At the same time, individuals defining your network also have expectations that influence your own behavior. Your work habits, for example, may include arriving at work five minutes early each day. You do this because your supervisor expects you to be punctual, and you believe it's important to impress upon both your supervisor and co-workers the importance of punctuality. Individuals in your network know you as someone who usually plays a specific role vis-a-vis themselves: spouse, father, supervisor, colleague, friend, or acquaintance. Seldom do you present yourself to the same individual in more than one role.
You know many other individuals whom you may or may not interact with on a regular basis. For example, you have relatives that you may see only once a year; an old high school friend you still exchange Christmas cards with; a sorority sister you haven't seen in over seven years; a former high school or college teacher; or your doctor, lawyer, banker, insurance agent, and minister whom you only occasionally meet. While not as important to you on a daily basis, many of these individuals may play critical roles during certain times of your life. All should be included in your network.
Develop A Contact List
One of the best ways to identify members in your network is to develop a contact list. Begin by making a list of 200 people you know. This list will most likely include relatives, neighbors, fellow workers, former employers, alumni, friends, acquaintances, bankers, doctors, lawyers, ministers, and professional colleagues. Perhaps only 10 of these people will be in your immediate day-to-day network. The others may be former friends, acquaintances, or your Aunt Betsy you haven't seen in over 10 years. If you have difficulty developing such a list, refresh your memory by referring to the following checklist of categories:
CATEGORIES FOR CONTACT LIST 1
- Friends (consult your Christmas card list)
- Neighbors (past and present)
- Social acquaintances (group and club members)
- Classmates (high school and college)
- Local alumni
- tradespeople, drugstore owner
- doctor, dentist optician, therapist
- lawyer, accountant, real estate agent
- insurance agent, stock broker, travel agent
- Local bank manager
- Relatives (immediate and distant)
- Politicians (local, state, and national)
- Chamber of Commerce members
- Pastors, ministers
- Church members
- Trade association members
- Professional organization executives
- Other members of professional organizations
- People you meet at conferences or conventions
- Speakers at meetings you've attended
- Business club executives and members (Rotary, Kiwanis, Jaycees, etc)
- Representatives of direct-sales businesses (real estate, insurance/ Amway, Shaklee, Avon)
After developing your comprehensive list of contacts/ classify the names into four different categories:
- Those in influential positions or who have hiring authority.
- Those with job leads.
- Those most likely to refer you to others.
- Those with long-distance contacts.
Expand Your Network
Methods for expanding one's networks are closely related to several face-to-face sales techniques used in the insurance/ real estate, and other direct-sales businesses: prospecting/ pyramiding/ and client referral systems. In the job search the analogous techniques become prospecting, networking, and informational interviewing. Your job search goals and situations will be similar to those found in many successful businesses:
- Your goal is to sell an important high quality product - yourself - by shopping around for a good buyer.
- The buyer wants to be assured, based upon previous and current demonstration, which he or she is investing in a high quality and reliable product.
- Face-to-face communication, rather than impersonal advertising, remains the best way to make buying/selling decisions.
- When the buyer and seller exchange information on each other, the quality of information improves and the new relationship will probably be mutually beneficial, and satisfying.
