Ivan Misner
VIP Contributor
Founder and Chief Visionary Officer of BNI
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
One of the biggest mistakes people make when networking is thinking
that it’s just about running around the room collecting as many business
cards as possible. These are often people who don’t really like
networking but they know they have to do it, and they think this is the
best way to get it done. I’ve tried telling them that this is not
networking -- it’s either face-to-face cold calling or worse yet, it’s
simply “card collecting.”
Years ago, I ran into a couple of
business partners who made a competition of collecting cards at
networking events. The person who collected the least number of cards
had to buy the other partner dinner that week. They were very proud of
this networking strategy -- seriously, they bragged about it to me. I
tried to tell them that this was really not a good networking strategy
but I don’t think they ever got it.
Unfortunately,
I still find myself running into people who think this is a great
approach to networking effectively. My co-author of
Networking Like a Pro, Brian Hilliard, has given me the solution to dealing with this issue.
Here’s what you can do:
Brian
has a dog whose name is Barley. He’s a 55-pound Shiba Inu, which means
he doesn’t like cats and he looks like a fox. Barley is a very
well-trained, well-behaved dog. If you’d like to collect business cards
at an event but you don’t want to spend all that time collecting the
cards, here’s what you can do. You can hire Barley from Brian ($20/hour,
two hour minimum + travel) to attend your next event. Brian will put a
satchel around him, like a horse. And on one side he’ll place a stack of
your business cards, along with a sign that says “Take One” and on the
other side he’ll have a pocket that says “Leave Your Card Here.”
Brian
will then drive Barley up to the event, send him into the room, and
return two hours later to collect Barley and his new stack of business
cards. I’m confident he’ll come out with a big stack because he’s very
well trained and people really love him.
Now after you take those
cards from his side pocket -- and make sure to walk him, since he’ll
probably need to use the restroom after all of that hard work -- will he
have truly networked?
Of course not!
How could he possibly have networked by getting a stack of business cards?
It
sounds ridiculous, but that’s how more than a few business
professionals approach their networking.
It’s like a game of who can get
the most cards, and it doesn’t make any sense. Collecting cards at a
networking event is not networking -- it’s card collecting -- which is
not a profitable way to build your business. If you put this in the
context of Barley running around the event letting people exchange cards
with him, it seems obvious. However, if you’re still on the fence and
would like to contact Brian about potentially contracting Barley’s
services, please feel free to do so.
