For some of you, networking may be old hat and you’re really good at it. Keep doing what you’re doing. For others however, it might be more difficult for you to walk into a room full of strangers and start a meaningful relationship. A common hesitation in this scenario is the fear of being rejected—nobody likes that! Many of us fear that we won’t make a good impression, so we don’t start the relationship-building process. Let’s examine some options and see what you think.
OPTION 1 – You don’t attend any networking events. In this scenario, you won’t be rejected. However, you also guarantee that you WILL NOT start any meaningful relationships, and therefore, you’ll miss out on new business.
OPTION 2 – You attend networking events, and you sit in the corner and mess with your iPhone all night. In this scenario, you might get a couple of drive-by bar rats if they are REALLY bold, and again you experience no rejection. Of course you also have about a 2% chance of starting a meaningful business relationship that might earn you additional business.
OPTION 3 – You attend networking events, survey the landscape and jump right in to go after those relationships you think will be most important to your business. Drawback? You just might get rejected. But you also greatly increase your odds for developing solid business relationships that lead to increased business.
The bottom line—don’t let the fear of rejection in networking prevent you from achieving your desired business results.
Come visit our chapter — we love to meet new people! South Bay BNI meets every Wednesday from 7-:8:30 am at Lido Ristorante at 1550 Rosecrans Ave, Manhattan Beach, CA. We look forward to seeing you soon!