Power Networking

Teleseminar Notes and Outline

Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Introduction:

Benefits and Reasons For Networking

Your ability to network effectively throughout your career can help you to be
successful as much or more than any other single activity.

1. You will meet more and better people who can help you, and who you can
help in return.

2. You will get more warm leads and warm calls versus cold leads and cold calls
to sell to in your business.

3. You will get more and better referrals to better prospects and go in with higher
levels of credibility.

4. You will get better jobs at higher pay, and be promoted faster.

5. Overall, as a result of networking effectively, you will become a more important

and influential person in your business world.

The Law of Probabilities:

This says that there is a probability that everything can happen, and that you can
influence these probabilities by doing certain things on a regular basis.

By the law of probabilities, the more people that you meet and get to know, the
greater will be the likelihood that you will meet and know the right person, at the
right time, with the right business opportunity for you.

Werner Seisinger’s Uncertainty Principal says that, using the probability theory,
you can predict exactly the number of people or particles in a population that will
behave in a certain way. But it is uncertain, because you can never predict
which of those particles or people will behave in that way.

What this means is that there are always people in any group who can help you,
but you cannot predict exactly who those people might be. For this reason, you
must “Cast a wide net” when you network.

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Your job is to focus on the quantity of people that you meet, as well as the quality
of those people. What we know is that the quality of people that you meet will
largely be determined by the quantity that you meet in the first place.

Rule: you are always networking; everywhere you go, in every interaction and
personal contact. The only question is, “How good are you at networking?”

Nathenial Brandon, a renowned psychologist, said that the most important quality
for success is to “become more conscious of what you are doing, and what is
going on around you.”

What this means is that you must become more alert. More aware. More
sensitive to other people and interactions. The most successful people in
networking are those who are wide awake to the way people are acting, reacting,
and interacting around them. Pay attention.

Simple networking:

This involves meeting and greeting the people that you run into on a daily basis.
Remember, everyone you meet knows the first names of at least 300 other
people. If only ten percent of those 300 people are potential customers for you,
that means that everyone you run into, at a restaurant or a gas station, has the
names of thirty prospective customers for what you sell.

You do not have to be an extroverted or outgoing person to network effectively.

All you have to do is open a conversation with a simple remark or comment to
someone with whom you come into contact.

1. Gas station: “That’s a nice looking car; are you happy with it?”

2. Restaurant: “May I ask what it is you are eating? It looks pretty good!”

3. Planes, Trains and other forms of public transportation: “That looks like an
interesting book. Is it worth reading?”

4. Shopping bag: “I have never shopped at that store. Would you recommend
it?”

The key to simple networking is to make a comment or an observation, ask a

question, ask for advice or a recommendation, or say whatever occurs to you to
build a bridge with the other person. Sometimes, a person you meet casually
can turn out to be a life long friend or a business contact.

Complex Networking:

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The rule is that, “Fish where the fish are.” If you want to meet a lot of people that
can be helpful to you in your life and career, go to the places that these people
congregate. Join organizations and associations. Attend meetings. Take
business courses that are likely to be attended by the kind of people that you
want to know.

Join Organizations:

This is the most powerful and helpful form of networking that is available to you
throughout your business life. Your ability to get involved in the right
organizations can leap frog you ahead in your career, earn you thousands of
dollars, and save you years of hard work on your own.

1. You should join your own professional or trade organization and attend
meetings so that you can keep current with the most important things that are
going on in your business;

2. For networking, you should join organizations and associations whose

members are the kind of people who can become your customers;

3. Select only one or two organizations to join. Your time is valuable and limited.
If you become completely involved in two organizations, you will not have time to
become involved in very much more;

4. Before you join an organization, attend a meeting of that organization. Do

your research. Do your due diligence. Be selective. Do not simply join an
organization because they will accept you as a member.

5. Introduce yourself to other people at the meeting. Give you name clearly and
shake hands firmly. Walk, talk, and move with confidence and composure.

