Darine BenAmara | Canadian Small Business Women

May 22 2018

5 simple and effective networking follow up strategies

You’ve attended a networking event, a conference. Now what? You have a pocket full of business cards and no idea what to do with them.

Timing is of the essence when following up with a contact you met at an event. By following up, you solidify the connection and start building your relationship with that person. Following up also gives you a chance to ask a particular question, get more information or arrange a time to call and meet one-on-one.

It’s best to follow up within 24 hours to 48 hours of meeting. Express your appreciation for their time and include details pertaining to the conversation you had. So let’s go over some simple strategies to help you maximize the initial interaction you had with someone.

5 simple and effective networking follow-up strategies

Tell them how you will be following up

Will you call them in a few days? Will you send them an article? Will you call to set up a lunch date? When you tell them what to expect it makes it real for both of you. You will be more likely to follow up because you told them that you will and they are going to be more receptive to it. The best part is that they will often share the best way for you to follow up and will make it easier for you.

Schedule a call and/or a meeting

Suggest a 15-minute phone call that will be of mutual benefit – although you’ll want to focus on how the call will help your new peer. Do some research so your contact knows you did your homework and are genuinely interested in seeing how you can help one another. You can mention a conversation from the event or discuss products, services, trends; anything that might benefit your connection. A lunch or breakfast get-together can be just also be valuable.

Share valuable content

Another great way to follow up is by sharing valuable content. Send an article that represents what you do and/or helps your new contact, not a sales brochure. Ask your contacts if they would like to subscribe to your company’s newsletter to learn more about your products and/or services. Share a resource with them, put them in touch with someone who can be of service to them. Show them that you can bring value. Remember, networking is about giving before getting.

Touch base regularly

Be sure to remind yourself to reconnect with your contact each month. I suggest you create “reconnect files.” They are handy, color-coded reminders that you can schedule once a month. Include some information about how you met and what you’ve discussed in the notes. When that name pops up each month, reach out to catch up, maybe set up another meeting, or send something that might be valuable, like an invite to another event, a great article or an introduction. When you follow up regularly and share information of value after meeting someone you become someone they trust. You will naturally build a solid relationship and before you know it the cards on your desk will become your best clients and partners. Stay in touch, but don’t overdo it. Too much connecting can kill your efforts.

Link in on LinkedIn

Since LinkedIn offers so many opportunities to keep your contacts front-of-mind for you (and you to them), what’s the harm in connecting and seeing them pop up in your email on their birthday, when they have a work anniversary, or get a new job? All these are occasions for follow-up.

What’s your plan for following up after your next networking event?

Women’s rights advocate and gender equality specialist, Darine BenAmara has dedicated her career to supporting other women. She is an international speaker, writer and advocate. Darine has significant international experience advancing women in leadership, leading global diversity and inclusion programs and advocating for women at work. Inspired by the many women she met, she designed “The Smart Woman”, an initiative helping women to overcome the challenges of networking and learn how to create smart connections to fulfill their career goals.

Connect with Darine on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Smart Woman newsletter for more networking tips.

Apr 21 2018

Are Networking Events a Waste of Time?

According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, “99% of any networking event is a waste of time”. In the article, the author – Richard Stromeback – claims that networking is about making a connection and being authentic. This made me realise that the value of networking must be in how well we spend the remaining 1%.

We have to make sure not to get distracted by the 99% but use it to our advantage. The way we build our relationship afterwards is very important. People are looking for real conversations and relationships. Not everyone and actually very few working people have time for endless glad-handing. That is because it rarely adds value.

Stop networking and start building your social capital

Focus your efforts on building strategic social capital and influence. Your strategic social capital is made up of trusted relationships that will serve your personal and professional goals.

Women are notoriously bad at it because we’ve never really been taught how to do this effectively whereas most men have been socialized to connect effectively. When it comes to our personal lives, women rarely leverage the key relationships in their network to serve career ambitions. It’s time we change that and start thinking strategically about our relationships, personal and professional, so we are better equipped to plot our leadership trajectories.

Building strategic social capital has nothing to do with networking in the traditional sense. When was the last time you went to a professional networking event and learned something, were inspired or had a good time? If networking gives you anxiety in any shape or form it’s time to stop wasting your time. You’d be far better served spending time and focusing on events and efforts where you are engaged, where your curiosity and learning are stimulated.

