Work Your Network

Are you finding that your networking efforts are wearing you out - and your network does not seem to be growing? Here are the myths that must be disspelled so that you can spend quality time - not quantity time - on building your professional network.

networking, contact building, list building, small business sales, business development

If youre networking with strangers, youre wasting your time. A consultant friend of mine recently complained, Im doing 2-3 networking events a week and Im worn out. When I asked why she felt networking was important, she replied, One of my marketing goals is to do at least 1 networking event a week. (I pointed out that she just admitted to doing 2-3 a week and perhaps doing 1 a week is smart and doing triple that goal is causing some of the fatigue.) But theres much more to the great American business myth of networking.

Myth 1: The more you network, the more effective your networking activities become.

Truth 1: Its much more important to become well-known in 1-2 circles than to spread your networking activities over many different groups. Depth beats breadth every time.

I then asked her how networking was working for her. She said, I dont think I have gotten a shred of business out of it in the last six months. Her rationale for doing networking: Everybody knows that you build a busi