6. Ask people about themselves. “What sort of work do you do?” “What company
do you word with?” “How long have you been a member of this organization?”
Make no attempt to sell yourself or your services during your initial networking
activities.

7. Be a go-giver, rather than a go-getter. Sell without selling. Instead of looking

at people for what you can get from them, ask people questions and think about
how you might be able to help them in some way.

8. Everyone has two fears: a) Being hustled or manipulated; b) Being taken

advantage of. Whenever you meet new people, these fears are uppermost in
their minds. Your first job is to allay these fears by making no attempt to promote
yourself or your products.

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form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.
Practice the “Law of indirect effort.” Instead of trying to impress others, be
impressed by them. Instead of trying to sell your products, encourage them to
sell their products to you.

9. Ask them what sort of work they do. Ask them what sort of products or
services their company or organization offers. Ask them who their typical
customers are. Especially, ask them to describe to you a “perfect customer” for
their product or service.

Say these words, “I meet and talk to a lot of people in my business. Please
describe to me your ideal customer so that I can determine whether or not I know
someone that I can recommend to you.”

People love to talk about their business and there customers. Especially, they
love it when you offer to send them a customer for what they sell.

10. Ask the person for his or her business card. When he gives you his
business card, take it and study it carefully. Treat the business card with respect.
This is the same as treating the person who gave you the card with respect.
Comment on the card. Say, “This looks like a very good company.”

11. Make a note on the back of the business card to remind you of what you
talked about. Never trust to memory.

12. Immediately after this encounter, the following day, write him a note or send
a letter that says something like this: “It was a pleasure meeting you at the
meeting yesterday. I very much enjoyed talking to you and learning about your
business. I hope we get a chance to talk together again soon. “

Write a note of acknowledgement by hand, address the envelope by hand and

use a stamp rather than a franking machine for postage. This will double or triple
the likelihood that the other person will remember you in a positive way.

13. Make it a practice to send out at least one thank you or acknowledgement
card each day. If you can send more than that, be sure to do it. If you send out
one card per day, that will be 22 cards per month or more than 250 new contacts
per year.

Practice “seeding” throughout your business career. You will often have to plant
seeds that do not germinate for many months or many years, and may not
germinate at all. But because of the law of probabilities, and the uncertainty
principal, if you keep meeting people and sending them notes, “what goes
around, comes around.”

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form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.
14. As soon as you possibly can, send your new acquaintance a customer or a
lead of some kind. There is nothing that cements a relationship faster than your
sending them a prospective customer. They will remember you for a long time.

Join committees of the organization[s] that you have decided to join:

1. Review the names of the people in the various committees of the organization;

2. Decide which committee contains the kind of people that you would like to
meet and get to know;

3. Ask around and find out what are the most important activities, and therefore
the most important committees, of the organization;

4. Because everyone is a volunteer, committees are almost always open to new

members who want to volunteer their services;

5. Once you get on a committee and learn the names of all the other members,
become actively involved. Don’t just sit there. Ask questions. Make comments.
Do homework or research prior to the meetings. Be a player.

6. This is the key: Volunteer for assignments. 20% of the people on any
committee do 80% of the committee work. Your job is to be among the top 20%.
You do this by volunteering to take on assignments that are important to the
activities of the committee.

7. Once you have volunteered for an assignment, look upon it as extremely

important to your future. Whatever it is, do it quickly and well. Develop a
reputation for speed and dependability.

8. When you work on a committee of an organization, everyone will be watching

you and evaluating you, but in a non-threatening environment. They will be
curious to see how well you perform in doing something for which you are not
remunerated.

9. When you do your committee assignment well, people will respect you more
highly and esteem you to be of greater value. They will think about you and talk
about you in a positive way.

10. People like to buy from people they know. People like to recommend people
they know. People like to associate with people that they know and have worked
with in organizations and committees.

11. Finally, in all organization and committee work, resolve to be punctual. Be

prepared. Be organized and on time. Imagine that each person on the

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form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.
committee has a scorecard and is grading you in terms of your competence and
character at every interaction.

