When we’re looking for new business, we often find ourselves in the mysterious world of business networking. Unfortunately, for most of us, attending open networking events is a less-than-enjoyable experience.

We all know that to find new customers we must speak with more people, so why do so many of us find this task so daunting?

The reason we find this difficult is that we were all conditioned as children to obey a simple command: don’t talk to strangers. The first challenge is to defy that conditioning, and I’ve found that the easiest way to resolve this is to understand that pretty much everybody else is feeling the same way as you. Getting over the initial fear is one thing, but there’s more to networking than mustering the courage to approach your fellow professionals. Here are some simple rules that have helped me succeed in a networking environment. I’m sure that if you choose to employ them, they could have significant benefit to you, too.

Have a plan

Regardless of the size of the event, it’s unlikely that you can develop lasting business relationships with every single person in the room. I’m certain that some people will be attending who will be of considerably more value to you than others. Set a goal and stick to it. It may be to make a specific number of new connections or to set a meeting with a specific person. Just turning up and seeing what happens means recklessly leaving your success to chance.

Prepare for conversation

Starting a conversation is the hardest thing to do when entering a room full of strangers. To open up a discussion in a group, the easiest place to start is to talk about a subject that you all have
in common. The one subject that you’ll all definitely have in common is the event you’re attending. As such, it’s a safe bet to plan a series of questions related to the event.

Talk about how you help people

“So what do you do, then?” This is a question that someone is almost guaranteed to ask you, yet each time I see this happen,
the recipient of the question looks startled and bemused, hesitantly giving their job title or profession as the answer. Your goal for this question is to open up a more meaningful conversation by being genuinely interesting. So someone asks you this question, rephrase it in your head as, “How do you help people?” and answer that question instead.