{"id":3756,"date":"2025-08-12T16:02:46","date_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:02:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/?p=3756"},"modified":"2025-08-12T16:02:47","modified_gmt":"2025-08-12T16:02:47","slug":"what-i-learned-about-networking-my-first-year-in-sales-hint-its-not-about-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/what-i-learned-about-networking-my-first-year-in-sales-hint-its-not-about-you\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Learned About Networking My First Year in Sales (Hint: It\u2019s Not About You)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nAutomate Your Business With AI<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

When I landed my first sales job, I thought I had networking figured out\u2014show up, shake hands, hand out business cards, and boom, instant business. My first event was a local business mixer. I walked in with my stack of cards ready, but after a few awkward introductions and some polite nods, I realized people weren\u2019t exactly racing to follow up with me. I went home thinking, This is going to be harder than I thought.<\/em><\/p>

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A few weeks later, a seasoned rep on my team gave me some advice that flipped the whole thing for me: \u201cStop trying to sell and start trying to understand.\u201d At the next event, I walked in with a new game plan\u2014ask questions, listen more than I talk, and forget about pitching. I asked people about their business, how they got started, and what challenges they were facing. To my surprise, conversations flowed more naturally, and people seemed genuinely interested in talking to me.<\/p>

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\nAutomate Your Business With AI<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

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\nAtlanta Property Management<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>

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Over time, I learned that networking isn\u2019t an event\u2014it\u2019s a habit. After each conversation, I\u2019d follow up with something small but meaningful. Maybe I\u2019d send an article that related to their industry, introduce them to someone who could help them, or just check in to see how things were going. These touches didn\u2019t feel like \u201csales moves\u201d\u2014they felt like I was simply staying connected. Slowly, people began reaching out to me, not just the other way around.<\/p>

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Now, I\u2019m intentional about where I spend my networking time. I focus on events, groups, and communities where the people I want to know actually spend their time. It\u2019s less about collecting contacts and more about building relationships that matter. Looking back, my rookie mistake was thinking networking was about me<\/em>. The truth is, it\u2019s about them<\/em>\u2014and when you focus on helping others win, the wins come back to you in ways you never expected.<\/p>

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When I landed my first sales job, I thought I had networking figured out\u2014show up, shake hands, hand out business cards, and boom, instant business. My first event was a local business mixer. I walked in with my stack of cards ready, but after a few awkward introductions and some polite nods, I realized people weren\u2019t exactly racing to follow…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,11,15,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-economy","category-education","category-local-news","category-services"],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/08\/pexels-photo-327540-327540-scaled.jpg",2560,1704,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/08\/pexels-photo-327540-327540-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/08\/pexels-photo-327540-327540-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/08\/pexels-photo-327540-327540-768x511.jpg",640,426,true],"large":["https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/08\/pexels-photo-327540-327540-1024x682.jpg",640,426,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/08\/pexels-photo-327540-327540-1536x1022.jpg",1536,1022,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/08\/pexels-photo-327540-327540-2048x1363.jpg",2048,1363,true],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2025\/08\/pexels-photo-327540-327540-240x172.jpg",240,172,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Michael A Forman","author_link":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/author\/michaela\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"When I landed my first sales job, I thought I had networking figured out\u2014show up, shake hands, hand out business cards, and boom, instant business. My first event was a local business mixer. I walked in with my stack of cards ready, but after a few awkward introductions and some polite nods, I realized people…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3756"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3758,"href":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3756\/revisions\/3758"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/snaplive.news\/atlanta-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}