Have you ever heard the saying: “It’s not what you know, but who you know that counts”? Today, although what you know is much more important than it ever used to be, it is still true that contacts matter. Sadly, far too many people leave this process entirely to chance.

Make Contact
The first rule of networking is to make contact with as many people as possible. This is because people like to deal with people who they either know first hand or who have been recommended to them.

You need to prepare and practice your 30 second elevator pitch so that you can communicate what you do and the benefits you deliver quickly and interestingly.

Network With The Right People
When you go to a networking event, especially if you don’t know many people there, there can be a temptation to talk to those people you do know.

This is a waste of time. The whole point of going to networking meetings is to make new contacts and meet new people.
So when you go to a networking event, you should identify those people you don’t know and go and introduce yourself and ask them what their business is. They are likely to be pleased to meet a new face and to have the opportunity to talk about their business. They in turn will later ask you about your business. Who knows where the conversation may then lead.

Some 5% of people are active referrers. In other words, they enjoy recommending products and services. You need to identify these people and make sure that you establish a relationship with them.

Seven Points of Contact
The ‘Referral Path’ can be most interesting. Let’s explore how this fascinating chain of human contacts works.
Consider the following ‘brain teaser’. You have a package which you want to get to someone who is picked totally at random from the global population of some six billion people.

Let’s say that the person is a management consultant in Arizona. You don’t know them personally and you don’t have any contact details for them. The rules are that you must either give the package to someone you know personally – or mail it directly to them. They then have to pass it on to someone they know. Using this ‘pass the parcel’ system, the question is – how many people would the parcel have to be passed to – before it reaches the consultant in Arizona? Consider this for a moment – and jot your number down.

Research shows that this exercise can usually be done using a chain of only seven people.

This is one of the reasons why networking is so powerful: it’s not just the people who you meet as your network. It’s all the people that they know who they can potentially connect you with.

Relationship Webs
Imagine that you are in the centre of a ‘web’ of friendships, relationships and contacts. You then get to know someone new – who of course has their own relationship web. The result is that the two webs are linked by a new thread.

When you step back, you can see that there are millions of webs – each interconnected to each other. You are looking at our global, interconnected human society.

Joining The Right Groups
The key is to join those groups which are populated by members of your target market.
Having joined, go along to a number of events and start talking to people. The ritual of course is to ask what business the other person is in and exchange business cards

Give To Get
How will these contacts help your business? Well, neither of us know yet, do we? However, let me tell you this. Successful people tend to be helpful people. One of the reasons for this is that many people have helped them to get where they are today. They tend to be happy to give information, advice and (when you get to know them), introductions.

I suggest that you do what they do: give without expectation of return.

It’s impossible to give in this life, without getting something of equal or greater value back in return

So if you need help preparing your elevator pitch or want advice on where to find appropriate networking groups, call us today.