Building Relationships through Networking

Do you still view networking/after hours events as a race to see how many business cards you can gather?  I just recently went to such an event where the host gave a gift to the person who’d obtained the most cards.  How can you build relationships when all you really want is the card.  And then what do you do with the card?

Jeff Nischwitz of Think Again Coaching shares his thoughts on how you can turn a networking event into a relationship building experience in this short but helpful video:

He offers three main points:

1. Be committed to helping others or giving back to the person you are talking to.  Learn enough about their business that so you can offer a lead or a suggestion that can help them grow.
2. Be interested not interesting.  I love this point and how he expands.  It reminds me of those times when I’ve been having conversations with someone and asked them one question and they proceeded to talk for the rest of the evening.  At the end they say “wow you are the best conversationalist.”  I barely said a word, just listened, interjected occasionally and was genuinely interested in what they had to say.
3. Get rid of the question “what do you do for a living” and instead ask the person to talk about themselves.  Jeff says “change the question to ‘what do you do for your customers.’”  

Great ideas.

How do you build relationships at networking events?