Networking, connecting, and other modes of meeting people at conferences, functions, meetings and parties are important behavioral elements for activists, organizers, and fundraisers to focus on mastering. As was suggested by Vinnie Lauria and Kristine Molnar at a seminar a few days ago, fundraising (and getting people on board in every possible sense) is at its root level about building relationships. Working as a member of the press for the NetSquared conference, I was effectively able to keep my schmoozing to a minimum, thus I was able to watch many of the interactions between project people (those looking for funding and votes for the best project) and foundation people and onlookers (those who potentially have funding and votes to offer) from the sidelines, through the lens of an armchair sociologist. Based on some of those observations, please take into consideration these following suggestions when networking face-to-face.

Know Your Elevator Pitch

Though it is most-popularly associated with entrepreneurs pitching their ideas to venture capitalists, you should also have an elevator pitch. Simply put, the EP is a lean, fatless concise explanation of your project or campaign. It is known by its name for two reasons:

1. The pitch should be digestible enough to deliver in a short period of time (say, the amount of time it takes to get from the lobby to several floors above by way of an elevator).
2. You never know who you are going to run into on an elevator (or a plane, or a hallway, or wherever), so you should forever be ready to concisely pitch your idea quickly and on the spot (if in a pinch). The pitch should be about 30 seconds long and made up of 100 words or so. Make it a good one.

Instead of sputtering:

It’s snowy where I’m from, you know, and kids suffer from asthma and adults are sick and are depressed. So my friends and I got together and started a non-profit organization and we started to raise money… [ramble, ramble]

You want to concisely deliver:

With high unemployment rates in Illinois contributing to increases in documented rates of adult depression and childhood asthma, our campaign, made up of college faculty members, social scientists, and high school students, aims to cut the rate of each of these negative occurrences in half by providing the Prairie State with high paying contracting jobs through subsidizing the creation of a winterized dome intended to shield Chicago from harsh, in-climate weather.

Further, even if you know what an elevator pitch is, make sure that you have got it down and be sure that you know how to deliver it. Fumbling your own elevator pitch by spitting it out unnaturally is sometimes worse than not having one at all.

Here, the CBC business-reality series Dragon’s Den presents a pretty rad how-to video on putting together an elevator pitch.

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=Tq0tan49rmc[/youtube]

Talk To Your Fellow Travelers // Approach and Be Approachable

• Now that you’ve got your elevator pitch, who are you going to deliver it to? It is time to stop being an iSnob; stop shutting the world out of your life by way of your earbuds and start opening up random avenues of conversation. Meet people you’re sitting next to on trains and buses (being conscious, of course, of whether or not they themselves care to be chatty), find out what they do, and talk to them about what you’re up to. Their avenue of work might have little to nothing to do with what you do/are looking for, but it will never hurt you to have another contact, and further, they might know someone to connect you to.
• When in a conference or party setting, introduce yourself to people with your pitch in the very back of your mind (the pitch is like a gun — you only want to use it when it is absolutely time to do so). Find out who you are conversing with is and what they’re interested in. What is there favorite movie, city, book? What are some things about them that you might not have known based on their exterior? These questions seem elementary, but sometimes schmoozing makes us like sniveling, anti-social, predatory vermin, waiting to pounce with our own story and effectively dehumanizing the other. Needless to say, this is not a positive way to communicate.
• Finally, jazz up your name tag to better facilitate random conversation. Write on it a line that expresses your affinity for Neil Diamond. Paste onto it a picture of your dog. Do something that makes you stand out, easier to approach, and more fun to connect with.

Chillax With The Business Card

This suggestion, of course, presupposes you know how important it is to be carrying with you oodles of beautifully-designed business card at all times.

• During a conference lunch, I was asked by a random attendee, “Did you happen to talk to that guy who shoved that business card in your hand?” I had talked to this guy, and sadly, this is the trait that I most remember about him. On one hand, the person in question was offering a service that I could use. On the other hand, at least two people (including myself) know this guy by his bad social skills, not his name. If someone else were to have come along with better, more subtle networking etiquette, they would likely have more positively stuck out in my mind and I would likely be more eager to be in touch with that person.
• There’s no need to be Quick-Draw McGraw with the business card. In fact, doing the exchange operates similarly to the way that you should pitch — slow and steady (and thorough) wins the race. When you do exchange cards, be sure to remember a thing or two about the person and write it down so that you can ask them about or mention these items in a follow-up email. The idea of doing this puts a lot of people off, but I don’t suggest it strictly for shmoozy purposes. I find it helpful to maintain a relationship with someone that isn’t centered wholly on trying to strike up a working relationship, and a positive side effect of doing so is that it leaves a lasting impression of authenticity.
• While some of the business card tips linked here are old-hat, some of them are quite helpful. Check them out.

Be Clear // Hear, Understand, and Maneuver Around “No”

From the sidelines, I watched an excruciating interaction between a chronic pitcher—someone who was pitching his project to anyone and everyone that he met—and a foundation representative. The CP approached said representative, saying, “If you have time, I want to show you that thing I was telling you about yesterday.” The representative asked, “What thing are you talking about?” Perhaps too anxious to understand, the CP asked, “You don’t have time?” A few more lines of confusion were exchanged until the CP’s shot of showing whatever he had to offer, and the representative told him, “I need to do some other work right now.”

Ouch.

The situation only became more awkward when this wasn’t interpreted as a no, and it took another exchange for CP to realize that it might be time to move on (for now). So first, be clear. Don’t fumble. If you do fumble, don’t get so nervous that you get into a pattern of fumbles. Second, understand and maneuver around no by stepping back, regrouping, and returning when the time is right.

It’s All About Relationships

Connections pursued, motivated by the contact, status, and/or potential money alone, reek of insincerity. Further, seeds of insincerity do not reap connections, status, or financial support. Evangelizing your project or goal requires building relationships based on trust, which requires conveying to everyone you meet a sense of:

• Confidence by way of showing them that you know your stuff.
• Respect by hearing them out, reading their signals, and not treating them as targets.

By conveying the strongest possible sense of confidence and respect by sincerely taking the above suggestions into consideration, making connections should be relatively easy (though not effortless), and a little more fumble-free.

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