Episode #298: Networking In A Time Of Covid

For the last two and a half years business networking has been dead. The usual suspects who hosted live networking events migrated everything online, so you become totally restricted in your ability to create any relationship with the people attending the event. The hosts kick it off, the speaker speaks, the Q&A gets underway, the hosts wrap it up and you are left hanging there, without any good means of connecting with possible clients on the call. The hosts these days, don’t release who is on the call, so you are left with the names shown on screen, which can often be single names, initials, even numbers and not much help to try and find them later on LinkedIn.

Lately, very tenuously, some face to face networking events have been taking place in Tokyo. Everyone is wearing masks, doing fist or elbow bumps and being careful, trying hard not to catch Covid from each other. It is a curious sales activity though, because you are literally weighing up the amount of new business you can find at the networking event, against how sick you will become if you catch Covid at the event. That is a hell of a thought for a salesperson. Nevertheless, that is where we are today and that is our reality. It feels like you are throwing the dice every time you go to one of these in-person events. Will I get the deal and not get Covid, is the equation in mind. Is it worth it? Are the risks warranted?

This is a scary prospect, because most people catch Covid from people who themselves may not even be aware they have it. The little temperature gauges being used at the door give the temperature reading, but the individual may be infected, but the fever hasn’t kicked in in yet. The best we can do is to make sure the host are checking people’s temperatures, have plenty of hand cleaners available, keep or mask on as much as possible and try to keep some distance from people. Eating and drinking is a problem, because off come the masks and then they don’t back on again. I was at the first networking function in a long time recently. Everyone was masked up until the food and booze emerged and then it was a free for all. Masks were off and conversations were in full throttle. I was thinking uh oh, have I now hit a super spreader event. I missed the bullet on that occasion, but that was good luck rather than good planning.

I suggest let’s make sure the temperature checks are being done properly at the venue, only eat and drink if everyone is seated at table, with sufficient distancing between guests and keep the masks on as much as possible. If it is a standup buffet arrangement, well we could all probably lose a couple of kilo anyway, so forgo the food and drink and keep your mask on the whole time. Keep washing your hands throughout the evening and avoid handshakes and go for fist and elbow bumps instead. If you have to shake hands, then discreetly wash your hands immediately afterwards.

We should have a brilliant ruler to run over prospective clients anyway, but if you don’t then start developing one. What we want is to know within one minute whether we are talking to a prospective client or not. Normally, back in the good old days of a big crowd and a hiving throng, we would try to meet as many people as possible. That meant we had to keep each interaction brief, in order to meet as many possible prospects in the room as we could in the time available. We were “working the room” at full pelt. We need to keep that mentality in the somewhat thinned out networking crowds today. I have one question, which immediately tells me if this is a possible client for me or not. I need to get that baby out early to decide if it is worth while spending any more than the minimum possible time with this potential Covid carrier.

The idea should be self preservation at all costs and to keep healthy, while trying to progress your business. This requires absolutely no apologies. We want to meet them, strike up a conversation, identify if they are a possible client and then lay the ground work for a follow-up contact later, from the safety of your home or office over Zoom. Yes, there will be people who will subsequently ghost you. That has certainly happened to me, but there are also others who will give you the time for the Zoom call and have a conversation, taking the initial conversation to a much greater depth.

There is a balancing act needed here between spending more time, so that they don’t ghost you and them giving you Covid. I would rather suffer the ignominy of being ghosted, than being out for a week with a Covid infection. If they ghosted you during your follow-up, were they really a prospective client after all? I would say the answer was no, so don’t worry about them and concentrate on finding people who need your solutions and need them now.

We are not out of Covid yet, in fact there is talk now of a 7th wave for Tokyo. Events are happening though and we can attend them, if we are super careful. Discretion is the better part of valour in these cases. Even if you are feeling young and bullet proof and you don’t pass it on to someone more vulnerable, you will still have to avoid others for a week and may not be feeling all that brilliant. That means a week has been lost at least. If you get long Covid, then we are talking a serious loss of productivity. Some people lose their sense of taste and smell and so they are relegated to a zombie like existence of eating to survive, but with no pleasure involved anymore. They are often feeling tired all of the time, so even working from home doesn’t work. Wear your mask all the time, stand apart when talking, make sure temperatures are being checked at the door, avoid shaking hands and keep washing your hands frequently will be a start to networking and staying healthy. How big a deal would it have to be before you would risk your health to find it through networking? No deal is worth getting sick for folks, so let's all stay healthy.