How to handle the most feared part of networking

• Kapil Kapur (Fingertips Intelligence)
• Tuesday 17 April 2012

If I was to ask most networkers the most challenging part of networking, I think the answer would be doing their first ever 60 seconds. In many networking groups everybody is given 60 seconds to stand up and talk about their business.

The idea of presenting to strangers terrifies people. Even people who used to work in corporate backgrounds (who would have been used to engaging with very senior stakeholders) have found the idea of presenting to complete strangers nerve racking.

Now one thing that you should bear in mind is that I have a cleft palatte and hair lip. This has resulted in a slight speech impediment – meaning that presenting to strangers is also uncomfortable for me.

However having done it for a few years now, I’d like to share a few thoughts. Firstly I know some people fear the idea of talking to a room full of strangers so much that they simply don’t do it – they just sit out. But I think that they are not seeing the whole picture:-

• I agree it can be very intimidating walking into a room where everybody is so confident with their presentation. However, I suspect the reason why they are so confident is that they have done it regularly for so long. Also although they appear confident, I wonder if many people are still very nervous underneath
• People can only find you referrals if they know what you are looking for. Hence if you don’t do a 60 second pitch then people won’t be able to find you referrals
• You might think that going around the room and talking to people is easier – perhaps but it is also less efficient. If you have 30 people that is 30 minutes you need to talk for instead of just of one minute.
• By doing your 60 seconds on a regular basis, you will gradually become more confident at it and this will help you in other ways. For example handling that awkward customer who never pays on time !!

In many networking groups there is a competition for the person giving the best 60 seconds. There is often a winners’ cup that you keep for a week. Because of my speech impediment I used to resign myself never winning this. However, my competitive side soon came to the fore and I decided to focus on trying to win the cup. Although it took a few months, I did go through a phase where I won the cup on a regular basis. The things that helped me win were:-

• Contemplate – I used to put a lot of thought during the week between events about what I could talk about the following week. In other words – don’t “wing it !”
• Practise – It may be a cliché but practising made it perfect. I used to practise in the car during the week between meetings. Of course I used to practise in the car on the way to the meeting.
• Being specific – By mentioning “Filemaker” and Excel rather than just a generic “databases” I received better referrals.
• Having a prop – this gives you a great example to showcase your work e.g if you are a wedding photographer you can show pictures. In my case I once brought along an abacus – saying that it was the world’s oldest database. I threw it on the floor to demonstrate that it was very robust – and say that my solutions were equally robust

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