The contacts you make while networking might be colleagues, friends of colleagues, relatives, friends or just acquaintances. Regardless, always maintain proper etiquette when interacting with people. If you offend someone, word may travel. Also, remember that your actions reflect on the person who introduces you. Keep that person in mind when dealing with the contacts he or she gives you. Here are some etiquette tips:
- Make eye contact and shake hands with every person you meet
- Present yourself professionally
- Send handwritten thank you cards whenever someone helps you in any way
- Always pay for the meal if you invite someone to lunch or dinner
Networking guru Joan Gillman shares the following personal experiences that reinforce the basic tenets of networking.
When Joan’s daughter wanted to break into Hollywood, she took her mother’s advice and made the rounds at a party asking friends of the family and even strangers if they knew anyone working in film or television. She ended up with a long list of contacts, including her mother’s friend’s brother, who was executive producer of a popular prime time sitcom.
One of Joan’s clients, a husband and wife team, were worried about a competing business, also ran by a husband and wife team. Joan suggested the concerned couple take the competition out to dinner, their treat. The other couple had such a good time, they shared everything about their business, including their financial position.
Joan met a young woman at a meeting in Strasbourg, France, who loved her unique dangling cow earrings and asked where she got them. As they were a gift from her daughter, Joan didn’t know what shop they came from. She promised, however, to get the woman the earrings if she promised to remember that you don’t get anything unless you ask for it. After looking in eighteen different jewelry stores, Joan finally found the cow earrings, and sent them to the young woman.
