Good Morning again, David Elliott. I’d just like to talk for a few moments about the value of networking.
Recently a good business associate complained, not bitterly, but did complain that he’d been to a major networking session and had not sold anything. This is in fact the essence of why networking is not selling. Networking is based on some principles that are fairly difficult, sometimes, to get to grips with, but in essence mean that if two people meet – then by definition they can only have one conversation; if however another person comes into the picture then immediately there are the possibilities of a conversation between two of the party, a conversation between another mix of the group of three, and then also a conversation that could take place between all three.
If you can imagine this building up, then that really is the value of networking – that over time you can meet large numbers of people that have a like mind – that share your views on things, who look at life effectively through the same metaphorical pair of spectacles.
So what happens is that you build up an enormous group, and this is of course the basis of things like linkedin, facebook, etc. etc. So you have large groups of people who can interact on subjects that they share a common interest in. So you will notice on linkedin that there are large numbers of interest groups – pharmaceutical marketing, astronomy, etc.etc. So you will be talking to people who share some of your interests. This type of network building can be extremely valuable and of course is now possible through effective use of the internet. So please give networking a chance – don’t expect that you will sell through your first networking experience, be it either speed networking through your local chamber of commerce or through business link, or through your professional association, or perhaps more easily through things such as linkedin. But eventually you will be able to expand your own group of people and likely expand a group of people who think the same way about things. Ultimately this will then lead to success for you in your chose profession. Thank you very much.