10 Tips to Network Successfully for Lawyers and Other Professionals

Networking is the art of conversing with people reciprocally, where a conversation is an exchange of ideas, leads, and/or suggestions that support the professional and personal lives of both parties.

1. The best networkers do not attend networking events with a “What’s in it for me (WIFM)?” mentality. Rather, they approach networking with a “What’s in it for them (WIFT)?” mentality, i.e., focusing on how they can be helpful and/or useful to other people.
2. They focus on treating other attendees as people, not as contacts who can do something for them.
3. They focus on being sincerely interested in other people.
4. Before attending, they have a plan and approach for capture any new business contacts and important conversations by inputting that information into their automated contact systems and/or connecting to those contacts on LinkedIn and other relevant social media.
5. When attending events and conferences, they plan ahead to mingle and circulate.
6. They are friendly and open, focusing on listening to people, one on one, and with sincere interest.
7. They pay attention by listening to understand another’s perspective. They listen with their eyes and ears, and remember and/or take note of what they discussed, heard about, and learned. They listen for commonalities and mutual interests, and expand upon them.
8. They are open to serendipity, things that happen coincidentally, or what they hear/learn about unexpectedly.
9. They are disciplined with initiating follow-up and following through.
10. They thank and/or acknowledge everyone who has given them their time, ideas, leads, resources, referrals, word of mouth, etc., and stay in touch.