Have you ever found yourself lost, not knowing what step to take next in your new career or in a new endeavor. In this scenario you might want to check with successful people on how things worked for them.
A few of my friends, with a lot of enthusiasm, are passionately planning to set up a start-up company and they want to bring their creativity in whatever they do. Well, in spite of having an understanding about the ideas they have, they have found themselves putting their plans on hold for various reasons.
With all the market research and feasibility studies that they have done, it was clear to them that how things worked for their competitors and people in the same industry. Here the need for networking in a meaningful manner arises and my friends accomplished this by inviting to a luncheon a few people already established in the same industry.
Yes, even in your profession or business, if you want to be successful you might want to know what worked for those successful people in their business model. Well, the smart move for you is to buy their time to have a networking meeting.
Buy their time by inviting them for a lunch or dinner with you. Having a meeting with someone in their office makes them feel little uncomfortable and it would be hard for them to open up due to the fear of spewing out confidential information. Even if you well connected with them, time or situations may not allow them to open up. Meeting someone for a lunch meeting can avoid that work pressure or seriousness of being in a conference room meeting and it makes such meetings pretty casual and friendly. You can have an informal and friendly time with them and both the parties can open up their ideas and challenges that they are facing in their business. In this way buying one a lunch can go a long way in networking.
At the same time you cannot appear to be too hasty by inviting your network connection for a lunch. You will eventually know when that relationship has matured enough to take it to the next level.
When was the last time that you asked someone – Can I buy you a lunch? – for networking purpose.
