How To Network Effectively

July 13, 2010

Interview with Ivan Misner, author of the book Networking Like a Pro: Turning Contacts into Connections

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Mike Carruthers:
Everyone who has a job has heard about the importance of networking.

Ivan Misner:
And networking has been around a long time but it’s been practiced badly. Whether people don’t understand it and the reason for that is that we don’t teach this in colleges and universities. We give kids bachelor’s degrees in marketing – they don’t have a clue how to network and they totally confuse networking with direct selling.
 

Ivan Misner, author of the book Networking Like a Pro...

You go to a business mixer somebody walks up to you and says, “Hi, my name’s John, you know we should be doing business.” And they try to sell rather than build relationships. Networking is more about farming than it is about hunting. It’s about cultivating professional relationships with other people and developing trust. People prefer people they know and trust.

How do you build those relationships? Ivan says it’s basically a 3-step process called V, C, P.

Stands for visibility, credibility, and profitability – you first have to be visible in the community; people have to know who you are and what you do. Then you have to establish credibility. Credibility is where people know who you are, they know what you do and they know you’re good at it. And only when you’ve gotten to credibility can you get to profitability where people know who you are, they know what you do, they know you’re good at it and they’re willing to pass referrals to you on an ongoing reciprocal basis. Where networking goes bad is where people try to jump ahead.

Jumping ahead is tempting because effective networking takes time. How much time?

It varies by profession but as a rule we tell people you’re looking at 6 months or more.
 

To hear the complete unedited interview, click here