Working the room

A few years ago I attended a marketing seminar through my work, put on by networking consultant and marketing coach, Mark Maraia.  The purpose of the seminar was to get us excited about, and therefore actively doing,  marketing.  Now, I will hand it to Mark, he does a very interesting presentation, and it did get me excited.  But not about marketing.  Instead, as Mark gave his speech, I thought about how everything he was saying applied to dating. 

Mark's biggest focus is that we need to reframe marketing into networking.  Marketing is not about getting work now, it is about building relationships so we can get referrals and have ongoing work.  Translate that into dating.  It is not about getting that one date tonight, it is about building relationships so we can get referrals and have dates over time.

Mark has written a couple of books about networking.  If you're interested in marketing, or dating, I'd suggest reading them.  They are well written, with fairly short chapters that get right to the point and give examples on how to hone and focus your networking efforts.  As an example of how the precepts he teaches might apply to dating, here are a few of the chapter titles from his book, "Rainmaking Made Simple", with a few strategic word replacements.

• Your attitude is everything: How can I change my attitude toward dating?
• Learning from rejection
• Living your priorities: how do I make dating a priority?
• Keeping dates satisfied: How do I keep dates coming back for more?
• Generating referrals
• Avoid random acts of lunch: How can I avoid wasting my dating effort in random, unplanned dates?
• The myth of asking for the date: Do I have to ask for the date right away?
• Networking during social events
• Getting in front of the right audience

I think you get the picture.  Basically, he says you need to meet lots of people, have real conversations with them by asking "high energy" questions that will get the other person talking, be enthusiastic about your product (which, in the case of dating, is yourself), and maintain those relationships.  The more relationships you have, the more business (dates) you will get.

Mark also has a chapter called 'Conferencing with a purpose'.  He suggests that you will get a lot more out of a conference if you set goals for yourself before you go.  So I applied this principle and set a goal for myself at the last singles conference I attended - meet a male and develop a relationship to the point that we exchange contact information.  Well, having that goal gave me a purpose and direction.  I selected a couple of potential targets (is it bad to refer to potential dates as targets?), and set to work.  I accomplished my goal, only to realize that I need to be more specific next time, and try to exchange contact information with someone I'm actually interested in.  Apparently I need more practice in applying the Maraia principles.

Wondering where you can go to work the room?  Check out this site for a list of LDS single adult conferences. http://theldssinglessite.com/sa_usa_sc.html