The following excerpt is from Ivan Misner, Ph.D. and Brian Hilliard’s book Networking Like a Pro. Buy it now from Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound Many people offer advice about what it takes to be good at networking. This advice, however, often lacks a key piece of information: what the average person thinks it takes to be a better networker. Networking involves interacting with others, so what do most businesspeople think it takes to successfully network? Let us underscore the importance: We all need to be cognizant of other people’s expectations and adjust our behavior accordingly if we want to make a positive impression that will help build a powerful network.
To that end, we gathered almost 3,400 survey responses from businesspeople around the world who represent both genders (57 percent men, 43 percent women) and ages that span a person’s entire career. Six percent of respondents were under 30 while two percent were over 70. The bulk of respondents (78 percent) were between the ages of 30 and 59. We gave them a list of roughly 20 different characteristics on networking and asked them to pick the top behaviors they would like to see in a great networker. From those responses, we identified the top seven characteristics that people believe make a great networker.
Here are those seven characteristics in order of importance, according to the survey respondents.
1. Good listener.
Being a good listener tops the list. Our success in networking depends on how well we can listen and learn. The faster you and your networking partner learn what you need to know about each other, the faster you’ll establish a valuable relationship.
A good networker has two ears and one mouth and should use them each proportionately. Listen to people’s needs and concerns and find opportunities to help them. You can’t help others if you don’t know…
