. When asked what you do, get to the bottom line, understand your positioning as a company or product, and be clear on the benefits you can provide.

Greer and Lee say people can learn to network effectively. Sticking to a game plan and being disciplined works beautifully.

“A very common mistake is people make a promise to send a note or some information to someone they’ve met, and they don’t follow up,” says Greer.

“It’s a simple thing, but you’d be amazed how many people don’t do it. You lose out on an opportunity and lose credibility.”

In effect, they miss out on the whole point of networking in the first place.