Networking is the art of building and maintaining relationships. The purpose of networking is to create a pool of customers and information that can directly increase the quality of your product or service, reduce customer fatigue, and perhaps most importantly, make your competitors wonder how you got the business they never knew about.
Giving and receiving information
Networking is a two-way street. When you meet someone, you want to ask them about their business and they will ask you about theirs. Start with the basics – name, business, network, location, business situation, etc. Then you can find out how you can benefit each other. Try to introduce them to information such as: What does your business do? Who do you serve? Who makes the buying decisions for each product or service? What makes you different from your competitors?
Assess the value of the relationship
You can’t network with everyone. Once you have some initial information, you need to decide whether or not you want to meet with this person again and build a relationship. Can you help them, and can they help you? The answer to both questions should be “yes.”
Another criterion is to look for people who genuinely want to help others solve problems with no strings attached. In other words, don't think of yourself as a networker but rather a problem solver, and look for people with those qualities to add to your personal network.
Forming strategic alliances
Networking is not about business cards, it is about people. So take the time to get to know the people in your network. If you choose your networkers effectively, make sure you let them know about your business and the people you are dealing with. As a result, you will become each other’s salespeople. You may also exchange management tips or even suggestions for partnerships.
Maintain
As your relationships grow, you will have to re-evaluate those people. Apply effective time management skills and prioritize your productive relationships. You will want to continue to have regular contact with the people who are most useful to you. They will become your close friends. However, since you never know when someone can help you or when you can help yourself, if you feel that someone is not currently useful to you, you should still reach out to them from time to time because they may be important to you down the road. In other words, be nice to everyone because you never know when they will be able to help you.
