If you were sitting in an important meeting with your biggest client and you got a text message, would you stop listening to your client and completely tune him out in order to respond to the text message?
What if you got a phone call . . . would you stop mid-presentation as you were pitching your most important client about your newest product in order to answer the call?? Of course you wouldn’t! That would be a blatantly rude move on your part and it would put your most valued client relationship at risk.
So, why in the world would anybody ever even consider looking at their mobile phone during a networking meeting?? Make no mistake, a good reason for looking at, picking up, or using your mobile phone in any way during any type of networking meeting does not exist!
One of the fastest ways to ruin your credibility and earn yourself a reputation as being rude, unprofessional, and undeserving of referrals is to use your mobile phone during a networking meeting.
If you want results from your networking efforts, which I’m assuming you do if you’re reading this blog, then that is the last thing you would ever feel about or say to anyone in your network. But, if you’re using your mobile phone during meetings with people in your referral network, I promise you – not only is that the exact message you are sending them, you’re also wasting their time and yours.
So, do yourself a favour and check your phone one last time before your networking meeting . . . check that it is completely turned off and don’t turn it back on until you leave the meeting. Remember, networking meetings and mobile phones don’t mix!
It virtually screams to your networking partner(s): I don’t care what you have to say because I have better things to do right now and this meeting is not worth my time.
5 comments
Thank you Ivan.
Whole heartedly agree!
Paul
Sory that one is a bit boring written by someone who works office hours and wears a suit. Some of us at our meetings are trades people small business who do not have receptionists and are on call. I am an electrician and some times have to take a call. Another of my friends runs a car recovery service so at 7am in the morning he is the only man on.
Thanks for your feedback John. Interestingly – one of the comments regarding the BNI NZ video is that no photographer would interrupt a shoot to answer the telephone – which is along similar lines to what Ivan is saying here – however I guess that we all have our own interpretation as to what is acceptable, what is necessary and what should not happen.
Kind Regards,
Graham
Sorry John but I am an avid cellphone and email user and the worst feeling is when you have someones undivided attention and they reach for the phone when it beeps that a text is coming in or call. Have you ever been asking a salesman a question that you need an instant answer to, because your time is precious only to have it interrupted by them answering another call? they don’t get my business because they didn’t value the business of the person standing in front of them. I have changed my habits to value the time of the people whom I am meeting with.
I also run an owner/operator type business, but its my personal policy to turn my cellphone to silent or off when I meet with a client. I hate it when I am in a shop and the shop person answers a phone call and puts me (a real live paying customer) to the side – I usually leave.
At our BNI meetings anyone who forgets to turn off their phone is fined $5 if it rings during a meeting!
Time and a place for everything. If you have a phone you should know how to put a temporary greeting on it to cover client/BNI meetings or whatever, it doesn’t take much.
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