On Being Fake
Attend enough networking events and you are bound to run across someone who has the fake-it-till-you-make-it philosophy. They talk a big game, use all the right language, and seem to know what they are talking about. They do a good job at figuring out whose business is similar to theirs and make sure they don’t end up in the same conversation as the more experienced person in their field. They know just enough about something most people do not know anything about and they use that to turn you into a prospect.
Although any person starting out in a new business doesn’t want to announce to the room they just started doing what it is they are there representing they do not want to fake it either. Faking it is not only be misleading, but the opportunities for it to backfire abound.
When I first began networking I was doing Internet marketing plans for small local businesses and virtual clients. At one of the first networking events I attended there was someone talking to everyone about this great program where you could promote someone else’s product on the web and when someone buys you get a cut, affiliate marketing. I told her I did similar work, explained by basic ‘Net cred’, and then listened to her fake it for a few minutes while I stood there wondering if she really even understood what she was promoting. Here was the trap she fell into, she faked it thinking that what I did was design and programming, not marketing and networking.
There is only one real way to avoid this pitfall, only talk about the things you know about. Do not try to use networking as a way to promote a new thing you are trying out to see if it works, the relationships you ruin along the way and the bad impressions you leave will never be made up for with quick sales or tons of bad leads.
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POSTED IN: General Networking
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