Over the last year, I have attended a number of networking meetings hosted by various organisations and have noticed a similar pattern with all of them in that I build better contacts at lunchtime meetings compared to early morning breakfast meetings.

I think there is a very good reason for this. Lunchtime meetings usually take up the best part of an afternoon and anyone who is willing to give up this amount of time is serious about networking. In contrast, the early morning meetings (where everything is over by 9) feel rushed. Everyone is in a hurry to get to work. No one has time to talk. But that is the wrong attitude. You can’t rush networking. You need time to talk to people. 

Do you go to breakfast or lunchtime networking meetings? What works for you?

When you go to a networking meeting that has competitors in the room, how do you feel? Are you worried? Do you feel threatened?

Well you shouldn’t be!

Some networking groups promote the members benefit of being the only business in the room that fits a particular category. e.g. the sole graphic designer, the sole architect. But let’s be honest, how beneficial is that for your business?

I run an internet consultancy but rarely do I find two consultancies that do exactly the same thing, and I think it’s the similar case for most businesses. In fact, I often do business with competitors because I find there are gaps that we both fill for each other. One internet consultancy may be limited to large websites, another may be focused on low value websites, another may be focused on web programming but isn’t interested in design. 

So when meeting competitors, remember (a) your skills might actually overlap (b) you can learn a lot from each other. e.g. new technologies, marketing techniques. 

When people complain they’ve been to networking meetings and got no business, I ask them one simple question:

Did you follow up?

Yes, you may have swapped business cards, yes you may have met up already, but did you follow up your meeting? We are all very busy, but if we fail to stay in touch, it’s all a waste of time.