How To Effectively Work a Networking Event

Effective networking is a crucial element of a successful wedding planning business.  To provide a superior service to your clients, you must be able to engage reliable and high quality suppliers and find ways of ensuring that they prioritize you over other customers!

Here are a few tips on how to get the most out of any networking event:

• Before the event – Check out who will be attending.  If any company representatives catch your eye, you could try sending an email to them beforehand to tell them how interested you are in talking to them.  This will make your networking activities more focused and productive.

• During the event – It may seem obvious but you must look the part.  Be groomed but don’t look too stiff or other people may not approach you.

• After the event – Again, send an email to people that you met on the day and with whom you’d like to follow up.  Visit their websites and, if you like what you see, offer to meet with them again at their premises or take them out for coffee.

It’s a nice gesture to keep in touch in some way with all of the people you met at the event.  Emails, texts and Facebook posts mean that it doesn’t take much time to keep contacts warm.

Chatting to strangers and making it seem effortless is difficult.  Make it easy on yourself by asking a lot of questions of the people you talk to and show a real interest in their answers.  Even if you don’t think you’ll do business with them just now, you never know what may arise in the future.

If you know quite a number of the people attending, create a good impression by introducing them to new people.  Visitors will remember you if you help them to do business.

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