5 tips for getting the most from your networking activities

Be selective: You don’t want to become a networking junkie, going to every event that presents itself. The best way to vet potential events is to use screening criteria. This may include things such as the location, the people in the attendance, comments from past participants, etc.
Know what to avoid: Most people don’t like networking because they think it’s time intensive and distracting from their work. However, if you are extremely efficient and focus on what is truly essential, your time is not wasted but rather invested wisely.
Vary your networking activities: There is a lot of places where you can actually meet people while learning new skills such as workshops, conferences, special events.
Engage and assess: This is where your 30-second elevator pitch can make a big difference. It should be rehearsed and fluid. With the right elevator pitch, you can determine within seconds of meeting someone whether the conversation can go further. Politely exiting a conversation to pursue the next one is another skill you need to practice.
Deepen existing relationships: Instead of going to networking events with the intention of meeting new people, consider checking in with some of your existing connections. Have you properly followed up with the promising contacts you have made over the past month? Have you maintained your relationships with strategic partners and centres of influence?

For those interested in making authentic connections with people and learning something about them, there is no better opportunity. The key is to stop networking and start connecting.

Women’s rights advocate and gender equality specialist, Darine BenAmara has dedicated her career to supporting other women. She is an international speaker, writer and advocate. Darine has significant international experience advancing women in leadership, leading global diversity and inclusion programs and advocating for women at work. Inspired by the many women she met, she designed “The Smart Woman”, an initiative helping women to overcome the challenges of networking and learn how to create smart connections to fulfill their career goals.

Visit The Smart Woman website and connect with Darine on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter .

Mar 21 2018

Network and Thrive

Even though it’s 2018 and much progress has been made, it’s no secret that professional women are still at a disadvantage in the workplace. The same is true of entrepreneurs.

The glass ceiling is holding strong

While progress has been made over the last decades and even more over the past few years, the glass ceiling is still stubbornly holding strong.

This is why networking, an important component of any professional’s career, is even more important when it comes to women – whether they want to climb the ladder to the C-suite or start their own business.

Networking is the most influential and efficient way to raise your profile in the business and corporate world. However, networking will only help you if done strategically.

At this point in history, men entrepreneurs (on average) are more successful than women entrepreneurs (on average) at growing their businesses. To be as successful as the men, you do have to do something you can do but that many women don’t: Build a strategic network

Top 8 networking tips for women

Be Yourself: If you are guarded, people will not get a sense of who you really are and it will be difficult to connect with you. Bring your smartness and uniqueness to light.
Be passionate about what you do: if your personal values don’t line up with the product or service that your company sells, you need to leave the organization or to do something else. How can you passionately talk about your business when networking if you are not excited about it. If you are not enthusiastic about what you offer, others won’t be interested in what you stand for.
Take it one step at a time:You won’t amass a huge network of contacts overnight. Researches have found that just ten minutes a day is all it takes to make a big impact on the size and quality of your network.
Do your research:The internet is a mine of information, and finding you have something in common with people you’re about to meet is gold. A quick online search can tell you that you went to the same university or have a connection in common.
Don’t avoid men: Many women have a tendency to go to functions that only other women will attend, which limits the benefits of networking. You need to think strategically and make as many valuable connections as possible to further your success. And the best way to do so is with women and men.
Help them to help you:It’s as important to be found as to find others. Having an up-to-date LinkedIn profile (including a professional headshot) makes you much more likely to be approached by new connections.
End as you mean to go on:You may only have one chance to make a good first impression, but you can undo all your good work if you make a bad exit. Say a proper “goodbye” and follow up the next day to make sure your new contact remembers you for the right reasons.
Follow-up: We know that the follow-up is key to cashing in on your networking efforts, but this is one of the greatest areas of missed opportunity because people don’t make time for it and then wonder why they didn’t get the deal.

Don’t just limit yourself to local, in-person networking gatherings if you want to see the best options and most opportunities in the field you’re playing in. Consider newer, more effective alternatives to networking that can take you and your business to unprecedented territories.

Connect with Darine on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Visit The Smart Woman website.

Feb 21 2018

7 Tips To Turn Your Contacts Into Powerful Connections

Business and personal success is all about making the right connections and finding the people who will lead you to new opportunities. However, many believe that success in networking is defined by the volume of exchanges (how many cards can you collect) when in reality there is little to no value in the quantity.

A lot of us are going about connecting in the wrong way. The real objective should be to connect with, learn from, and build real relationships with fewer people who are different than us and could challenge us to stretch our thinking.

Of course friends, family and acquaintances are important, but in business they can only get us so far. To reach our full potential we need to create meaningful connections with people who see things differently than we do, ask very different questions, imagine different possibilities, and challenge us to rethink the way we do the things that matter most.

Success in expanding a valuable list of contacts is solely based on the power of the connection you make.

How do you go about making and building powerful connections?

Ask yourself, who would be a valuable connection?

Challenge yourself to move beyond the questions “Who is my ideal client?” and “Who do I need to meet to pitch my product?” Instead, put the focus on why connecting with a certain person or group is important to all parties? How does meeting this person potentially impact everyone financially and socially? If this connection is made, what is the likelihood it can be maintained over the long term?

Ask yourself, what is my value as a connection?

It is important to know and understand your role. What can you bring into the relationship? What can you give before you can think about getting?

Ask for a strategic introduction.

