All too often, the “networking” part of Network Marketing is misunderstood and therefore mis-used.

Strangely enough, it’s almost never taught by Network Marketing companies or even by well meaning Sponsors.

Here’s what it is not, or shouldn’t be:

• A Sales Pitch
• A parrot-like 30 second “elevator speech”
• Just a bored  exchange of business cards
• A political, religious, or personal diatribe

And here’s what it should be:

• An opportunity to meet another human being who you might be able to help.
  
• An opportunity to meet another human being who might be able to help you.
• An opportunity to Listen…and Learn
  

Networking type events or day-to-day encounters can be a great opportunity for you to  make contact with potential business partners and customers – If… you know the right way to interact with people.

The most common mistake is to think that you have talk about yourself  and your opportunity first.

Stop it! It doesn’t work very well, does it?

Instead of  trying to put yourself in the best  possible light , remember this simple, low stress, non pitchy approach:

Stop Selling, stop Telling, and Learn to Listen.

How? Here’s  a great “ice breaker” type of question.

After mutual intros, ask in a light-hearted way,   “So how can I help you?”

Usually the reply:

“I don’t know… how can you help me?”

Too which you might respond:

“I don’t know either, but maybe we can  find out… what kind of business are you in?”

Once you find out who and what you are dealing with, you can ask all sorts of questions, and see if this is indeed the right type of person to be a potential partner, associate, or even mentor. (A great way to grow your Mastermind group)

Then, you can ask all kinds of questions about things like:

• “What  are your greatest challenges in your marketing?”
• “Do you ever feel you could be more effective but not sure how?”
• “How is that affect you?”
• “Have you done anything to resolve these challenges?”
• “How did that work out?”
• “What sort of challenges do you face with selling your products/services?”
• “What did you feel worked/didn’t work?”
• “If you could do it all over again, would you do it differently?”
• “Have you thought about what you think the problem might be?”

Of course, different conversations lead to different questions, but the idea is to be a problem solver, not a pitch pusher.

If you let people talk, they’ll tell you everything you need to know. And who can resist the opportunity to talk about…themselves?

At the right time, you want to transition into something like this:

“The reason I’m asking is… (explain how what you do could help this person) and if this is something of interest to you, perhaps I could give you a call tomorrow and see whether we might be able to do something together… would that be good for you?”

The answer is usually “Yes” because you were talking about something that was important to them.

It’s fast, it’s fun, and doesn’t take much time.

And…you’ve established yourself as relaxed, professional, fascinating person.

After all…you were willing to Listen, and that’s a great gift in today’s world.

That’s “Networking”, wouldn’t you agree?