Serendipity and Networking

According to Wikipedia the word Serendipity is 256 years old today. I accidentally stumbled upon that fact whilst looking for something else!

It's a great word that describes some of the great benefits you get from networking with your eyes and ears open. In addition to the stuff you have planned you find opportunities and people that you never imagined.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Are you really looking for a quick fix?

I met someone new at a networking group last week who said "It was tough last year and we need some new customers". I asked how long he was prepared to give it and he said he might come once more to see if he got any business. I asked him why he thought that it was the people who committed for the long term that got results. He said "I suppose it's really about building relationships".

Exactly right. Networking is about building a route to market for the longer term through trusted relationships. To build a relationship you first need to connect and then regularly follow up on that original connection and build trust.

Turning up once or maybe twice is hardly enough to connect and it certainly does not build trust. In fact it often has the opposite effect on your brand.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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Online and Offline Networking go Hand in Hand

At a meeting earlier this month people were talking about how difficult it is to keep track of all the interactions we now have both online and offline. Last month in my National Networker Column I wrote about the many different ways we have of keeping in touch with the advent of social networks and social media. Online networks give us a a really effective tool for supporting our offline business networking activities. As I have written before, though, they only do that, however, if we go about both activities strategically.

In an article on the NRG-networks website I shared my top 10 tips for building business with the effective use of offline & online networks:

1. Get comfortable with how networking works
2. Develop a plan
3. Identify the people you already know, like & trust
4. Identify the offline networks to join
5. Show a genuine interest in other people
6. Always follow up contacts
7. Identify the online networks to join and start a blog
8. Make online contacts and build relationships first
9. Arrange contact meetings
10. Develop Networking Advocates

More on each point in the article, top 10 tips for building business with the effective use of offline & online networks

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
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What do you want out of networking?

If you don't know what you want from your networking how can anyone help you? There is a good discussion over at the NRG-networks group on Linkedin on 'What do you want out of networking?'.

Networking Tip 2 in '10 top tips to increase business with the effective use of offline & online networks' is 'Develop a Plan'. As I wrote there, "If you don’t know where you are going with your networking how can others help you?"

The important thing is that you know what you want rather than network without any clear idea of what you want. That way as you build relationships and help others achieve their goals you can let them know exactly what you are looking for.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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Look for Synergies

People new to networking will often look to 'network' with people from completely different businesses. Last week an IT provider said he was reluctant to attend an event because many of the other attendees were also 'in IT'. I asked one of these other people who he preferred to network with. He said, "Thats easy. Other people in IT services and support. They know what I'm talking about and we very rarely compete even though it may look like we do something similar. The opportunities for working together or referring each other far outweigh any competitive concerns."

The reality is that people in similar businesses can form relationships much quicker than with those in different fields.

As I wrote in As I wrote in 'Applying the 7 habits to your business networking' habit 6 is 'Synergise'. Look for synergies whenever you meet people and add them to your network. The value of future collaboration will exceed the sum of what each of you could achieve on your own.

According to Wikipedia a synergy is where different entities cooperate advantageously for a final outcome. Simply defined, it means that the effect of the whole is greater than the sum of the effects of the individual parts. Although the whole will be greater than each individual part, this is not the concept of synergy. If used in a business application it means that teamwork will produce an overall better result than if each person was working toward the same goal individually.

*From the best selling Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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What are you doing for others?

The third Monday of January every year is a public holiday in the United States to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King. One of his famous quotes is very apt with regard to success in business networking:

"Life's most persistent and urgent question is: What are you doing for others?"

The most successful networkers are not looking for people to sell to. They are constantly looking out for opportunities to connect others to what they need. They build relationships by doing that with people who get to know, like, and trust them. As I said in 'How to make your follow up productive', it is the giving of opportunities to others that will produce opportunities for you as people reciprocate.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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How to make your follow up productive

A couple of days ago in 'Why follow up is so important' I wrote about the importance of follow up in networking. You get to know people by spending time in conversation with them and others at regular networking group meetings. You get to know, like and trust them by following that up with One2One interactions.

You should treat that as an opportunity to really understand the other person rather than an opportunity to pitch. If you are not regularly finding yourself able to give referrals, connect people and share your knowledge then you need to be asking better questions. It is by getting to know, like, and trust people and giving them opportunities that will produce opportunities for you as people reciprocate.

As I wrote in 'Applying the 7 habits to your business networking' habit 5* is 'Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood'.

*From the best selling Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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Why follow up is so important

I ran a business networking seminar this week when I asked 2 questions.

1. Do you agree that all things being equal people do business with and refer business to the people they know, like and trust?

2. Do you agree that all things being unequal people STILL do business with and refer business to the people they know like and trust?

The answer to both was a resounding yes, so I asked another.

"Why then do you spend most of your networking time getting to know lots of people a bit?"

You don't get to know, like and trust people by meeting once or twice. You get to know them by spending time in conversation with them and others at regular networking group meetings and by following that up with One2One interactions. That's follow up and you don't get to know, like and trust someone without it.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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Keep in touch

In my National Networker column this month I wrote about keeping in touch;

How often has someone said to you "Let's keep in touch" and that's the last you heard from each other? This excellent cartoon from the New Yorker collection shows how it is often:

When you agree to "keep in touch" it means to maintain communications so that you keep up-to-date with knowledge about each other. That is how you continue to get to know each other and how you can help them and they can help you. We have more and more ways of keeping in touch than ever as this illustration shows:

You really have no excuse for not keeping in touch! Become one of the who do regularly keep in touch and you will stand out from the networking crowd.

Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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How to get your Network to Advocate You

In 'How to get what you want from your networking in 2010' I wrote about setting yourself targets for your networking activities as part of an overall strategy. The ultimate aim of your business networking is to create a network of advocates who regularly promote you and your services without being asked or paid and when you are not there.

The number one way of getting your network to regularly advocate you is to advocate them first.

Remember habit 4 of Stephen R Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is think Win/Win. Applying this in networking means developing a giving mentality and becoming an Advocate for others.

In this podcast I explain this and some of the other ways of motivating others in your Inner Network to advocate you.

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Good Networking!
Dave Clarke
Get 7 networking secrets for business success

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business networking | business networking events | business networking podcast

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