This was another question that I received last week from someone who has trouble with “their new best friends” at networking events. The question was how to gracefully escape from a conversation with someone who is monopolizing your time.
The answer to this one depends on the person you are trying to escape. Is she truly annoying (and someone you don’t want to pass off to another), or is he someone interesting who just has a hard time ending a conversation?
We’ll tackle the annoying person first. While the temptation is certainly to tell her to get lost, it’s never a good idea to burn a relationship. Someone who is annoying today could change and turn out to be a good contact later. So, try this. “I’ve really found this conversation interesting, but I don’t want to monopolize your time. I’m sure there are other people here you’d like to talk with.” And then you make a hasty get-away. You’ve been respectful of the other person while still being able to move on. If she was just nervous and not sure how to work an event, you’ve preserved the relationship for later, if she ever gets it. And if she’s just an obnoxious person, you’ve gotten away without causing a scene.
But what if the person is actually interesting and just isn’t good at ending a conversation? This is a good situation for the smooth hand-off. Assuming there is someone else at the event you know, you can make the following offer, “I’ve really enjoyed speaking with you. You know, you really need to speak to [fill in the blank]. You two will have a lot in common. She’s right over here. Let me introduce you.”
Obviously, this works better if you can personalize it with some reason the two people need to talk. If you can come up with that reason, you are golden. You’ve escaped from a conversation, and introduced two people who have a reason to connect.
While it is tempting to pull the above strategy to stick two annoying people together, I don’t recommend it. That could come back to haunt you later.
The above strategies should work for almost any situation where you need a quick escape at an event. Anyone have another strategy to share? Or have you been in a situation where neither of the above would have worked? I’m open to an idea for a follow-up post!
Tags: communication, Networking Events, reputation, time management