Branch Out: Networking Conversation Starters

It’s a new year and time to restart and revamp your networking efforts. Where will you show up to meet with old friends and new? What will you talk about? With your colleagues, you’ll probably talk about your families and how the holidays went. But, you want to meet new people, right?

It can be a struggle to open up a conversation. The standard starter, after greetings and name exchange tends to be, “So, what do you do?” The response usually sounds canned and often leads to a rather uninspired conversation.

Once upon a time, I knew a businessman who always started out with “So, what’s working for you?” The first time he approached me, I was suddenly at a loss for words and thinking hard. I thought he delighted in his ability to get this response. Okay, maybe it was better than “what do you do?” but, still, I didn’t like it. It seemed over the top. I didn’t know how to respond. The question seemed more of an intellectual exercise than a real connection experience.

What if you started out with “What do you love about your job (or about what you do)?” Too strong? Is this too over the top? This is less of an intellectual exercise and more of a connector.

Or, you could ask “What do you like about what you do?” That could open up feelings and emotions, rather than a canned response. But if you get, “Oh, I like helping people,” maybe you need to switch to “What do you LOVE about what you do?”

I can easily talk about what I love about what I do. How about you? Try it this year. Ask people. See where it leads. People like people who care. So, care enough to invite them to focus on what they themselves genuinely care about.

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