It’s not what you know. It’s not who you know. It’s who knows you.
Don’t believe me? Think of somebody fairly important you have met at another company you would like to do business with or work at. It could be the sales manager, purchasing director, or hiring manager. Do you know this person? Is theirs the first name that pops into your head whenever someone says, “Do you know anyone at ABC company?” or “Do you know anyone who sells X?”
Let’s turn the tables. Does this person know you? Is yours the first name that pops into their head whenever someone says, “we need to hire a new project manager” or “we need 5,000 new widgets. Who should we call?” If it is, you can stop reading. But if yours is not the first, second, or even fifth name that pops into their mind, they don’t know you. Or at least they don’t know you well enough to call you.
So, you can know that person all you want, but if they don’t know you, it doesn’t matter if you shared an elevator or a six hour flight home.
Any successful person, regardless of what they do for their job, can tell you that networking is one of the most important reasons for their success. It’s because they knew, and were known by, other successful people. They had done something to be at the top of the other person’s mind when the time was right.
So how are you getting that recognition from your chosen targets? How do you insure that your name is one of the first ones that come to mind whenever someone says, “who can we get to ____?”
More importantly, are you meeting the right kind of people? If you’re trying to promote your public speaking career, does it help that you know the desk manager of a large hotel chain? Or are you better off trying to get to know the events managers of different trade associations?
Meeting the right people and getting your name and face in front of those people who can help you is one of the best ways to improve your networking. The fact that you met them at a networking event doesn’t do a thing for you. What matters is that you are memorable (positively), helpful, and can provide them some value.
I’ll talk about how you can provide this value and become memorable in a future post.
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