5 Tips to Make your Networking Work

As a small business owner and coach with lots of experience working with other small business owners, there is no doubt in my mind that networking is the single marketing approach that can produce the biggest benefit to you.

And like anything else in life, if you aren’t paying attention to the right things, it can seem like a total waste of time. So listen up, here are my top 5 tips to make certain that networking pays the rewards you’re looking for!

1. First of all, begin to think about networking less as a thing you do and more as a state of being. Networking is really a way of living, a way of engaging with anyone and everyone. Because you never know who is connected to whom in this world. That old notion of 6os of separation is not a notion. It is how the world operates! So the kid who packs your groceries, the guy who pumps your gas (if you’re like me and still are prepared to pay a premium for service!), that person who handles your dry-cleaning order may be connected to people who are just waiting to hear about you. Do you treat them all with respect and dignity? Do you let them know what you do and what kind of contacts you’re looking for? Treating everyone you meet as a potential source of business means that you can’t be one person with customers and another person with everyone else. It means that you must be willing to be authentically who you are at all times. It also means that you must get over any rules you have about sharing what’s important to you with relative strangers.

2. Second, be honest with yourself about what you have to offer to another person. If you are only interested in what you can get out of every interaction it is unlikely that you’ll achieve the success you seek. Great networkers know that they need to give to get. And what they need to give varies according to the person they are interacting with. Sometimes it is simply recognition that another person exists and makes a difference in your life. Sometimes it is a willingness to share your knowledge and information. Other times it is a willingness to connect other people with them. And your willingness to give need not be restricted to a specific moment in time. I can’t tell you how often I’ve met someone, made a note of a comment they’ve made in passing and then contacted them weeks later with a relevant article, business card or piece of relevant information. I know that I am building rapport with people and I know that it can pay handsome dividends. Just recently I acquired a new client who came to me through a third-party referral. I’ve never met this third party but have shared a few supportive e-mails and have referred this person to my web-site which I’ve designed to be loaded with helpful information.

3. Thirdly, join organizations which have a focus on networking as a marketing approach. Pick one that has a meeting format that works for you: time of day, approach to information sharing, rules of engagement, etc. Commit to showing up on a regular basis and being able to complete this statement “the kind of referral I’m seeking looks like x”. Be as specific as you can, e.g. “I’m looking for middle-aged women with a weight issue” or “I’m looking for someone who owns their own business, is successful and is looking for new ways to grow their bottom line”. The more specific you can be about who you’re looking for, the easier it is for those hearing you speak to call up an image of someone in their sphere of influence who might be the perfect candidate to match your description.

4. Fourth, maintain control of the networking process. When you are in a general meet ‘n greet session, at a party or any other sort of event, collect as many cards as possible. Note the date and event on the card; file them in an binder, you never know when they might come in handy. Connect with that person within 48 hours of the event. Offer them something additional in your initial contact: an article, a connection to someone else, to be put on your newsletter list. Find a reason for staying in contact longer term so that you can show them your reliability, your range of products and services, your willingness to make an effort and your ability to build a case for what you have to offer. Always make it easy for people to opt out of further contact if they don’t have an immediate need for your services. It is amazing how they’ll remember you in the long term if their needs change when you’ve give them a graceful ‘out’ in the beginning.

5. Finally, be willing to invest yourself in staying connected with a wide variety of people. If you aren’t willing to do this, be honest with yourself that networking isn’t likely for you and find a marketing approach that is more suited to your temperament (direct marketing, cold calling, web selling). This will require that you find yourself interesting, because if you don’t think you’re interesting, how do you think that others will find you so? You need to find other people fascinating and to temporarily be prepared to step into their world to understand their needs. Great networkers have a way of staying connected to a disparate gang of people and are typically interested in a wide variety of people, even if they don’t share the same worldview. For example, people who know me know that exercise is probably my least favorite activity in the world. But my networking list is littered with people in the fitness industry because as a life and business coach I am always connecting to people for whom fitness and wellness are issues they struggle with in life. Because I stay connected with those folks I keep up to date on trends and I can refer clients and other contacts on to professionals who love stuff that bores me.

Like anything else in life, networking takes time and effort if you are to be successful at it. However, if you have a bit of computer savvy and a modicum of authentic interest in other people, you can become a highly effective networker without exhausting yourself. I download all sorts of interesting articles I find on the Internet and happily forward them on to people I meet as I go about my life. I write many articles myself and send them along to people I come in contact with. I maintain a web-site that is resource rich and always being up-dated (www.ouicoach.com) as well as a blog about retirement lifestyle issues, one of my favorite topics (www.allaboutretirement.wordpress.com) I invest in creating a monthly newsletter and I participate in 5 different networking groups on a regular basis. Networking as a way of being has been a part of my life for decades and I can’t imagine a life without the large and diverse cast of characters I call into it on an on-going basis. Here’s to successful networking!

Successful networking needs a genuine interest in people; it is a way of living. Are you willing to give something to get something in return? Do you know what you have to give? Do you join networking groups and work their process? Do you know what you’re seeking from other people? Are you prepared to invest in long-term connections?