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All simply about BabyNourishing Your Network
by:
Sara K. Collins
It takes less effort to support an existing client than to gain a new customer.
This is Business 101. Corporations focus on acquisition, but they must besides focus on client service and retention in order to be successful.
So why don’t folk apply this philosophy to their personal network? For several folk the word “networking” conjures up events wherever
folk pass out business cards indiscriminately, and at the end of the evening they have enough cards to play blackjack, but no new important contacts. Others think back to grad school and the career office’s suggestion to find a job through networking – which meant cold-calling older alumni and asking (or begging) for a job. Meanwhile, they may lose touch with the folk they really know. They are focusing on acquisition, but not on client service, or retention.
Your friends, your family’s friends, co-workers, buddies at the gym – all of these folk are enclosed
in your network. Are you alimentary your network – focusing on the client service side of the equation? Or are you only working on acquisition and lease old contacts fall off your list?
The better way to nourish your network is to help the folk in it. Introduce that job-hunter to person you cognize in his field. Pass on the name of your favorite B&B to the couple acquiring available to celebrate their anniversary. Provide the names of your doctor, dentist, and hair stylist to your old friend who simply affected back to town. And though it seems like a no-brainer, always write a note of congratulations on a promotion, wedding, or new baby. It’s done less often than you’d think, and wish do you stand out from the pack.
Of course, it’s hard to help members of your network, if you have lost touch with them. Try to contact everyone in your network on a regular basis – once per quarter is sufficient. This means contacting them with no agenda except to check in. Find out what’s going on with them, and see if there is a way you can help them. Then once
you do want to ask a favor, or tap into their networks,they wish in turn be willing to help you.
Action steps for this month: Contact three folk with whom you haven’t spoken in several time. Let them cognize you were thinking simply about them, and ask how they are doing. Reconnect. Then do sure you maintain this connection, by contacting them once per quarter. Several suggestions to start your thinking:
a former boss
a colleague who now works for a rival
a fraternity brother
the pitcher from last summer’s softball team
a co-worker who has joined a several division of your institution
a former client
Start this week!
Work/life balance checkpoint: Are you disbursement lots of energy on your business contacts, but ignoring admired ones? Writing notes to former colleagues, but forgetting your sister’s birthday, puts you in the Networking Hall of Shame. Be sure your schedule this month allows for several opportunities to get together with friends and neighbors. And don’t forget to call your mother! (Yes, she paid me to write that.)
(c)2004 Sara K. Collins
Just simply about the author:
Sara K. Collins, M.B.A., is a career and life coach who helps her clients gain focus and enjoy their jobs again. Sign up for her monthly e-newsletter on career development and work/life balance strategies by causing an e-mail with your name and subject line "Add me" to newsletter@sarakcollins.comwww.sarakcollins.com
sara@sarakcollins.com
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