Business 101
It takes less effort to keep an existing customer than to gain a new customer. This is business 101. The companies focus on the acquisition, but should also focus on customer service and retention in order to succeed. So why do not people apply this philosophy to your personal network? For some people the word “networking” conjures up events where people go through business cards indiscriminately, and the late afternoon have enough cards to play blackjack, but no significant contacts. Others think back to graduate school and the suggestion of the office race to find a job through networking? which means cold calling and asking for more ex-students (or begging) for a job. In the meantime, you can lose touch with the people who really know. They focus on the acquisition, but not in customer service or retention. His friends, friends, family, coworkers, friends in the gym? all these people are included in your network.
Are you feeding your network? focusing on customer service of the equation? Or is that just by working on the acquisition and leasing previous contacts disappear from your list? The best way to feed your network is to help people in it. Enter the job-hunter to someone you know in your field. Pass in the name of your favorite B & B in the pair is preparing to celebrate its anniversary. Provide the names of your doctor, dentist, hairdresser and his old friend who just moved to the city. And though it seems like a no-brainer, always write a note of congratulations for a promotion, a wedding, or a new baby. It is less often than it seems, and will stand out from the rest. Of course it is difficult to help members of your network, if you’ve lost touch with them. Try to contact everyone in your network on a regular basis? once per quarter is sufficient. This means contact with any agenda, except to check in.
Find out what’s going on with them and see if there a way you can help them. Then when you want to ask a favor, or tap into their networks, which in turn, be willing to help. Action steps for this month: Contact three people with whom you have not spoken in some time. Let them know that you were thinking about them, and ask how they are doing. Reconnect. Then be sure to keep this connection, getting in touch with them once a quarter. Some suggestions to start your thinking: a former boss a colleague who now works for a competitor a fraternity brother, the pitcher’s football team last summer a co-worker who has joined a different division of your company a former client of the Home week! / Work Life Balance checkpoint: Are you spending a lot of energy in their business contacts, but ignoring your loved ones? Write notes to your former colleagues, but forgetting the birthday of her sister, puts you in the Hall of Shame Network. Make sure your program this month allows several opportunities to meet with friends and neighbors.