6 tips for lawyers to network more effectively
If you’re fearful or apprehensive about your capacity to network, these simple tips will help boost your confidence, writes Ben Paul.
Many senior lawyers and partners within law firms find attending events and networking to be a highly successful way to build their practices. When done well, it can be a great opportunity to meet and start a business relationship with new people in a relaxed environment. However, for many lawyers in the early stages of their career, or those who are naturally more shy or introverted, the idea of attending an event to meet new people sounds like one of the worst things they could imagine.
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It is perfectly natural to be apprehensive or even fearful of attending these events; even the most experienced networkers would sometimes prefer sitting at home watching TV rather than mingling in a crowd. A lot of these feelings come down to how the day at work has gone. After all, however great your job is, and however much you enjoy it, you’ll still have off days. But much like a trip to the gym or a run, you need to do it. Skipping the event you meant to attend becomes a habit, the wrong kind of habit. So instead, build the right habits and be confident to attend networking events no matter how you are feeling.
To help build this talent, it helps to build your confidence with some simple tips to assist you in overcoming your fears and apprehensions. You can always attend a training course like the ones I’m running. However, in the meantime, these six simple tips should help you feel more prepared for your next event.
- Do your research
- Be wary of setting a target number of people you need to meet
- Avoid overtly selling or pitching
- Leave a conversation without saying you’re off to the toilet!
- Remembering people and the details of what they do
- Write notes on the business cards you receive.
- Write notes on the way home / outside on your phone.
- Send yourself an email.
- Call your office phone and leave yourself a voicemail.
Don’t put this off. If you don’t follow up, then you’ve basically wasted all the networking you have done. Block out 15 to 30 minutes in your diary that day, at an appropriate time, to do your follow-ups. When following up, send an email expressing how you enjoyed your conversation and meeting them, give maybe a bullet point summary of what you discussed, and if appropriate, suggest a coffee or more formal meeting as the next stage.
Conclusion
The above six steps should help give you a simple structure and some confidence to go out and network. One of the best bits of advice is that, like any new skill you are learning or a skill you are seeking to improve, the more you practice, the better you will get.
Ben Paul is the chief executive of The BD Ladder.