Joan Friedlander, owner of Lifework Business Partners was my guest on a past Business901 Podcast and we had the opportunity to discuss creating realistic and executable marketing plans for self-employed service business owners and key members of a business team. One of Joan’s specialties is working with Introverts and our conversation extended into using those introvert tendencies as an advantage in today’s business climate.
Related Podcast and Transcription: Introvert Tendencies Can Be A Marketing Advantage
Excerpt from the podcast:
Joe: How would you tell an introvert to be able to network effectively?
Joan: There are some extroverts who don’t like networking events either. I met a few of them. I actually work with a client, a woman who is definitely extroverted. She loves public speaking. She’s really great in front of the room. She’s comfortable, and she’s persuasive. One day, she asked me, she said do I have to do networking? I said no. You do public speaking. That’s very effective. So, extroverted people can actually be uncomfortable in one on one. They don’t like networking as much either. Nonetheless, it can be a good skill to develop. Let’s go to the question you asked, which is, what are some things to put in place?
There are different kinds of networking events. I’m going to give big names to three of them. There are leads groups, where you’re going and meeting with the same group people, once a week, and the whole entire purpose of the meeting is to get to know each other and refer business to each other.
I think the most popular one right now is BNI or Business Networking International, and they have breakfast meetings. Some meet in the morning. Some meet at lunchtime. And, what’s good about that structure, especially for somebody who really is uncomfortable with networking is that they are structured. It’s a structured meeting.
So, you go and sit down. And, there’s the same format every time. The thing that is the most difficult, in the beginning, is that you are asked to give a thirty-second introduction.
But, what happens for people is; because it’s the same group over and over again, somebody who’s introverted will get to know people, and they get to practice. They get to practice in a pretty safe environment.
I can remember the first time I checked out that kind of group. There was this guy there, and he was a carpet cleaner, his company was Surfside, in California. I thought he was an extrovert, and he shared with me once, that when he first went to the group he was terrified to stand up and talk about his business.
That’s one kind of a meeting. Then there’s a professional meeting. If you’re an engineer, let’s say, or, what else, a graphic designer, if you can go to meetings in your profession, where you can get to know your peers; that’s a good way to practice, because then the conversation is around business. One of the things that seems to help introverts when they’re in a group situation is when they’re familiar with people. It’s much easier for them to talk to people.
Another kind of group I would suggest that could be a good place to start would be a rotary club. I would actually offer this to your audience Joe, if they’re engineers, specifically engineering consultants, looking for business with bigger companies, because the B. and I groups tend to attract just really the single business owners.
A rotary club, at least as I understand it, is an organization where the members are doing something, doing work in the community. So the attention is not on getting business from each other, if you will, it’s on an outward project; but at the same time, people in business and professionals tend to go to those, be participants in those events. You can talk about business.
So, that’s just to help people make the choice, and understand that not all networking organizations are created equally.
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