Networking – A Great Asset: Part 1

 How powerful is networking? To give you an idea, consider the study that was done in the 1970s in which people in the United States were asked to try to get envelopes delivered to particular people in Africa. They had to pass the envelopes on to people they knew personally, who could pass it on to people they knew, and so on until it got to someone who actually knew the person in Africa and could deliver it there. The study tracked how many times each envelope changed hands before it got from randomly chosen Americans to a randomly chosen African through people who knew each other. On the average, the envelope changed hands five times. Apparently, a similar study was done with envelopes going from West Coast of the United States to the East Coast. The envelopes got there faster than they did through the post office. That’s the power of networking.

For this article and the next 2 articles we are going to focus on Networking – A Great Asset. This first article looks at What Networking Is and the Benefits of Networking.

Networking is the name for the process that often can bypass the hierarchy of organisations and also shorten the rapport and trust building process with individuals. In essence through the right introduction to a potential client from the right Referral Source you often by-pass the Attraction Stage AND Exploration Stage and move directly into the Development Stage of Relationship Building with individual prospects. You leverage your time and energy.

In addition, meeting and associating with the right individuals and groups of people you can also enhance your skills and increase your knowledge of a specific industry or target market. This is just as important as gaining the new contacts. New skills and knowledge helps you do more with the right people in less time.

In summary, here are some of the Benefits of Networking:

1. You shorten the relationship building process gaining trust much quicker.
2. You often can legitimately bypass unnecessary underlings in organisations, saving time and effort when trying to reach the influencers and decision makers.
3. You can quickly pick up valuable knowledge of industries and target groups.
4. Through association pick up skills that makes you more effective.

These 4 benefits will lead you to writing more business faster.

Networking has many benefits! The key is knowing “how to” network. Next we look at the “How To’s” of Networking.

Networking is a powerful way to expand your influence in order to find contacts to do business with. In addition, for finding contacts who may be able to invest in your business, lend money to your business or you personally. Always make sure that if you are going into a loan, that you produce a loan document with www.kasu.ca