Attending an eCommerce networking event can help you better understand how to sell products for higher profit margins and meet others in your industry. When attending these networking events, it’s important to meet people and help one another become more successful. Here are tips to help you make meaningful connections at an eCommerce trade show.
Find the Big Dogs
Of course, you want to meet as many people as possible to learn from one another. However, if time is a factor, you’ll want to narrow your networking down to the critical few. These people could be the expert speakers, or you may know them from other events.
The people who have been successful in their efforts to make money through eCommerce should always be on your radar. They have tons of stories about their journeys and can help you avoid mistakes that they have made while teaching you about their successes.
Make Contacts
Networking is about more than introducing yourself to people. You’ll want to make contacts that you can use in the future. Whether these are suppliers or others who are selling online, you may need their expertise in the future. Feel free to make friends with your competitors, too. You never know what you can learn from one another.
Be Engaging and Intriguing
While you’ll want to have conversations with as many people as possible, you should make sure to be engaging. There are tons of people at these events, and you’ll need to stick out. Bring with you your best successes and failures so that people will be interested in learning more about you.
If you truly want to make a connection, you’ll have to pique someone else’s curiosity about you and/or your business.
Help Others
If you truly want to connect with someone, it’s important that you’re able to help them as well. While you may believe that the successful contacts you’ve made already have everything they need, you could help them in another way.
It’s worth finding out more about them to see what you can do to make their experience better. You can almost always find something worthwhile to offer. This will make those successful and busy contacts want to help you in the future, which can have a huge impact on your business.
See People as People
It can be difficult to see past someone’s position. However, you never know who is going to be truly successful in five or ten years’ time. While you should target the already successful, make sure to meet some underdogs as well.
You’ll meet those who may be first time sellers with the determination to succeed. These are the people you’ll want to align yourself with in the future as you grow your own business.
Be Yourself
The best thing you can be at a networking event is yourself. Whether you enjoy using humor to get along with people or just want to talk business, it’s important that you make your intentions known so that people can get to know the real you. This will help you determine who is worth meeting and keeping contact with in the future.
