Art of Networking Tips

Boost Your Income by Attracting More Attention

"Money flows toward points which attract prosurvival attention. You make as much money as you get attention." -- L. Ron Hubbard (prosurvival: something that aids or assists you or others)

Step One

You can attract attention by committing a crime, but instead of getting rich, you go to prison. You attracted nonsurvival attention.

You attract prosurvival attention when you first help people with their health, their lifestyle, their careers, their businesses and so on. For example, not long ago, computers began helping people and businesses in many incredible ways. As a result, thousands of people in the computer industry became millionaires.

On an individual level, you need to be doing something that is prosurvival to others. You need to be helping your company, your co-workers, your clients or customers.

Step Two

You then attract attention and show how you help people with their survival, happiness and success. As a result, you make money.

Businesses that attract attention succeed. For example, McDonald's and Wal-Mart dominate their industries, but they continue to spend millions in advertising. In fact, because advertising has never been cheaper, smart companies are jumping in with both feet!

You, as an individual, can also attract good attention. You simply tell people about your prosurvival product or service. You get people to notice you. You brag it up!

For example, a friendly, helpful car salesman always wore a green hat. Like many salesmen, he truly helped people. All his customers remembered and recommended him, not by his name, but as the "guy in the green hat." The hat got him attention and he wore it every day for decades. Those who knew him claimed he sold more vehicles than anyone in history.

Ten Tips For Attracting Prosurvival Attention

Business increase their income by attracting prosurvival attention with many forms of public relations and marketing activities. You can do the same as an individual with actions like these.

1. Do things that are so beneficial that others are compelled to spread the news.

2. Share stories about your happy customers with other customers.

3. Promote something unique about yourself, like the man in the green hat. Stand out from the crowd.

4. Strike up conversations with strangers whenever possible.

5. Spread the news about your good work to everyone at your job, especially your boss.

6. Go to social events and meet as many new people as you can.

7. Get your family and friends to talk about the many ways you help people.

8. Speak in public at every opportunity.

9. Post your prosurvival ideas on the web (blogs, social networks, forums, your web pages).

10. Look and act like a professional at all times.

The more attention you attract, the more money you can make.

Networking, collaboration, online promotion, and delivery will be the toolset for the next iteration of the business cycle.

Why Do People Network?

We found people network for a variety of reasons:

1)  Entrepreneurs like networking.

2)  They see the network as the best 'fit' for the desired purpose.

3) A network is a low cost option for marketing a service or product.

What Networking Options Are There?

There are effectively two polar positions. In the BNI approach you have meetings every week with 20-30 people and leverage your network from there. BNI is designed to consist of a small network of people who develop a very strong relationship with one another.

Ecademy's approach, on the other hand, is that the more connections you have the better. To caricature this position: You should connect with everyone in the world—once—and see what happens. 

The Key Skills of Networking

According to our respondents, the key skills of networking were thought to be:

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• Listening skills;
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• Communication skills; and,
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• An attitude of Givers Gain®.
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Givers Gain (also sometimes called 'paying it forward') means doing favours and passing referrals on first, while waiting for the 'law of karma' to work on your behalf later when you have enough good 'karma points' in the bank. Spamming everyone with business cards and then maintaining a 'close the sales deal' approach seems not to work in this environment.

If you can build and maintain a good reputation for competence in a sought after area and are generally pleasant to deal with, networking is a great way of leveraging your ability to reach more customers.

How Trust Is Developed in Networks

This brings us neatly to the issue of building trust and developing a reputation. We found that trust is built from 3 building blocks:

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• Knowing your stuff;
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• Being able to deliver; and,
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• Being likable, or at least easy to work with.

For a neophyte networker, the key advice is you only have one chance to make a first impression.

Trust motivates people to recommend you.   Stephen M.R. Covey talks about this in his book  The Speed of Trust. In the book he discusses the 'Three Key Ideas' to move at the speed of trust:

There is a compelling business rationale for trust. It affects cost. There are economic benefits. High trust is a dividend and low trust is a tax. When trust goes down, speed goes down with it. When trust goes up, speed goes up and costs go down. This is a dividend, a high-trust dividend. Trust is a qualitative and quantitative factor. Nothing is as fast as the speed of trust.

Trust is a competency. It is something we create and can get good at. It all starts with self-trust and personal credibility. Are we behaving in a way that builds trust and transparency? Are we keeping commitments and talking straight?

Once trust is developed, begin collaborating using the Internet. Most of the tools you need, both for online networking and for collaborative working, are either free or comparatively inexpensive.