Networking: An Intentional Approach

By @Scottbrit

Focus of This Talk

• How to be Helpful to Others• Developing and Starting A Networking Plan• Maintaining Your Network

Networking is not just about making acquaintances

Great networkers make acquaintances and turn the right ones into trusted professional contacts and friends

Why We Network

• Nothing helps us reach and achieve our goals more than people– Our goals are going to change, but the fact that

we need help achieving them does not. This is why having a great network scales over the lifecycle of our careers and is a worthy investment of our time.

How to Approach Networking

• Provide value to others without expecting anything in return

• Lead new interactions with value

If done right, the investment you make in others’ success will return itself ten-fold

Ways To Provide Value

Relevant Introductions

• Do – Ask someone if they’d like to be introduced to someone before making an introduction

• Don’t – Just intro someone without asking first. You could be putting a burden on someone

Feedback

• Providing thoughtful, descriptive feedback on something is greatly appreciated by mature people– Blog post– Product– Presentation– Bug reporting

Feedback Done Well

Relevant Content and News

• Would someone receive value from knowing about this? Share the wealth– News on competitors– A valuable article that aligns with their interests– An event they might want to attend

Tools To Isolate This Content

• Google Alerts• Tweet Alarm• Relevant Email Lists• Quora• SalesLoft Job Change Alerts

Identify and Address Direct Needs

• Intentionally seek out opportunities to help or address a need.

Are They Hiring?

SinglePlatform is ; )

Isolate Opportunities With Tweetdeck

Read Their Blog

Source: http://alexstechthoughts.com/post/22119140993/getting-involved

Don’t Always Limit Help To WorkWe all have lives outside of work where we enjoy improvement as well

How Most People Think About Networking

“Many of us don’t think much about whom we invite into our lives or how we manage those relationships. Instead we treat the connections we form with others as something that happens naturally as a matter of circumstance or convenience.”

A Targeted, Intentional Approach

• Identify 10-20 people who you think have the ability to propel you to achieve your goals

• Add value to these people’s lives on a consistent basis– Over time the goal is to go from acquaintance ->

trusted business contact -> friend• Much more time efficient than the “I hope I meet

someone cool at this event” approach

This Framework Inspires:

• Purpose to my networking• Direction which compels action• Efficiency• Accountability– We manage what we measure

• Consistency– Anything left to itself is bound to decay

Diligently Track Interactions

• The biggest networking fail is lack of consistency throughout the relationship building life-cyle– This is why acquaintances never become trusted

professional contacts or friends• Realistic Goal: Provide value to your targets

every 3-4 weeks. – Make sure it requires little to no effort on their

part. LEAD WITH THE VALUE

Contactually: A Great Tool For Managing Consistency

Source: http://www.contactually.com/

Action Plan

• Define your goals for the next year • Think of 10-20 people who can help you

achieve them– Aim to start engaging 2 new people every month

from your target list• Write out ways you can interact with them• Log the interactions on a spreadsheet – Aim for consistent content grounded in adding value

every 3-4 weeks (if not more)

Resources

• Posts on networking: – http://life-longlearner.com/cto-school– Link to my intentional networking spreadsheet is

here as well• A great book: Never Eat Alone

Don’t Be A Stranger!

• Scott@life-longlearner.com• @Scottbrit