I have grown my business a great deal through networking. As Virtual Assistants and business owners, many of us are turning to on-line networking as an alternative to face to face networking. However, many of us are forgetting one key thing when we are networking … stop talking about yourself!!

I know that seems an odd thing to say since networking is all about talking about what you do and attracting clients so I think it is important that I clarify that remark.

When we are networking, we need to stop being selfish and thinking about ourselves … when you start taking the perspective of thinking about the person listening to you, it is amazing the change in the results you will see from your networking efforts.

Instead of talking about the services your provide or the products you sell, take the time to talk about how your products or services help others. Let me explain …

When I first started networking, my elevator speech always consisted of a laundry list of services I provided for my clients, but now my elevator speech has some very different elements:

Element #1 - Tell a Story
Instead of saying “I provide administrative assistance including such things as letter writing, formatting and editing, website updates, bookkeeping and database creation and management”, say “I work with construction companies assisting them by setting up and maintaining their bookkeeping systems and managing their projects to ensure that deadlines are always met and not forgotten”. By telling a story you give your clients a face and an image and the people listening to you start to think of people they know that are in a similar situation.

Element #2 - Provide Specific Examples
The next thing you should do is give a solid example. Instead of just saying “I work with construction companies assisting them by setting up and maintaining their bookkeeping systems and managing their projects to ensure that deadlines are always met and not forgotten” … add the following … “For example, last week I worked with an owner of a construction company whose wife was working to assist him even though she had a full-time job of her own. She was coming home after work and spending great deals of time attempting to assist her husband, although bookkeeping and project management were not her strong suits.”

Element #3 - Don’t Forget to Ask for the Referral
The biggest mistake we make when networking is forgetting to ask for the referral. Following our example, a wonderful conclusion to this elevator speech would be, “So if you know of anyone whose wife is helping them in business and hating every minute of it, please give them my name and number and ask them to call me.”

When we describe our clients very specifically to others it is amazing the results. People are more likely to start thinking of names when they have something specific to look for then when you simply state small business owners.

I’m sure that just by implementing these three elements, remembering to answer the almighty question “why do I care … what’s in it for me” and stop being so selfish, you will see some awesome results from your networking. When you do, I would love to hear about them!!