From Business Cards to Business Relationships: Personal Branding and Profitable Networking Made Easy, 2nd Edition

The Verbal Disengage

It's easy to end conversations that fall into scenarios 1 and 2. Know that it's better to end the conversation on a high note and leave lots to talk about when you reconnect outside the event. If you hang on too long, you may overstay your welcome. This is a perfect situation for a verbal disengage. Simply have your closing lines ready to end the conversation politely. Some examples of conversation closers are:

• “I'd like to chat with you more about this. Why don't we grab a coffee sometime outside this busy event?” By offering a comment that suggests you'll meet again somewhere else at another time, the contact will not be offended at all and you've already established a reason to connect later.
• “Do you have a business card?” is the perfect way to say, “I'm interested in communicating with you further, but our time together at this event has come to an end.”
• “That's great. It was Bill, right?” Offer a short closing comment that offers validation to the conversation (“That's impressive” or “No doubt you should be pleased with those results”) and then re-establish his name. This is helpful if you didn't catch his name at the beginning.
• “Well, Joe, it's been great talking with you. I'm glad I ran into you” is a natural closing line that prompts an almost immediate close.

I find this last exit line extremely effective even outside business functions when you just casually run into people, or when you want to close a meeting. The whole idea is to change the tone ...