For many new businesses Christmas Parties are seen as opportunities to let your hair down and fill the order books for the forthcoming year. Unfortunately this type of behaviour can be very damaging as well as disillusioning for business owners.

I would like to share with you the experience of a consultant entrepreneur. For simplicity I’ll call him Sean Rollar although that’s not his real name.

Sean set up his business 3 months ago in a flourish of enthusiasm and hope. However running his own business has been a lot harder than he anticipated and he is yet to secure his first real client. He still has some of his redundancy money left but he knows that he must secure a client by the end of January or he will have to return to corporate life, something that he wants to avoid at all costs.

Sean was looking forward to attending his local Chamber’s Christmas Party, there would be a lot of businesses there that could buy his services and it would be a great opportunity to socialise and enjoy himself after a hard 3 months. Securing a client there would be a great way to round of the year.

He took care to dress well and pack lots of business cards anticipating that out of the 100 people attending he would meet at least 50 of them. Sean practiced his elevator pitch and set off for the party. Arriving at the party was daunting as he didn’t know anyone but he was determined to make his mark.

He bought himself a drink to settle his nerves and strode confidently towards a couple of people talking. After twenty minutes he moved on and spent the rest of the evening chatting and drinking, eventually ending with a turn on the dance floor. After a successful night he returned home calculating that he had given out 40 cards. Sean was looking forward to the next Christmas Party he was attending that night, believing that if he was as successful at that party as the Chamber one he will have no problem filling his order book next year.

That night as he changed for bed he reflected on his experience at the second Christmas Party. He was surprised to see that there were many people there that he had met the night before but they had been very reluctant to talk to him. In fact he received a very strange reception and wondered what had happened to cause his experience to be so different.

Below are three things that Sean could have done which would have had a positive impact on his attendance at the party.

Sean needed to put the Christmas Party in its proper context

Whilst Sean understood that the Christmas Parties may bring work opportunities he did not consider it in the same vein as a work meeting. Having made that decision he did not consider that his actions at the party would or could have an effect on his business reputation. This meant that he did not watch how much alcohol that he had drunk, treating others to a version of himself that he would not present at a formal meeting.

The reason why he was being ignored might have been his boisterous dancing! It is important to remember that wherever your business contacts accumulate your behaviour is on show. People will make a determination on how likely you are to behave in a business by watching what you do in social events.

Not really networking – just bumping into people

Sean did not want to ‘waste’ the networking opportunity of the party so he handed out his business card to everyone that he met, in an over eager manner. To potential clients and advocates the manner that he did this made him look desperate for business. This is essentially ‘unattractive’ as well as damaging to his business over the long term. It also made him seem preoccupied to his own business and not listening when others were speaking about theirs.

Be clear how you want to be remembered

Whenever you attend networking events or business meetings consider beforehand how you would like to be remembered. For example in Sean’s case he wanted to be remembered as a Management consultant who specialises in change management. The problem he has is that his business proposition of ‘management consultant’ is not memorable. There are many management consultants out there so he needs to try harder and be more unique to be remembered.

Sean was becoming memorable for his behaviour and not his business, therefore reducing his ability to gain advocates and new clients. Sean needed to develop a networking strategy that ensured that he was around those that could provide him with referrals and advocacy and enabled him to articulate clearly his business proposition. Sean needed to stand out from the crowd for the right reasons.

Your reputation and credibility is key to your success, particularly in the current economic climate. It’s what makes you different from your competitors and whilst it can take years to build a good name, it can take just a few seconds to destroy it, so make sure your actions and behaviour during the festive celebrations work to increase your attractiveness as a potential supplier or business partner. Networking (even at Christmas) is about building relationships and not trying to sell to your network. Create the right impression and your network will do the selling for you!