Making sure you have the wells dug before your thirsty…

This is the latest blog post from my sales and account management advice blog, I haven't posted it yet so I'm happy to hear your thoughts.

Hope you like it.

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Making sure you have the wells dug before your thirsty…

Firstly, great book by Harvey Mackay.

The old saying your network determines your net worth, is the round up point made in this article. There are number of people who are tied to their day job and their immediate value network (that being their family and the one or two co-workers they spend the most time around).

That number of people tend to let go of their lifelong friends or previous long time work colleagues. I’m not sure if it’s because people are spending their mental capacity in dealing with personal challenges. Maybe it’s a lack of self-awareness, or simply because people see no value in holding onto those professional contacts.

But what happens when your job position at work is no longer required. Or you need a personal favor with a crucial outcome and that one friendship you decided to neglect could’ve been part of the answer to your problems.

This will happen at least once in your professional life in some way.

Personal relationships are not hard to maintain; this is simple as sending a LinkedIn message, a text message or even a phone call on someone’s birthday. The ones who had made a greater impact in your career of personal life I would suggest to keep in regular contact with. The same way you manage your sales pipeline or your client portfolio with your ‘touch base’ calls need to be same with some of your key friendships. How often would you do it? Well, I would suggest to use your better judgement.

Attending reunion parties, networking events, even birthday parties is a must. Simple reason is you don’t know who you might meet. Aside from the value you bring with your presence, making new contacts via referrals could make you a lot more money, or at least the best step forward to making you more money. Further to that comment, and I’m looking upon this from a lateral perspective; in this tech world we live in, competition to win business is fierce and prospects are faced with many choices. So, meeting you in person even via a current contact is a step closer to the best outcome, that being your best outcome.

Putting all that aside, the analogy ‘dig the wells before your thirsty’ meaning you shouldn’t wait until your dying of thirst to begin your networking and asking for favors… Play the long game, having spent only little time reaching out to your network, but over a period of time will mean more referrals for business, more friends made and a guaranteed sterling reference for your next job role.

“Those who want respect, give respect”

                             Tony Soprano