This article was featured
in an interview conducted with Dick Hoffmann
of AllianceVista Corporation on the TalentPlanet
radio show hosted by “Dr. Greg” Ketchum on
August 10, 2002.
“It’s not what you know, but who
you know.” There has never been a more
true and powerful adage in business than this
one. The best product or talents, the deepest
technical know how, the cleverest solution
– all mean nothing if you can’t connect them
to the right people and convince the right
decision-makers to buy, sell or use whatever
you have to offer.
In the course of our work in talent performance
management and alliance performance management,
respectively, we find that mastering the art
and science of business and social networking
is one of the most powerful and lucrative
talents a person can develop.
Connections, networks and relationships have
achieved the status of high-value currency
in almost every aspect of business. Organizations
are willing to pay handsomely for people who
have a deep personal Rolodex and know how
to use it.
If you consider the major areas in which
our industries and the economy have been impacted
over the last few years, it’s very easy to
see why networking and relationship building
are now more important than ever. People have
a hard time trusting hardware and software
companies when so much of the technology that
organizations purchased in the last five years
is dramatically underutilized or, worse, sitting
unused on the shelf. People have difficulty
trusting companies in general when so many
high-flying corporations saw their market
caps plummet or disappear entirely (including
some of the largest and, supposedly, most
respected companies). Unfortunately, there
seem to be a great many areas of our lives
in which trust and confidence are hard to
come by.
More than ever, people want to conduct business
with people they know and trust. This rule
applies whether we’re talking about people
we want to hire, alliances we want to build
between companies, or products and services
we want to acquire. Networking is really about
relationship building – creating relationships
that begin with common interests and offer
the potential of evolving into mutual knowledge
and trust.
In this light, the area of personal network
management is one that we believe deserves
an elevated level of dedicated focus and orchestrated
management. This article is intended to outline
a few of the key success factors in what we
call “Performance Networking” – mastering
the power of connections and relationships
to open the right doors and capture the best
opportunities for yourself and your organization.
Personal Network Management – Building
Your Network Portfolio
Almost without exception, the most successful
people we know view their personal networks
as something to be designed skillfully, planned
carefully and managed aggressively. Taking
a cue from the experts, we recommend that
you view your network as one of your most
valuable personal and business assets, much
as you would view an investment portfolio.
As with a portfolio of investments, you should
devote ample time and energy to designing
and developing your network – invest in it,
manage it, make sure that it’s well-balanced,
even dedicate a specific “budget” to build
and nurture it (for our purposes here, “budget”
is comprised of time, money, effort and creative
energies). There are only 2,000 working hours
in a year available to any of us, so you would
be wise to construct your network plan to
use those hours and associated effort wisely.
Be very selective in where you choose to invest
your time and resources.
Knowing Yourself and Your Networking Goals
An important first step in architecting your
network plan is to understand some things
about yourself and your network community:
- Goals: What are the goals you
want to achieve from your network? – Finding
job opportunities? Gaining high-level connections
in target customer accounts? Building prospective
alliance connections? Gathering business
or technical intelligence? Building a brainstorming
group? Developing a social network related
to your work? Start by creating a detailed
list for yourself of the specific goals
you’d most like to achieve with your network.
- Brand: What comprises your personal
“brand”? For what do you want to become
known? Much has been written in the past
few years about the importance of brand
management and, in particular, “personal
brand” management – the development and
management of a reputation for expertise
and talent in a differentiable area. By
clearly defining and marketing your “brand,”
you provide people with convenient handles
by which they can grab on to you and help
you enter the worlds you want to enter.
- Audience: Who comprises the audience
you need to reach with your brand message
(in this case, who comprises the network
you want to build)? Understanding your audience
also means understanding their needs. True
networking is not a one-sided tactic to
achieve what you want; that’s not networking,
that’s called using people. Performance
Networking is based on mature relationships
marked by mutuality – value-based give and
take is how business gets done.
- Messages: What messages will impact
your audience the most? In other words,
what is the value proposition associated
with the personal brand you want to establish?
How do you articulate both the “give” and
the “take” in terms that will clearly and
crisply demonstrate value to your audience?
- Delivery: How will you most effectively
and efficiently reach your target audience
with the message of your personal brand?
Where do they go to look for resources?
Where do they get information? Who do they
trust when seeking advice? Many times it’s
as simple as using a referral and picking
up the phone – “Hi, this is Joe Highvalue,
Mary Matchmaker suggested I give you a call.”
One of our most successful colleagues has
a prominent sign displayed on the wall over
his desk. This sign says, “Pick Up the Phone!!!”
