Networking 101 - Quality before Quantity

 Networking 101 - Quality before Quantity

By Nikki Viljoen of N Viljoen Consulting (Pty) Ltd  

Dr Renate Volpe, in her nugget cards entitled “Networking Tips” says:

“Making two or three good contacts at an event is good enough.  You don’t have to “work” the whole room”.

Now she tells me!  This is one of the biggest mistakes that I made when I first went to Networking events and meetings.  In my enthusiasm, I wanted to talk to everybody and ran around frenetically trying to get every person’s card and then afterwards trying desperately to get an appointment with someone!  That was really hard work and in many ways very soul-destroying too.

You see many people don’t understand the value of networking and so they couldn’t see the connection or synergies that “could have been” and the result of that of course was that they couldn’t see why there was a need to meet with me in the first place, let alone discuss ways in which we could help one another.  That, for me, was and still is, very difficult to understand.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I was spending a huge amount of time and energy on people who could not see the value of what I was doing – so quite frankly – why bother!

Nowadays, even if I only make one contact, that for me is good enough.  That one person, understanding what networking is all about and the value that I not only get from that person, but the value that I can give to that person, is worth far more to me in time, effort and good referrals than 100 people who cannot see the value and have no interest in what I am doing.

So be selective, get in touch with “like-minded people” – don’t waste your time and energy on those who cannot or will not see!

For more information on Renate, please visit her website at http://www.drrenatevolpe.co.za  

Nikki is an Internal Auditor and Business Administration Specialist who can be contacted on 083 702 8849 or nikki@viljoenconsulting.co.za or http://www.viljoenconsulting.co.za