The effective networking framework
Why do good musicians manage to coordinate so well when playing together? For a simple reason: besides knowing the score, they listen to each other simultaneously. That’s a good example of a perfect network: joining forces to achieve individual goals that suit everyone.
To network you need first and foremost to understand others’ interests and motivations, rather than trying to pitch yourself. This implies that you learn to improve your social intelligence skills, as well as the ability to be empathetic and communicate effectively. As you may guess, building relationships has nothing to do with spreading your business card to everyone in the room. This can be counterproductive and damaging, actually.
Before casting your net to an audience, there’s also this foundational question that must be answered: what do you really want? What are your strengths, where do you – personally or your company – want to get? If your strategy isn’t clear to yourself, it will never be clear to your interlocutor.
To network effectively, you must put on hold your personal goals and foster those of your partner. Your aim is not to get a contract but to deliver value.
The process of building your brand also requires that you identify in your niche the relevant connections, influencers, and mentors. This will help you to move forward much faster. Prepare for them an elevator pitch. People don’t want their time to be wasted. Your message must be crystal clear and based on how you can assist them and why you can do it better than anyone else. Of course, this implies prior intelligence work to identify the key points that may urge your audience into a partnership with you.
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