Your personal value still is whom you know. If you’ve been in business for 10 years, mathematically you’ll probably have around 75 close contacts. That may not sound a lot but I’m talking about real close, i.e. people you like and respect and would recognise you if you bumped into them next to the fruit and veg in Tesco’s.

Add to these 75 all the folk in their close quarters and the cumulative figure is some 20,000 potentially valuable people. The trick of course in using your contacts is to always think ‘givers gain’. And, to remember that little of the best-connected people’s networking activity is carried out with a specific goal in mind. 

Granted, if you ask for everything when networking you get nothing. But if you concentrate your effort on people you most like and who seem to like you back, watch your business grow. Leveraging your own network really is nothing more than just asking people whose company you enjoy, to dinner for nothing other than the pleasure of their company. Even the shyest people can do that. 

The next stage does require some application in terms of making sure how well people know what you do and then how inspired they are to refer you. Think of this as part of your referral strategy and if you haven’t got one, get one! Don’t get lost in the word ‘strategy’ either. All I’m saying here is get organised by making sure your merry band of close contacts tick all the boxes under the headings in 1, they know exactly what you do 2, trust highly in you 3, understand how you help others 4, the problems or pain you solve. And, don’t forget, that because very few people want to ‘talk turkey’ after work hours (if that’s when that next networking event is), make sure you are perceived as having a wider purpose to your working life.

This will greatly increase your chances of a referral. You might also want, in a quiet moment, to sit down and make a detailed assessment of your best contacts. Ask yourself, whom do they know, how willing are they to refer you and what might inspire them to make a free introduction? Oh, and don’t forget either that the best networkers are altruistic and selfless. Give referrals like you don’t remember and receive them without forgetting.

Copyright Joel Jelen 2012. All Rights Reserved.