Taking Advantage of Networking Events: Doug's Story

When I run sales meetings, I always ask whether there are any events over the next thirty days that would give the team a chance to meet new customers.

During my time as fractional sales manager at one AV company, there happened to be two upcoming conferences put on by meeting planner associations—PCMA and MPI.

"Is anyone going to the MPI meeting tonight?" I asked the team.

One of the salespeople, we'll call him Doug, said, "Oh, I used to be a member of MPI, and I never really got any business out of there. I wouldn't bother."

"Okay. Do you mind if I go?" I asked. My attitude was it was ridiculous not to try, but I could already see I wasn't going to convince him.

He shrugged. "Sure, you can go. But I'm just telling you, you're not going to get anything out of it and everyone knows me already, so they already know to reach out if they need something."

I got my business cards ready, parked at the event, and got out of my car. As I was walking in, I spotted a woman my age who was clearly dressed for a corporate event.

"Are you by chance going to MPI?" I asked.

"Yes, I just moved here from Washington, D.C.," she said.

"What do you do?"

"I'm a meeting planner and I have an agency where we manage events for associations and nonprofits. Most of my job is vendor management."

A meeting planner, who owned an agency, who had just moved here and specialized in vendor management. There was no way she knew anyone from my company (including Doug). 

You can't make this up.

"I'm Karl," I said. "I've never been to one of these either. Why don't we help each other out when we go in here so we're not just standing around with no one to talk to?"

"That would be great!"

The two of us went into the meeting and were able to introduce one another around and build our networks twice as fast as we would have on our own, and with half the effort! And sure, that involved introducing her to some competitors that also did live events, but we were already buddies. Before the night was over, I invited my new buddy to visit our AV company, and she happily agreed. 
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The next week, she came in to have lunch with us and the CEO. We had a casual conversation, went through some event photos and presented her with our deck for her to look at. More importantly, we laughed, got to know each other, and brainstormed how we could work together. Within six months, we'd done three events for her company.
Don't take for granted that every networking event you go to will be exactly the same as the last. Approach each one like new opportunities are waiting for you, because guess what? They probably are.