Are You Networking Too Much and Getting Too Little?

Several months ago I had someone I had introduced to my local Chamber of Commerce call and ask if I would meet him to discuss networking. It seems that he could not understand why he was getting so little for his efforts. I am always happy to help someone and agreed to meet with him.

When we got together he shared that he was really discouraged with networking. He said that although he belonged to 6 Chambers of Commerce, attended about 8 networking groups and gave referrals that he never seemed to get any referrals in return. He felt that he was getting way too little for his efforts.

While he was making an attempt, he really missed the point. He was attempting to network way too much. All that he was accomplishing was attending events but was not building any relationships.

The key to networking is in the relationship building. All he was doing was spending a lot of time attending functions and collecting business cards. I explained to him that he needed to belong to only one or two Chambers and get involved in them in some way. Instead of just attending all the networking groups, he needed to become an active member of one or two of those as well. Perhaps one Chamber group and one non-Chamber group.

Not only was he not building any solid relationships but even though he worked to give referrals, everyone in the various groups knew that he was attending all these other functions so they also saw him as a taker and not a giver. The members of the various groups figured that they would only get a very occasional referral as he didn't have enough to go around or that he was giving the same lead to several in the same business category.

Is this happening to you? Hopefully not but if you are going to more than a couple of various groups a week you may be suffering from the same problem. Just cut back, get involved and build those relationships.

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Copyright © 2009, Bill Hurlbut

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