Is it better to look good or to be good? Sometimes reviewing the extreme ends of alternatives is the easiest way to answer questions of this nature. If you could only have one of these two qualities, would you be without form or without substance? My guess is that you will ultimately choose having substance over form.
A life of substance is not only critical for us as networkers, but also as human beings. Building relationships of substance, doing work of substance, creating results of substance, and leaving a legacy of substance makes wanting to look good pale in comparison.
Form is superficial and often masks the true person. Overtime and as if by magnetic attraction, people and opportunity gravitate to individuals of substance. When you have integrity, depth, and build value you are trusted not just by those who you know directly, but through the people who you know to the broader community.
Form is not useless; indeed those with good form are more readily interesting. Poorly wrapped presents aren’t the first opened. The danger, however, is that without a foundation of substance, no amount of form will help.
As we turn the page to 2013, we have an opportunity to evolve into the person we intend to be. Let’s focus on what we control and make 2013 the year of substance. The rest will take care of itself!
Best wishes to you for a healthy and prosperous 2013!
You don’t have to look any further than our current political landscape to see how much professionals are challenged to build trust. Similarly many networkers focus on proving their value by what they say not what they do. The most aggressive networkers will often dominate conversations by sharing everything they can about themselves. They’ll tell you every detail about their product and service and why they think that they are so good.
In the famous words of John Maxwell, “people don't care how much you know until they know how much you care.” We begin to build long-term trust when we help people get what they want. A friend of mine calls it, “helping people find their joy.” Is some cases an individuals joy is business related, but more often it is personal and their business endeavors are more of a means to an end.
Joy is uniquely defined by each individual. The specifics of learning how each of your key contacts defines their joy are situational. Most often the best way is to learn about their goals and interests over time. The more thoughtful and curious you are the more each individual will give you clues about their joy. Examples of how an individual might describe their joy could include: retiring at 50, spending more time with their family, sailing around the world, or seeing their kid’s graduate college.
Simply being aware of your contacts interests will make you more sensitive to recognizing valuable knowledge and relationships that would benefit them. Connecting people to what they need, when they need it is the essence of networking. When we are aware of how someone defines their joy and we can help them realize their dream, we build trust.
2013 is only two weeks away and it time to get our online business networking plan together. Last week we tackled building an in-person business networking plan. If you have big goals then you need a plan to assure that you’ll do the most meaningful activities to create your intended result. Hope is not a plan...
Having success at both in-person and online networking gives us both depth and distance. In-person we can develop a high degree of intimacy and trust, while online we can extend our reach...well...to anywhere and everywhere in the world.
Three Step Online Networking Plan
- TIME AVAILABLE - On average, how much time each week can you allocate to online networking? We recommend that online networking is a weekly (if not daily) activity.
- TIME AVAILABLE FOR INITIATING CONTACT - Multiply your weekly available hours by .4 or 40% to get your time available for initiating contact. We suggest allocating your available time as follows 40% initiating contact, 40% one-on-one exchange, and 20% follow up and staying connected.
- CHOOSE YOUR PLATFORM(S) - Often scarcity helps us make better choices. When you limit the time available to go to use social media you will get more out of those tools. Based on whom you want to meet and your available time, decide which social media you should commit to.
Example Plan
This example plan is based on having 5 hours available to network each week. Your availability will likely be different.
- Weekly online networking schedule - 2 hours
- List the appropriate social media platforms
- Prioritize by most to least valuable for you
- Weekly one-on-one exchange availability - 2 hours - if you’re going to go over budget on anything this is where to do it. Meeting with and building relationships with the right people IS NETWORKING.
- Monthly follow up and management availability - 1 hour
- Reconnect with people
- Pass valuable information
- Make introductions and referrals
- Continue to invest in relationships
- Manage your database
The most important elements of online networking are your ability to search for key contacts and that there is no geographic limitation. You may target meeting local people who you can get together with face-to-face. On the other hand you can focus on connections in other geographies, in which case your meetings will be virtual using tools like Skype and Hangout. Combine this online business networking plan with your in-person plan and you will develop an exceptionally broad and deep bullpen. Assure great business networking results in 2013 by creating your plan today!
Stay tuned for additional content over the coming weeks about online business networking best practices.
With only three weeks until 2013 it is a perfect time to think about what you want to accomplish in your networking next year. This week we’ll work on our 2013 in-person networking plan and next week we’ll construct our online networking plan.
Whether you want to build a deeper bullpen of resources to better serve your clients, create strategic alliances to help expand your business, have introductions to great candidates for your open staff positions, or develop a steady stream of warm referrals to help you achieve your 2013 growth goals having a plan will help you get there.
Three Step Networking Plan
- TIME AVAILABLE - On average, how many hours can you allocate to networking each month? We recommend estimating a monthly number as many networking events are monthly.
- TIME AVAILABLE FOR EVENTS - Multiply your monthly networking available hours by .4 or 40% to get your time available for events. We suggest allocating your available time as follows 40% event participation, 40% one-on-one meetings, and 20% follow up and staying connected.
- CHOOSE YOUR ORGANIZATIONS/EVENTS - Often scarcity helps us make better choices. When you limit the time available to go to events you will choose better events and you will get more out of those events. Based on whom you want to meet and your available time, decide which organizations and events you should commit to.
Example Plan
This example plan is based on having 20 hours available to network each month. Your availability will likely be different.
- Monthly event schedule - 8 hours
- List organizations and events
- prioritize by most to least valuable for you
- Monthly one-on-one meeting availability - 8 hours. If you’re going to go over budget on anything this is where to do it. Meeting with and building relationships with the right people IS NETWORKING.
- Monthly follow up and management availability - 4 hours
- Reconnect with people
- Pass valuable information
- Continue to invest in relationships
- Manage your database
Of course the key to any plan is not just authorship but the implementation. The written plan gives you direction and your actions give you speed and together they yield progress. Assure great business networking results in 2013 by creating your plan today!
Have you ever heard someone give the same introduction week in and week out at your networking group meetings? After hearing their speal a couple of times it is pretty easy to tune them out. Unfortunately, when people learn to tune you out during your introduction it is hard to get them back...
Creating a progressive introduction will not only keep them tuned in, but it will also help you educate your audience. Different than static introductions where the content doesn't change as it is delivered to audiences that you’ll see just once, progressive introductions are built to evolve so that with each delivery the audience learns more about you and your business. While it is wonderful to use your well practiced unique introduction all of the time, switching to the progressive form will also help you tap into your passion.
There are two general options when constructing your progressive introduction. You can either start drafting from scratch or begin with the text from your static introduction. In either regard the idea is to have available a variety of topics that you can rotate in on any given day. Be mindful to use topics that will inform and empower your audience as well as stay within the group’s introduction time limits.
Potential topics include:
- Recent client success stories
- Current client resource needs
- Brief case studies
- New products or services
- Seasonal products or services
- New strategic relationships
- New business or personal competencies
- Open positions or vendor needs
- Ask a question
Overtime progressive introductions help you build a more complete picture of yourself. The key to your success is to stay audience centered. Knowing and engaging each audience through your introduction will initiate valuable opportunities for connection.
