My Top Tips: Rick Armstrong

1 Have a clear goal for your networking. What do you want to achieve? To gather X number of business cards, to target that one person you know can help, or to arrange a coffee with a select group? Having a plan means you are much more likely to achieve the outcome you want.

2 Make the first move, don't be shy. When you enter a room, be confident yet personable. Make yourself known to the event organisers, tell them the types of business people you might want to meet and ask them to introduce you. If they can't help, head towards the first people you see in the room, smile and introduce yourself.

3 You don't like being sold to, so don't do that to others. Get to know who you're talking with, what they do, the business they are looking for. This way you will understand whether they have a need for your offering and whether you can refer them to any contacts of yours who might be able to help them.

4 Ask all the questions and attentively listen to the answers. Listen twice as much as you speak – you'll be surprised at what you find out and what a good impression you will leave.

5 Meeting new business contacts potentially opens you up to their entire network of contacts, so even if you can't work together directly, their colleagues/associates/friends/spouse may be looking for someone in your industry.

6 Don't write off your competitors. Too many people in business shy away from speaking with their competition at networking events.

7 Harvard Business School says that 50 per cent of opportunity is lost when we don't follow up. After you've been to a networking event, follow up with contacts within 48 hours.

8 Make time to sit down with new contacts on a one-to-one basis and find out more about their company and what they're working on and with whom. All information is good information but some provides golden nuggets.

9 Try to pass new business to new contacts to kick-start the relationship-building process. It will let them know you are on the look-out for opportunities for them and what goes around comes around, they will reciprocate.

10 Extend your marketing team by forming power groups – groups of people who can pass work to each other on a regular basis, for example, accountants and solicitors.