Networking on a Taxi Ride
In our post Networking Where you Least Expect It, we’ve offered various places that are possible networking locations: sports groups, political activities, and in fact, any place is a good place for networking.
This week we’ve discovered that even a very short taxi ride can be an opportunity for making connections. My girlfriend took a short taxi ride in town. You know how taxi drivers like to talk - they’re born with excellent networking skills.
This specific taxi driver that took my girlfriend happens to make a living also from real estate. He started the conversation by showing noting that some new buildings that they passed upon are very expensive. This triggered a conversation about the prices of houses in the city.
In any taxi ride you can develop a conversation about the price of homes, sports and some healthy complaining about the government. This taxi driver had an agenda. He had a reason for triggering his passengers to talk about house prices.
In the case of my girlfriend, the rant about rising house prices was fruitful. My girlfriend and myself are looking for a apartment to rent together in the coming months. The talk about houses in the city lead her to mention this fact. The taxi driver jumped on the opportunity and told her about his other occupation.
Now she was more interested to hear about this issue from his knowledge. At the end of the ride, he offered her his business card, and she was glad to take it and keep it.
I’m not sure if we’ll use his services when we’ll do an extensive search for an apartment. We might use his services in searching but might strike a deal through someone else. But we still have a great story about networking.
As shown here, networking can happen anywhere.
We can also learn from this taxi driver’s style – he began the chat by talking about something on the route. After some discussion, his potential client showed interest in his business, and he presented it. And at the end he “made the move” with his business card.
This elegant networking is quite impressive.
