It is important that people grasp the nature of true networking. How many of you have been in other networks. Raise your hand.
You may have even done this yourself. One month maybe two and gone. We have all seen people come and go in networks. Just when you start to get to know somebody they are down the road.
They are usually spreading comments like, “Nobody shares leads or referrals” or “That group is dead I only had a few people buy from me”
What is keeping them from success is their perception of networking .
Let's look at the definition of “leverage”
Here are a couple that suit our purposes :
Leverage (lev-er-ij )
-
to use (a quality or advantage) to obtain a desired effect or result.
- The use of a small initial investment , credit, or borrowed funds to gain a very high return in relation to ones investment
Over here they are talking about money. But in networking, we are talking, time, relationships, trust. That is our initial investment and that is what will get you those high returns.
There are hunters and there are farmers. Hunters don't network. They don't even know the meaning. They bag 3 or four kills and move on to the next hunting ground. It sounds a lot like sales to me, and to me, that sound like a lot of work.
It is the farmer that and cultivates the relationships and lets them grow to cast their seeds to the wind. In time the farmer will reap the fruits of those relationships. As his relationships bloom, so will his business.
“ I would rather have one percent of the efforts of one hundred people, than one hundred percent of my own efforts.”
J. Paul Getty never knew what a network was. But his comment, is not only the quintessential definition for leveraging but it defines the core principle of networking as well
We are not here to sell to each other, that is just a bonus! We are here to leverage our time and our relationships, to help them multiply, to build our farm and to help our business grow.
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