Business Networking with NRG - Who’s in your network?

Do you ever meet people who boast about the amount of people in their network – “I know over 1000 people!” And there you are thinking you don’t know anybody. Well of course you do, but the real question is “How many of the right people are in your network?.” Isn’t it more important to have a handful of the right people in your network who regularly introduce you or refer you to the people you want to meet rather than have lots of business cards of people you may have met once and where you don’t appear on their radar.

Here’s a way of defining your network into different categories:

Outer Network

These are all the people you have met at some stage. If you’ve got their business card they are in your outer network. It doesn’t mean you know much or indeed anything about them.

Resource Network

These are the people you have met and recognise they have a particular skill or offer a valuable service. You may well have had a follow up (or 121) meeting with them, recognise their expertise, but don’t wish to continue building the relationship. These people are useful to know and refer. Our trademark lawyer is in this category. He did a cracking job for NRG and I would refer him to anyone.

Inner Network

These are your target referral sources, people you have followed up with, had a 121 meeting and have decided you want to continue the relationship building process. These are the potential networking ‘gold mine’ you are looking for. They share the same target market as you and are in a complementary market to you. You should go out of your way to find referrals for them and build your relationship with them. Like close friends you will probably have only one or two handfuls of people in your inner network.

Advocates

These are the small group of people you have decided you are prepared to actively refer and introduce them. You have developed a close relationship with them, you know, like, trust, rate them – you go out of you way to find introductions and referrals for them. In short you are an advocate for them.

In summary, when you are thinking about who’s in your network, think about who you want in your inner network. Remember there are just two criteria “do I like them?” and “do they know my target market?”.

Written by Martin Davies, NRG Business Networks