If there’s a specific person you’re planning to connect with, do some Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn research to see if you have a contact who knows that individual directly, or at least knows someone who works for the same organization. If you can find it, a third-party endorsement will give you a powerful edge.

Follow-up and put it on a calendar.

After clicking with a powerful new connection, don’t drop the ball. Never ever wait for everyone to email back and forth for a date. It won’t happen. Drive the date, suggest the time, and get it on the calendar. This provides value to your connections.

Deepen the relationship.

Immediately following a conversation with a person of interest, dots down a number from one to ten on the back of their business card, indicating their potential to help you advance your business. For anyone who scores a six or above, adds a brief note about them, such as “three-year-old daughter, developing a new food services business, traveling to Montreal.”

The next day, send an email to the person, saying that you enjoyed the conversation, and reference one of your notes, like “Have a great time in Montreal!” You can also assist in some way, by sending a link to an interesting Montreal travel article or offering to introduce the person to a friend who works in the same field.

Maintain the connection.

Create a schedule for keeping in touch, whether you reach out to X number of people each week, or set aside X amount of time each day to networking.

Save your time and minimize connections that lack value.

If a connection isn’t of value and you cannot provide value, let it go. It’s best for both parties.

Finally, networking is like exercise and making powerful connections takes time and practice. You may fail a couple of times but don’t worry about it. In the end, you will find much better contacts and people who can benefit one another.

Connect with Darine on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn. Don’t forget to subscribe to The Smart Woman newsletter for more networking tips.

Jan 21 2018

Do You Have A Networking Strategy?

Do you ever have the feeling that you are wasting your time at networking events? Have you ever collected a lot of business cards that ended up on a shelf, in a drawer or in the trash?

Studies shows that 97% of businesses regard customer referrals as an important source of new business, yet only 3% of businesses have any form of strategy to generate customer referral based leads. Do you have a networking strategy?

“It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”

We’ve heard it repeatedly. Networking has become one of the most talked about terms when it comes to career growth and business success. But networking is much more than showing up at networking events, shaking a lot of hands and collecting a bunch of cards. It involves relationship building and it can be a deceptively complex process.

Think about it. How many people do you know? How many of these people truly understand what you do? How many of them have directed prospects to you as referrals? And how many of those referrals have actually turned into business?

An underutilized power

Even women professionals who understand the importance of networking as a tool for increasing effectiveness seem to underutilized strategic networking. Not everyone you meet can help move your business forward, but everything you do can be driven by the intention to grow your business.

The purpose of strategic networking is to figuring out your future priorities and challenges and enlists the people necessary and gets them to support you. It means that you have to be proactive. The key to a good strategic network is leverage; the ability to gather information, support, and resources from different groups of people to create networks favorable to your business goals

Strategic networking can be difficult as it absorbs a significant amount of time and energy and this is one reason why many women drop it far down their list of priorities.

Why would you want a networking strategy?

Many of us take a misguided approach to networking. If you identify you networking goals and know the details of how you will achieve them, you will be far more likely to succeed. In fact if you don’t have a strategy, you will have to be very lucky to move your business forward.

According to McKinsey & Company, women’s lack of access to good quality networks is a main obstacle to their professional advancement, comparable in impact to lacking a mentor, or appropriate coaching and training.

As reported by Statistics Canada, female workers currently make up only 35% of managerial positions and represent 36% of small business owners (in 2014, 15.7% of SMEs were majority owned by women and 19.7% were equally owned by women and men). On average, women business owners are younger and have fewer years of management or ownership experience compared with male business owners. Canadian women business owners are less likely to engage in international trade compared to Canadian male business owners.

The reality is that men still dominate high-level leadership positions in most canadian workplaces. As a result, when women seek to build relationships with senior executives, most of the time they will need to connect with men. According to a study by LeanIn.org and McKinsey & Company, men have predominantly male networks while women have predominantly female. This pattern means that men are more likely to have the ear of senior executives in their organizations, and that women will need to connect with a male-dominated network to open new doors.

Approaching networking with a strategy is an essential part of your business strategy. It allows you to use your time and abilities wisely, to keep in mind what you are trying to achieve in the long run and help you to achieve it.

Network smarter, not harder

Make a plan, focus and be consistent. When you understand exactly what strategic networking is and step up to the challenge, you’ll find avenues of opportunity that you may have otherwise never discovered, and you will be making an invaluable investment in the steady growth of your business.

Women’s rights advocate and gender equality specialist, Darine BenAmara has dedicated her career to supporting other women. For the past 7 years, she has been leading initiatives on social and economic empowerment, and political leadership of women in Africa, North America and the Caribbean. Inspired by the many women she met, she launched “The Smart Woman”, an initiative helping women to overcome the challenges of networking and learn how to create smart connections to fulfill their career goals.

Connect with Darine on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/darineba/)

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