At its simplest, the act of marketing anything
is comprised of three key components – audience,
message and message delivery vehicles. Understanding
these three components is vital in marketing
yourself as well as the reputation, products
or services of your company. While designing
the plan to construct your network and build
your personal brand, keep this mantra in mind:
Audience, Message, Delivery Vehicles.
Facilitated Networking – Leveraging Others
in Building Personal Networks
When it comes to attending networking events,
the tendency of most people is to show up
at the appointed time, head for the tray of
cheese squares and refreshments, and then
start looking around to determine who might
be valuable to meet. If the event organizers
didn’t think to supply name tags for the event,
then you’re in real trouble – you’ve got a
plateful of cheese squares and a drink in
a room full of strangers, not knowing who
might be a valuable contact to suit your purposes.
We recommend a much more thought-out and
proactive approach, which we call “facilitated
networking.” Here’s how it works. The minute
you hear about the event and it seems to match
the value criteria you’ve established, contact
the event organizers. Ask them who they anticipate
will attend the event. Ask them if they have
a list of the companies and individuals who
have responded with an R.S.V.P. Obtain as
much information in advance about the quality
and quantity of prospective attendees. This
brief bit of research accomplishes two important
things: (1) It enables you to validate that
the event will be worth your time (remember,
2,000 hours) and (2) It provides you with
the information you need to put together a
proactive “networking plan” for the event.
Your networking plan should contain, at a
minimum, a list of the companies and people
you plan to meet, what information you’d like
to convey to your new contacts and how you
intend to get to the right people – again,
“Audience, Message, Delivery Vehicles.” Armed
with this information, you can now enlist
other people to help you build your network
using a “facilitated” approach.
In terms of how you get to the right people,
the best place to start is with the event
organizers themselves. Ask them if they can
provide you with introductions to the people
you’d like to meet. The people who organize
meetings, speaking sessions and networking
events want their events to be successful.
A big measure of success for them is having
people say afterwards that they found value
in the event, met valuable contacts and will
be back to attend future events. Given that
you’ve done the homework of defining a substantive
value proposition for the event you’re targeting,
the event organizers should be more than happy
to help you get connected during the meeting.
After all, facilitating meaningful and productive
introductions is one of the things that makes
their party a success.
In the course of this process we recommend
that you identify and employ one or more personal
matchmakers who you know will be attending
the event. These are people who have it as
part of their natural personality to be matchmakers;
facilitating introductions between people
who they think are interesting and will find
value in each other. Get one or more of these
people to take you under their wing, so to
speak, and help you get connected to the people
you want to reach. In Malcolm Gladwell’s popular
book, The Tipping Point, he has a special
definition for folks who are skilled matchmakers,
or what Gladwell calls, “Connectors.” – “These
people who link us up with the world, who
introduce us to our special circles – these
people on whom we rely more heavily than we
realize – are Connectors, people with a special
gift for bringing the world together.”
Think of as many ways as you can to pre-plan
introductions prior to arriving at the meeting.
Create an environment in which the event works
for you in addition to you working the event.
Perhaps your matchmakers will even arrange
scheduled meetings with the people you want
to meet during the event. Facilitated networking
beats the heck out of the cheese square and
drink routine and turns each event into a
productive use of your valuable time. In all
situations, never leave a conversation, meeting
or phone conference without getting at least
one new name. Get in the habit of asking people
who they might know who fits your audience
target and might need your particular brand
of value.
Adding Value – Getting Proactively Involved
with Networking Organizations
When organizations hold events, they’re doing
it for a purpose. Find out what that underlying
purpose is and get involved to add value to
the event organizers. Their motivations may
be to add members to their organization, to
drive higher quantity and quality of attendance
at their events, to improve their event programs,
to develop stronger awareness for their organization,
or all of the above. Once you understand their
motivations, get involved to help them achieve
their objectives (this is assuming that you’ve
already validated that this organization and
their events will help you achieve your networking
goals in the medium to long term).
Actively participating in event activities
makes you part of the “in” crowd instead of
just being part of the crowd. It also builds
valuable relationships that complement the
principle goals you have for building your
network.
- Offer to speak or sit on a panel during
the event.
- Use your network to attract good speakers.
- Work to attract members and event attendees
for the organization.
- Volunteer to help organize event activities.
- See if there are openings on the local
board or within the chapter structure of
the organization.
- Work the reception area of the event
as an official greeter for the organization
– this is great way to ensure that you know
everyone who attends.
Summary
More than ever, a strong personal network
is one of the most valuable assets an individual
can have to add value to their careers, companies,
alliance partners and customers. Some dedicated
effort and a well-executed plan can result
in highly productive results from moving beyond
traditional networking and into “performance
networking.”
