REALLY? IT’S NOT ABOUT YOU

Networking. Most of us think of this “painful” experience as having to ‘work a room” to develop relationships with people that you don’t know, so that they can help you win work. WRONG.

Networking is the process of developing relationships with individuals that can help YOUR CLIENTS SOLVE THEIR PROBLEMS.  This may come as a shock, but, it’s not about you! It IS about your client.

If you can only ask your client one question, ask them what keeps them awake at night.  While you may secretly be hoping that it’s an engineering or design dilemma, don’t be surprised if it’s a business problem.  Maybe they just lost their city manager or administrative vice president; maybe they're facing a union negotiation or just “politics as usual.”  What keeps your clients awake may have nothing to do with your firm or its business line.  Yet, if you are able to solve it, offer a solution or point them in the direction of a resource, and you will become that thing we all want to be—the trusted advisor.  So, how do you do that?

Don’t limit your networking events to events where you will meet your peers and colleagues.  Peer to peer networking doesn’t get you very far.  This is peer to partner networking.  Consider tangential relationships—legal professionals, accountants, human resources, governance and leadership professional—the list is endless.  But, the rules are the same:

1.     Talk less about yourself and more about them; find out what do they do and for what type of client.

2.     Learn types of clients that are best for them.

3.     Understand how you might be of benefit to their business or their professional success.

4.     Finally, whether you see a partnership or not, take their card.

Last week, I had a client ask me if I could refer them to an attorney who could review their existing contract language to see where their agreements might be “weak”.  Believe it or not, I had some referrals and I solved their problem.  Can you solve your clients problems?