Basic networking protocols:

1. Always carry sufficient business cards. Only hand them out when someone
asks you for a business card. Do not go around the room thrusting business
cards into people’s hands. They will feel that you are trying to hustle or
manipulate them.

2. Always ask people for their business cards. Study the business card and try to
memorize the name and the face. Treat the business card with respect and
make notes on the back of what you are going to do immediately afterwards to
follow up.

3. When you meet people for the first time, ask them about themselves
personally, rather than exclusively about their business. Ask them how long they
have been in town, whether they have children, how long they have been at their
current job, and what they think about what is happening in the news. This type
of general conversation will naturally bridge into a discussion of business
matters.

Mastermind groups:

This is one of the most powerful and important forms of networking that you can
use throughout your life.

1. Decide today to form a mastermind group. You do this by inviting three or four
people in your field, or in diverse fields, to join you for breakfast or lunch. You
will be amazed at how many people are flattered by the offer and will reorganize
their calendar to be there.

2. At your first mastermind meeting, and thereafter, take the initiative and the
responsibility for being in charge. Introduce each person to each other person,
and say something complementary or flattering about the person when you
introduce them.

3. At your first meeting or meetings, you can have a loose, “free-flow” structure.
Go around the table and have people talk about their work and what is going on
in their businesses. Your job is to make sure that everyone gets enough “airtime”
so that the discussion is of value to each person.

4. In a more structured mastermind, you can agree with the group on a book or
article that each person is going to read during the week, and then at the
meeting, you can discuss the book or article, and what each person thought was
the most important part contained in it.

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form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.
5. In each case, volunteer to reprint the articles, or get copies of the book for
each person.

6. You can form more than one mastermind group. You can have a mastermind
group of people who work in your business. You can have a mastermind group
of people who work in diverse businesses, but which could be customers of
yours, and which you could become a customer of yourself.

7. At your mastermind meetings, make no attempt to sell your products or

services. If someone asks what you do, explain how your product or service
benefits your customers but make no attempt to go into a lengthy or elaboration.

The Keys to Networking:

Perhaps the most important word in networking is “contribution.” You focus on

helping the other person rather than trying to get the other person to help you.
By the law of indirect effort, the more you help other people to achieve their goals
and objectives, the more open and eager they will be to help you to achieve your
goals and objectives, including buying your products or services, or referring you
to others that they know.

In all human relations, the key is to “Make others feel important.” You can do this
by following the six “A’s”:

1. Acceptance – Whenever you meet, greet and smile at another person, you
make them feel valuable and important, both to yourself and to the group. When
you meet people for the second time, always act as if you are happy to see them,
almost as if they have been away on a long journey;

2. Appreciation – Whenever you say “Thank you” to another person, they feel
more important and valuable. Always look for ways to say thank you, even if it
for just a piece of advice, or for passing you the cream for your coffee;

3. Agreeability – One of the keys to excellent human relationships is to always be

agreeable. Refuse to argue or to dispute a person, even when they’re obviously
wrong. If someone says something that you disagree with, you can remain
agreeable by saying, “That’s an interesting idea. I had always thought that it was
this way rather than that way. Tell me more about your idea.”

4. Admiration – “Everybody likes a compliment.” Look for a personal possession,

quality or trait in another person that you admire, and express your feelings.
“That is a beautiful tie; where did you get it?”

One of the most complimentary questions you can ask is, “You look great; have
you lost weight?” Admire men for their ties, suits and shoes; admire woman for

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form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.
their hair, their dress and their accessories. Whenever you compliment a person
their self-esteem goes up and they feel more important and valuable;

5. Approval – Express praise and approval for any accomplishment, large or

small of the other person. Whenever someone tells you about something that
they have achieved, always say, “Congratulations!”

