It was nice to head back to the LBM Expo hosted by the Northeastern Retail Lumber Association, I got to reconnect with some old colleagues, interact with some constituents, and meet some new people to add to my network of professionals.
It is this last class of interactions that gave me pause, “a network of professionals”, think about it for a minute, we all have a network that spans (depending on your age) thousands of people over your lifetime. As I pondered this classification I began to think, does my network add value to me, personally and professionally? Does that matter? Then I thought even deeper, do “I” add value to my network?
WOW! talk about a reality check. Then I remembered a book I read a while back titled “Little Black Book of Connections’ by Jeffrey Gitomer, in this book Jeffrey laid out four questions that we should all contemplate regarding our network/connections.
1) Who do you know? Who you know encompasses who you can readily connect with easily and obviously.
2) How well are you connected? Think about the term “Six Degrees of Separation” and then apply that to who you want to know/meet. How well you are connected will allow you to determine how many degrees it will take to meet this person. And the more value you add your network (see #4) the more likely you will have that opportunity.
3) Do you know how to make a connection? Now for those of us sales people out there I know what you’re thinking, “Of course I know how to make a connection, I couldn’t make a living if I didn’t”. To that I would say you are partially correct and would challenge you to ask yourself, if you truly knew how to make a connection could you make a better living?
The next question is, in my opinion, the most important!
4) Who know YOU! This ties back into the value statement I lamented earlier in this post.
In business, we have a strategic term called a “Value Proposition” which is the fundamental reason you are able to compete in your marketplace.
By the way, if your organization does not have a tangible, quantifiable, and monetary value proposition you might want to check out our website for help, you could be missing opportunities.
Ok enough of the sales plug, back to the value you provide to your network. What is your value proposition to your network, not from a competitive perspective vis-à-vis another person in your network, but from an actual value perspective. How valuable are you to the people in your network? Bottom line, if you keep asking others to connect with you and you do not get any/many people asking you to connect with them, readdress your value proposition to your network. If you have put yourself out there as a person of value, people will want to connect with you!
Until next time,
Cheers
Jeremi
Bauer Management Group 