You go to an event, you meet people, you collect business cards, you return to your office and stash them with the 500 other business cards you have. Weeks go by and you don’t follow these people up. Why? Maybe they are in a totally different industry than yours, or maybe they’re not buying what you’re selling. I bet the only people you follow up are those that can directly benefit your business. Big mistake.
Networking is not about how YOU can benefit from the people in your address book. Networking is about how you can bring value by CONNECTING your network with each other.
Let’s imagine you meet someone at an event. This person offers you no benefits, you can’t sell to them and you don’t want what they’re selling. Try asking yourself a simple question. “Who in my network can benefit from this person”? You might be surprised, often there are plenty of people in your existing network that could benefit from knowing this person you’ve just met (or vice versa). Suddenly you have a valid reason to follow up with this new person and re-connect with someone in your existing network.
So where do you benefit? Well the business world is tough, not many people use their network to benefit others for zero return. So when someone does, people remember. And they will often find a way to return the favour. This is networking at its best.
Tags: networking
