In the early days of education in America, children were taught the “Three R’s:” Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. As business professionals, we also need to learn our R’s if we want to be successful at networking. In today’s time-crunched, capital-starved economy, networking will emerge as one of the most powerful tools in your business development arsenal. When times get tough, the survivors go back to the basics. Building a strong network of mutually beneficial relationships that you can depend on is as basic as it gets.
And yet, networking has been looked down on, discounted, and treated as the domain of pitchmen, MaryKay ladies, and Chamber of Commerce hangers-on. If you want your small business to survive in the future, you’ve got to ignore the sour grapes of the naysayers and develop your own strong and effective networking strategy. It can be as simple as the ABC’s or in this case, the Four R’s: Relationships, Reputation, Resources, and Referrals.
The First R: Relationships
It’s difficult to make time for purposeless activities where we can see no meaning or benefit. Networking is the same; many people believe it is a waste of time or doesn’t work. They don’t see – and therefore don’t have for themselves – a clear purpose. There is only one reason to network: to develop relationships. It is the foundation for achieving any other goal you have for networking.
The relationships that you form will help you in nearly every aspect of your business. These benefits can be easily categorized into the other three R’s of networking: Reputation, Resources, and Referrals, and.
The Second R: Reputation
Why is cold-calling so difficult and inexpensive? Because the people you are calling have no reliable way of knowing whether or not they can trust you. Unless you’ve spent millions of dollars to become a household name, they will be talking to a complete stranger whom they have no way of knowing anything about. Networking is effective in building your business because you develop a reputation before you begin to do business with them. Often, they do business with you because they know you well enough to trust that the product or service you are offering is beneficial too them.
Networking builds your reputation by allowing other people to get to know you and to learn from your actions over a period of time whether they can trust you or not.
The Third R: Resources
When we entered the Information Age, some people thought we’d find that information alone would be valuable. Instead, there is so much of it that it’s sometimes not worth our time to search the usual sources. Those who have powerful networks can simply tap into the expertise of their contact, saving time and avoiding costly errors. Your network can also provide you with contacts and sources of timely knowledge.
You will benefit from the collective wisdom and experience of your network when you develop mutually beneficial and trusting relationships.
The Fourth R: Referrals
Up to 90% of job openings are never publicized. Except for government contracts where they have to publish their request for vendors, very few businesses advertise that they are looking for products and service providers. You’ll find out about the needs that your direct contacts have because you’ll have established your reputation with them. While some dedicated networkers are able to maintain massive, active networks of thousands of people, it’s likely that you have consistent contact with 200 to 300 people. This is not usually enough to sustain your business. You are going to need these contacts to keep you in mind when they are doing business with their 200 to 300 regular contacts. Now your network is closer to 50,000 people. Having a potential client base of 50,000 can be a powerful incentive to network.
Developing a reliable stream of referrals takes time, but once your network has been asked, encouraged, and rewarded for sending their friends, family, and business contacts to you, you’ll find that the process can become a significant part of your business.
Conclusion
You may not have time to go back to school, but you can take a page from the history of education. Apply the four R’s – Relationships, Reputation, Resources, and Referrals – to your business networking strategy and you may become an old-fashioned success story.
Looking for more networking tips, tricks, strategies & advice? Visit Meeting Wave’s Networking Motivator Blog.
About the Author: Beth Bridges is The Networking Motivator ™ and creator of the 5 Part Networking Success Plan ™, a simple networking system that can help anyone from business owners to sales agents to college students develop a powerful network. Subscribe to the weekly Networking Motivator Newsletter at http://www.thenetworkingmotivator.com/ for a quick boost of networking inspiration, information and motivation.”
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