What is Professional Networking?
Professional networking is about making and utilising contacts to add value to customers and clients. The goal of professional networking is to create a pool of people and information that can directly increase the quality of a product or service, decrease customer attrition, and add value to customers and clients.
Myths About Networking
Often people misunderstand what professional networking is about. Here are five common myths:
Myth | Comment |
Networking is manipulative | Professional networking is about meeting people and being prepared to help and support them as much as seeking help and support from them. Relationships must be seen as reciprocal and often they need to start by giving first and receiving later. Any hints of self interest and manipulation will negatively impact on the effectiveness of networking. |
Networking is for confident people who like to socialise | Professional networking is about connecting with people. Whilst face-to-face networking still predominates, other forms of networking such as social, on-line networking means that that face-to-face networking is not the only way. Often confidence comes from practice and experience. If necessary ask a network contact to take you to networking events and observe how they network. |
Networking is time-consuming | Like most things of value, professional networking does require an investment of time. Meeting a new contact and taking time to attend an event is only part of the process of professional networking; there are also follow-up activities that are required to build and sustain the relationship with contacts. Networking does not need to be too time consuming if it is planned and part of a networking strategy. Too few people plan their networking strategy and therefore do waste lots of time at irrelevant networking events.
|
Myth | Comment |
Networking is about selling | Although one of the outcomes in the long term might be the opportunity to make a sale, professional networking rarely directly leads to a sale. Professional networking is also about finding out about new ideas, the latest trends, meeting likeminded experts, sharing information and helping others to achieve their goals. |
Networking is about collecting business cards | This is true to some extent, but it is so much more than this. It is about listening to people, learning about their expertise, services and ideas; it is about meeting new people and identifying common areas of interest and possible collaboration; it is about introducing new contacts to other contacts that they might benefit from knowing and meeting. |
REFER TO YOU ACTIVITY WORKBOOK AND SOLVE ACTIVITY 9 IN THE LJ4 SECTION
Click on the lesson title under the “Next” button below to access the following lesson.