Creating a Networking Tree Will Help You to Connect Effectively
Imagine a business where you have really great referral partners and ideal clients. You have clients seeking you out and referral partners who believe in what you do and really want to share your work with their friends and communities.
The question is… how do you go about finding these ideal clients and partners?
The answer is to connect effectively with a broad assortment of people.
Business is all about people and all about creating relationships. We all do business with those that we feel connected to. Some of those relationships can be cultivated online and others need to be nurtured in person. Regardless of your method you have to put yourself out in the world and give yourself the opportunity to connect effectively, meaningfully, and authentically.
A few years ago I was involved in direct sales and my first “homework” assignment was to create a list of everyone I knew from high school friends, to past co-workers, to neighbors to relatives. The plan was to contact them, rekindle the relationship and see if they would either become involved in my business or connect me to someone who would.
The only part of this I enjoyed was the actual rekindling of the relationships and the connecting. Each time I felt the ulterior motive for the business I was supposed to “get” the experience was sour for me. When I began to connect for the sake of connecting, magic always happened.
In a world where our focus is often on size of our list, community, friends and followers, I think many have lost touch with the power of cultivating more meaningful relationships with a few than casting your net huge and wide for many.
While I completely agree that you need to keep your pipeline full and expand your list, community and networks, it’s how you do it that matters.
Last year, I created my own networking tree. It is a simple visual representation of many in my life and how I was connected to them. For example Dave connected me to Victoria who connected me to Julie who connected me to Krista who connected me to a huge community of great people in Connecticut. Lots of business ultimately came due to my knowing these people.
Dave is the “seed” of one of my tree trunks, and Victoria, Julie and Krista form the branches, with other people that they’ve connected me to forming smaller twigs.
As new clients and partners come into my life, I ask myself how was I lucky enough to meet them? Who was the connector? The amazing thing is I can often trace them back to one of the key “branches” of my tree.
When I review my tree it’s probably just twenty-five key people that are my real connectors. Clearly it’s worth my time and energy to focus my relationship building efforts with these people.
Another gift of the networking tree is that it’s a place to acknowledge and feel gratitude for the new people coming into your life as well as for the connectors (referral partners) who send them your way.
I highly recommend creating your own tree. If you want any other suggestions for how to get started, let me know.
Tags: build a list, Connecting & Networking, ideal clients, Ideal Partner, networking tree
