Have you ever been in a networking group where you sit around the room and throw out names of who you would like to meet? When this question arises we find several responses for it. Some people say, “I would like to meet Business Attorneys”, another might say, “I would like to meet someone who works at ABC company”, and yet others say “I would like to meet John Doe of ABC Company”.
All of these are a degree of strategic networking, but are you really making the ask? Most people are very courteous, respectful and non-challenging. So we have a tendency not to ask people to be more specific. A large number of people networking understand that building a relationship is key to getting quality introductions. Within the Rainmaker model, we have the acronym SHARE. The A in SHARE is for accountability. One day, I felt the need to dig deeper into the “ask” of my fellow rainmakers. We have a good group, and we trust that each other will do a fantastic job with whatever referral we give. So where are the introductions? We had recently started throwing names in the air asking for introductions. Most of the time, we would write down the name in case we ran into someone who might know that person.
On this day, I got on LinkedIn and went to the profile of two of my group members. This time when I asked for an introduction, I knew exactly who had a relationship with the person I wanted to meet. I also told my group how I came up with the name I asked for. Now you try it… If you have someone in mind that you would like to meet, go to LinkedIn and search for their name. See who they are connected with then ask that person for an introduction.
We all want to help those in our group. Sometimes, the clarity in the message is just not there. The clarity of asking for an introduction to someone who is on your LinkedIn profile will be appreciated by everyone in the group. It actually becomes very exciting for everyone because now the members really feel like they are helping each other.
I suggest that you take a few minutes to go through the connections of those members on your action board or power circle, pick out 2 or 3 people you would like to meet then ask your members for one of them. You want to have a backup in case the strength of your first choice connection is weak.
Let me know how this works for your group, it is sure to spark some fun and accountability.
Stephanie Ringer
WorkShop; The Creative Work Place
502-583-8555