6. Attention – Listen carefully to people when they speak. Lean forward, nod,
smile and be a totally engaged listener. Whenever you listen to a person intently
when they are talking, their self-esteem goes up, and their brain releases
endorphins. These are nature’s “Happy drug.” They make the person feel happy
about themselves and happy about being in your presence.

Remember the law of indirect effort.

The very best way to impress others is to be impressed by them. The very best
way to have others think of you as interesting is for you to be interested in them.
If you want people to consider you to be intelligent, admire and compliment on
the intelligent remarks and insights of the other person.

Networking via education:

As we said earlier, “Fish where the fish are.” This includes deliberately taking
additional educational courses throughout your career.

1. The most ambitious, hardest-working, and successful people are continually

learning more and more about their fields;

2. Attend seminars offered by your industry of professional association. The top

10% of people in each industry attend those seminars on a regular basis;

3. Take community college courses designed for adults, usually in the evening,
and sometimes on the weekends. These are usually short, intense courses on
business-related subjects. You will be amazed at the quality of people that you
will meet attending these courses;

4. Attend “Department-of-Extension” courses offered by your local universities.

These courses often attract the top business people in the community to attend,
and some of the top business experts in the field to lecture. Many people make a
career out of attending adult education courses and introducing themselves to
the other people in attendance.

5. In each case, arrive early, introduce yourself to others, ask what they do, and
ask for their business card. As soon as possible after meeting someone at a
seminar or course, send them a note, and whenever possible, send them a lead
to a prospective customer.

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form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.
Networking Strategy: Your five year plan.

1. Make a list of the top 100 people in your community who you would like to get
to know on a first name basis; you assemble this list by reading the newspapers,
listening to business radio, and watching local television on a regular basis. Jot
down the names of the major players in your community that would be useful for
you to get to know;

2. Open a file on each person. Buy yourself a box of files and create a hanging
file in your home office. Each time you see the mention of a person, clip it out
and put it into your file on that person in a chronological order.

3. When a person you want to know does something that gets into the
newspaper, write them a personal letter of congratulations or well wishes.
Whenever possible, send along a copy of a clipping from the newspaper, a
recent column that relates to their business, a reprint from a magazine on a
subject that might be of interest to them, or even a book or poem that you think
they might enjoy;

4. Be prepared to practice “seeding” for a long time before you get any reaction.
You may drop a note to another person several times over the course of months
or years without ever hearing anything back. But then, you will run into that
person by accident and he or she will remember you clearly from your
correspondence;

5. You may notice that the kind of people you want to meet belong to charitable
organizations in the community. If so, phone up and join that organization by
making a small contribution. A small financial contribution will put you onto their
mailing list, their e-mail list, their invitation list, and will mark you as the kind of
person to be invited to various functions of the organization;

6. Whenever you have an opportunity, attend the activity of the charitable

organization. Use all your networking skills. Introduce yourself to people and
ask for their business cards. Ask them about themselves. Make no effort to sell
your product or service.

Before you go to a meeting that has a member that you want to get to know, do
your homework. Review any notes or clippings that you have on that person.
Go onto Google and find out everything you can on that person. When you
comment to a person on something that you know about them, they will be
inordinately impressed that you took the trouble. Because they are impressed
with you, they will want to impress you in turn.

As you go about your day-to-day-life, tell other people how much you admire and
respect a particular individual that you would like to meet. Somehow, like a

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form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.
jungle telegraph, these compliments and comments get back to that person in
the most amazing ways.

Be prepared to spend five years getting to know and to be known by, the top 100
people in your community. Join their associations and organizations. Volunteer
to help. Make both financial and physical contributions. Write notes and sent
them customers. You will be amazed at the accumulative power or all of these
activities.

Finally, remember that, in life, it is not only the people you know that counts. It is
the people that know you and think of you in a positive way.

Sometimes, by the laws of probability, a single person at the right time and place
can change the direction of your entire life, and you never know which person
that might be.

Make a decision today to become an excellent net-worker. Continue broadening

your contacts throughout your life. The payoff will be tremendous!

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form for any purpose without the written permission of Brian Tracy.