By Brian Lipstein, AICI FLC
From AICI Connections – April Edition
Networking is a discipline that if applied correctly can be your best method of marketing your business. Having other professionals in the field looking out for you and your business gives you a “free” sales force. Your biggest challenge is getting to qualified prospects, getting introduced to them, and breaking down a barrier of trust before they will employ you for your services. Imagine being able to have someone else facilitate that part of the sale which is hardest for you. That sounds pretty nice, doesn’t it? Let me give you a few steps to get started with.
The first step is to begin meeting other professionals. These are people who can either use your service, or know someone who could use your service. In almost every area you can find a group that meets for the purposes of getting to know one another and building business. If it’s not a group, there are usually plenty of social events going on that are a good place to begin.
If you live in an area where these events are not organized, think of the places where your potential clients would spend time. Frequent those places, strike up a conversation, and begin expanding your network. Don’t rule out anything in particular until you have given it a try and garnered some data on in.
Once you begin forming your network, you want to categorize the people you meet. Your ultimate goal is to build a high net-worth network of people that can connect you to your potential clients. To do that, focus on building a database of the following information.
1) Find out about their past schooling history – Everyone loves the “name game,” which always seems to arise out of where you went to school. Most people will know at least one other person that attended the same school. If you can make a connection to somebody through a mutual contact, it becomes easier for them to find out about you and will (hopefully) help breakdown the barrier of trust.
2) Discover their past work experience – When you find out about past positions they have held you should be able to tell the types of people, and in what sort of capacity, they have dealt with in the past. Their experience (something we often talk about being judged during a first impression) will uncover some good ideas of how they have networked in the past, and who they might be able to connect you to. Again, finding a common thread here will help to build the relationship.
3) Find out who their top ten “A” players are – Think about how your network will expand. If you can get introduced to 5 other’s top 10 people, you have probably just met 50 great qualified prospects to network with. Make sure that they are analyzing their network as closely as you are, and can introduce you to equally high net-worth individuals. As you continue to expand your network, your “A” level contacts will increase exponentially.
4) Find out what their needs are – Who do they need to meet? What is it you have to know to represent them? Make sure you write the information down in some organized way so you don’t forget or mix-up contacts. Consider using Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools such as salesforce.com or ACT. Being able to actively step in and role play someone else in your network is essential to helping connect them to someone you might think is a good prospect for them. As a networker, you should be able to filter out a low, medium, and high potential introduction. Making only high potential introductions will lead to receiving only high potential introductions from your closest networking contacts.
5) Ask them about the groups and associations they are a part of – Connecting people based on a networking group, a service organization, a board of directors, etc. is similar to schooling and work history. You will uncover those that they potentially have contact with, or might be able to uncover a similar link in the “6 degrees of separation” to help build the trust factor more quickly.
Once this information is obtained and organized, begin breaking your contacts down into the “A” “B”, and “C” groups. An “A” contact would be someone who, in each of the above categories, shows potential to connect you to other top level people. An “A” is active in various groups and organizations, has a reputable schooling history, has experience displayed through his work history, and has a network of other high potential people. Their needs aren’t too complex for you to help them in someway, and they are easily understood and interpreted. Similarly you want to break down the “B” players – those who show some potential and could possibly be converted to “A’s” - and “C” players, those that are not going to be worth your time.
Be extremely selective and critical with your “A” selections. Ultimately, you want to aim for about 15 to 25 “A” players in your network who you are constantly in touch with. You need to be able to step into their shoes for about five minutes, and the same for them with you. Try to put yourself in a “debtor” position, where you have fed them more business than they have you, which in turn should keep you constantly on their mind and have them looking to get you new business.
Many people network too casually to really become effective at it. These casual networkers are often pleasurable to meet and great people, however they will always fall into my “C” category. Differentiate yourself and study networking as a discipline. It must be approached analytically, and analyzed critically to effectively return your investment of time and ultimately build your business.
Brian Lipstein, AICI FLC is Vice President and Co-Founder of Henry A. Davidsen. As a graduate from the
Email: brian@henrydavidsen.com
