Knockout Networking for Financial Advisors and Other Sales Producers

CHAPTER 12How to Handle Awkward Situations: Forgetting Names and Other Weird Moments

“My philosophy about networking is that it is necessary in business. The challenge is that people don't understand that networking is a learned skill.”

—Paul Blanco, Founder and CEO, Barnum Financial Group

When you are in a networking environment – or at any event or party where others are mingling around – awkward situations can arise. People are keenly aware of that, and a lot of the fear that surrounds networking, as we discussed earlier, is tied up in not knowing what to do if something awkward happens. If you can overcome such situations, networking will be less intimidating, and you will do more of it, which will increase your chances of meeting people who can help you grow your business.

In this chapter, I'll discuss the questions I get asked most often about networking and how to handle what can be difficult situations if you don't have a lot of experience with them.

Don't feel like you're the only one who is concerned about doing something that creates an awkward situation. Recently, I was consulting a group of managers and agents who work for a highly sophisticated company. These are very seasoned professionals, some of whom are quite successful, yet they had a lot of questions about how to introduce themselves, how to excuse themselves if they didn't want to continue a conversation, and what they should do if they forget someone's name. Even the most sophisticated, extroverted, ...