The individual and the network

People have long realized the importance of relationships. In the old days we gathered together to hunt, protect our villages from outside threats and celebrate. Seems like the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Many sales pros consider the art of selling a "hunting" exercise. We are always on the hunt for new prospects to become clients, business partners, employees and even investors. The more we cast our net, the more likely we will be to catch what we seek.

Here's the challenge: its a mighty big world and there are far too many prospects for us to track. Its this reason that has made networking and relationship marketing so prominent.

I attend a LOT of networking functions and do even more of it online. I continually see folks making the same mistakes over and over. Let me simplify networking to the core.

As an individual inside of a network we have two important jobs.

1. We need to know who we look to meet. Of equal importance is our ability to communicate those needs specifically, concisely and effectively (see this series on The ASK to learn more)

2. We need to know what value we have to offer the network. Value comes from our contacts, our knowledge and our time. Most importantly it comes from our willingness to share these attributes with others.

This post was inspired by my recent statement:

Individuals succeed based on the quality of their network. Networks succeed based on the quality of its individuals.

Stay tuned for part two of this entitled: the network and the individual.