Connecting with People to Build Your Network
There is no doubt that connecting with more people will increase your network, but this means more than just following you on social networks or having someone sign up to your newsletter. It means following up where you can.
I know it’s not easy to know who’s in your network when you have thousands of followers on a social media platform, but I’m talking about the part of your network where you can reach out and ask for or offer help to someone you know.
Too often, the focus of networking is to try and sell. This should be the last possible motivation when making your connections. You will make more money by having a deep and wide network of connections, but not because you’re selling to them.
The operative word when connecting with others is “give”. Always be willing to give way more than you take. Deposit into your social capital bank and make fewer withdrawals. Become the person everyone wants to ask for answers to their questions.
Learn about what people are looking for and give it to them. Send them a personal email stating that you found what they were looking for. This goes a long way and deviates from the standard autoresponder email response.
When you take the extra steps to reach out to people on a personal level, they take notice and let others know about it as well. The more this happens, the more you become the resource that people will rely on, and your network expands. Selling becomes non-existent. They know who you are and are so overly comfortable with you that you don’t even have to ask for the sale. It just happens because of recommendations from your network.
This is not to say that once you’ve developed that trust you can sell them anything just to make money. This may work in the short term, but people will catch on quickly and you will lose your network a lot quicker than you built it.
Another unintended consequence (a good one) that will happen as you increase your network, is that you can help others to do the same. You become the connector.
Don’t look at building your network and making connections as a short-term plan to try and increase your business. If you’re at the stage where you need new clients or customers immediately, then networking isn’t going to work for you. You’re better off making those cold calls.
However, if you’re willing to play the long-game, networking will be one of the best investments of your time that you could make.
Do you have a networking plan? If so, what is it?
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Steve Black
My passion is to help small businesses get access to the systems, tools and resources to help them get better referrals, better customers and have better businesses.
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