Top Networking Mistakes to Avoid in B2B Events

When I first started attending networking events, I made a lot of mistakes that held me back in generating positive results in my B2B meetings. I thought I would like to share some lessons learned so that anyone new doesn’t make the same mistakes I did.

No clear message

This is something I am looking to improve on still but sometimes it can be difficult to build a network or leads if people really don’t understand what you or company stand for. This could be market, services, product, value, problem to solve etc. In the past I had tried setting up a business before to develop robots but also did freelance work that had 0 relevance to my objectives or company mission. This made it difficult to network as I didn’t have a clear vision and objective of my goals. Always think about what you want to achieve with your service or product so that you understand what you want to do so that you can sell that to customers.

Understand the audience

The type of audience at the conference or event you will attend will have an impact of how well you can present your message. I struggle with talking to people who don’t have a background or basic understanding 

Value your time

Time is the most valuable resource we have; it is something we lose and never get more. A big mistake I made in my first B2B meetings was being too enthusiastic with the multiple invites that I accepted all. I realised at the end of the event that 30%-40% of my meetings were relevant to my field of work or I could see potential in working together in the future. Having meetings with organisations that were not relevant doesn’t just waste your time but also the other person(s) time.

When sending out or receiving B2B meeting invites it’s best to research and review person and company. Then ask yourself what the goal of the meeting is, what do want to achieve in the meeting, how can both product or service meet each other’s needs and how can both parties’ benefit. Remember both parties should get something out of this meeting rather selfishly only looking out for yourself.

Even with research you aren’t going to have 100% success rate, but the goal is to optimise your time at the events by avoiding meetings when it is clear both parties industries and goals don’t align.

Remember your mental stamina

Just like valuing your time is important, remember you also have a limited mental energy your needs, story and questions. Packing the day full of B2B meetings is mentally taxing. If you hate small talk like me this will get tedious after lunch in the 1st day if it’s a multi-day conference. In the past I done a day full of meetings and towards the afternoon I was mentally burned out and can reflect I would have not given the best impression of myself and not got much value of my time. 

It’s best to space out your meetings to give yourself a break after a couple of sessions. This is also why you shouldn’t always accept every request. 

Focus on network building

I learned the hard way and quickly realised that networking events and conferences nearly everyone is there to sell. We all need sales and customers to pay the bills and wages, but they are generally a selling market. This can make it difficult to sell your products or services as a lot of the attendees are wanting to make sales or generate leads.

Another thing to avoid in B2B events (especially the 15 min meetings at conferences) is dominating the meeting with a sales pitch of your product or service. 15 minutes is not a long time, and you could end up with the awkward final minutes of silence of finding out you don’t meet the person’s needs or no know what they do and how to work together. 

I find it’s more fruitful just to build your network at these events and look into future collaborations.

Open mind

To contradict the “value your time” section of this blog it’s sometimes good to meet organisations who don’t fully match your profile, needs or market. This will broaden your network in terms of capability and reach which could result in leads or collaborations in the future. Who knows your new contacts may be in talks with a potential customer and your name pops up during the conversation or you may be the one to help them. 

If I meet someone at a B2B event and they aren’t relevant to what I do I still want to keep them in my network as I may need their support in the future and can refer them to customers if their requirements don’t exactly meet my expertise. 

Don’t focus on technical meetings

If you sell or develop hardware, it’s easy to just meet organisations who are purely technically focussed as you want to generate leads to make sales. Connections in finance, law, marketing, IP, insurance, events management etc are important to have in your network as they can plug the gaps in your capabilities that can be easily overlooked. 

Pick the right events

Sometimes it can be easy to go to any networking event or conference but sometimes if you haven’t researched them properly you could end up spending a day or two at an event that added no value. I used to attend general networking events when I was a freelancer and while it was great to broaden my network, they weren’t the best for engineering. However, I learned to use those events to practice pitching and learned from experienced business owners as they told me about their past mistakes.

Seek collaborations

Sometimes instead of competing against a similar sized company who provides the same services you could both come to an agreement to work together. If you are a SME it might be difficult to obtain lucrative projects as the larger companies have the resources, clout and marketability. Therefore, each SME who do the same service but with their own unique selling points could combine their capabilities and cover each other’s weaknesses and increase their chances of obtaining those larger projects. 

Attend Pitching events  

Pitching events are good places to make new connections but they can also give you valuable practice for delivering pitches or practice your public speaking. They can be good places to learn from your mistakes so that you are more comfortable to pitch in front of investors or funding bodies to raise capital.

Plan

I also failed to plan my objectives when attending events or even researched who was attending them. If I had done so in the past I could have maximised my time accordingly. Remember taking time to attend networking events cost money and time which could have been put to better uses if you don’t gain anything useful from them. This can be avoided by researching events and avoiding them if they aren’t relevant. Plan your objectives properly so that you can get the most out of the event and B2B meetings.

If you are taking a break between your B2B meetings why not enjoy a beverage in our Scottish anime astronaut themed coffee mug.

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