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Five Ways to Manage Your Network If you're an effective networker, you've developed a roster of contacts that can help you build and advance your business. In many cases, the challenge isn't in developing your network but in managing and maintaining these connections. Networking's greatest value comes in getting to know people who you can help and who can help you. And like any relationship, your networking contacts need to be nurtured and cultivated so that they can provide you with the kind of help you need – whether it's a client referral, input on a new product idea, or recommending someone to fill a key opening in your organization. Here are some ways you can better take care of your valuable network connections: 1. Prioritize As your contact base grows, you have to re-evaluate the people in your information loop. Come up with a way to prioritize your contacts. Your "inner circle" – those contacts that are most important to you – are the ones you should be contacting most frequently. Other contacts might not be important to you at the moment, but might have increasing value in the future; these people might be worth checking in with every now and then. Others, unfortunately, may hold little long-term worth and may slip down your list. As you're going through this exercise, be careful not to burn bridges – you never know where someone will show up or how they may be of benefit to you down the road. 2. Track Don't depend on your memory when it comes to remembering important details about your network. Record what you know about each of your contacts – where you met them, what you learned about them, where they work and what they do, what they find important, what they might need from you, etc. Track these contacts as you might your business prospects by investing in contact management or CRM software to help you categorize and manage this information. 3. Educate Don't expect members of your network to know what you need or want – it is your responsibility to educate them. Make sure they clearly know what you do and who you do it with. If you're hoping for referrals, explain to them what a "dream" referral might look like. Share case studies and customer profiles. If you've published an article (or had something published about your company), forward it along. Don't be afraid to get into details with your most valuable contacts – the more they know about what you do, the more they'll be able to help. At the same time, reciprocate by learning everything you can about your contacts' businesses. 4. Match-make People want to help people who've helped them. Extend the reach of your network by connecting your contacts to one another. Avoid setting up meetings just for the sake of making connections. Instead, think about why you are introducing these people to each other. What do they have in common? How can they benefit each other? Once you've made the introduction, back off and let these contacts get to know each other. Your reward will come later on. 5. Diversify Many business (or personal) networks are highly clustered – they're made up of people within a specific market or industry who often already know each other. Take the time to analyze your network and determine if you have too many redundant contacts or have any holes that need to be filled. It's the rare network that has someone to fill every need. So you may need to extend your efforts as a way to diversify your network. Once you know where these gaps are, you can target markets, organizations or events where you may be able to make the right connections. |
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