subject: Networking Success Strategies: Knowing Who Is Important Enough to Meet [print this page] Networking Success Strategies: Knowing Who Is Important Enough to Meet
Someone with more experience might understand the value of patience and they are using it for gentle prospecting. Others might be playing the "long game" of building their personal brand and developing mutually beneficial relationships. But the one item on a wish list that we all have is that we want to meet the right people - the important people.
There are two approaches to this. One is definitely wrong and the other can be very beneficial if done right. First, here's the wrong way. Decide immediately who is "important" and who isn't. Someone once told me that they didn't network with a certain organization because there were women who represented a large cosmetics company. They didn't think those were very important people. I never did get a chance to tell that person that they shouldn't ignore someone who has earned a car by selling lipstick. You have to know a lot of people to make a living like that.
Trying to sell to "important" people such as the head of purchasing or even the CEO ignores a couple of basic networking facts. C-level executives usually prefer to network with other C-level execs and not a more general events. In part because they get "hit on" by people who want to sell to them.
The other networking fact is that everyone who is a big decision maker has a lot of other people around them in the organization. The person who answers the phone can be an important influencer. I had a friend who worked as a receptionist/assistant for several years and her opinion was highly valued by the VP of Marketing. If you were rude to her, you were never getting in to see him. If you think of assistants as "unimportant," then you've made a poor decision.
The right way to approach knowing who is important enough for you to network with is to understand that everyone is important to someone. You might think the cosmetics salesperson isn't important, but what you don't know is that her best customer runs one of the larger ad agencies in town. You might think the newest, youngest sales agent for the insurance company isn't important, but what you don't know is that they could be the top producer in ten years.
Open your mind to the possibility that everyone can be important and you'll find yourself making more valuable connections in building your network.
Beth Bridges has attended over 2,000 networking events in the last 7 years as the Membership Director and Chief Networking Officer of a large west coast chamber of commerce. Do you want to grow your network, fine-tune your networking and grow your business. Try the Networking Motivator Newsletter for free at www.TheNetworkingMotivator.com.
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