Networking 101: Second Exercise

Exercise 2

Using the same list of people as Excercise 1 (refer: last blog!!!), come up with 5 qualities/skills you want the person in the list to know about you. More often than not, we assume that people will find something memorable about us, but we don’t manage what exactly that something is. Be SPECIFIC!!!

Next to each person, right down three characteristics or souvenirs do you want each individual to have about you. It is important to think of this as an individual interaction with each person on the list. What you write for person A may not be the same souvenir you want to person B to walk away with. For example, if person A is a marketing executive, I may want them to know that I am creative. If person B is an HR expert, I would want to leave an impression that I have experience in interviewing. Try to think of a specific characteristic you want to be evoked when they think of you or hear your name mentioned. Try to answer the question of “I am the go to person for _________” or “I am known as a person who can ________”

Next to the characteristic, write down a “10-words-or-less” synopsis of an example you could give that would create the impression. What you want to focus on is having a story to tell instead of a bullet point – stories give you more to evoke a memory.

Now, think back to interactions you’ve had. Haven’t there been moments when you have walked away saying “I wish I had said…” or “I wish they knew I could…..” Frequently, its human nature to hesitate bringing up a point about ourselves because we don’t know how it will be received. You tell your friends a story and, if we are honest with ourselves, we know that half the time they are only listening because they are our friends. They want to know what dress we bought, what happened at the salon, what we did today because they, by definition of friend, care. And we can’t underestimate the fact sometimes we listen because, well, we want our turn too! For networking, you are creating the professional relationship – you have the luxury of creating the friend you want to be known as. In order to create that impression, we need to tell the anecdotes, show the image that we want others to have of us. By planning our anecdotes and adjusting them accordingly, we are prepared for opportunities to create the impression. To be present in the moment, to turn a moment of “Hey-how-are-you-I’m-fine” into something memorable. This exercise is built to give you the marketing materials for you to posture your product (which, again, is you) and turn an “I wish I had….” to “I was ready to”.

We now have the commodity, the marketing, and the customers. Seems like its logical, right? But what do you do with this plethora of knowledge? Therein lies the rub. Have you ever watched a cooking show, say 30-minute meals with Rachel Ray, and think, wow, that looks easy! Who knew I could make Chicken Kiev in 30 minutes? You look around your kitchen and suddenly all you see is opportunity of fantastic Michelin-star rated meals and you are armed with your Rachel Ray steps. Hurrah! No Hamburger Helper tonight! Now answer this: have you ever actually done it? Doing it in your head doesn’t count. This is the same concept. We all know the basic tenets to networking – meet people and stay in touch. We all know the fundamentals of CRM – know the customer, know their needs, and meet them. The difference between actual real-life-yup-I’m-networking-and-its-effective and yup-I-have-200-people-I-kinda-know-but-am-connected-to-on-linkedin is what we do with this knowledge. How do we use it for good rather than…well…nothing *insert Starwars theme music here*