The Number One Way to Totally Fail at Networking
Who spends countless hours networking hoping to fail and see no results from their efforts? That’s right, no one! So, it blows my mind that I commonly see people single-handedly sabotaging their success–they guarantee their own failure by failing to follow up with the contacts they make.
Photo courtesy of stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
There’s a story I was once told by one of my employees which perfectly demonstrates this and I’d like to share it with you here . . . (Note: The names in this story have been changed to protect the innocent . . . and the guilty.)
My employee, whom we’ll call Winnifred (since she’d like to remain anonymous and it’s the most unfitting name for her that I can think of . . . well, aside from maybe Gertrude ;-)), was in need of a graphic designer to assist her with the creation of a website for her father’s business. She attended a local networking mixer where she met a graphic designer, “Blake,” who seemed excited about the project and claimed he could accomplish exactly what she needed at a very reasonable price.
They exchanged contact information and connected the next week by phone to discuss the project in further detail. Winnifred was pleased with Blake’s ideas and liked the examples she’d seen of his work. She told him he seemed like the perfect person to help her with the project and that she’d like him to send her a price quote as soon as possible.
A week went by and Winnifred heard nothing from Blake. When she called him, he said he was working on a quote and gave some lame excuse about being busy. Another week went by and, again, nothing from Blake. Frustrated, but willing to give Blake another chance because she really did like his work, she sent him an e-mail and left him a voicemail saying that she would love to give him her business and was really anxious to hear back from him.
After two weeks went by without hearing back from him, Winnifred found another graphic designer. To this day, Blake has never responded.
Here is what floors me . . . I know for a fact that this guy, “Blake,” is still frequenting local networking mixers (which cost money to attend, by the way) trying to drum up more business. Yet when he had money practically sitting on the table in front of him, he failed to follow through. No matter what his reason was for not getting back to Winnifred–being too busy, too lazy or whatever else–he shouldn’t be out there networking if he can’t follow through on what he claims to be able to deliver. He’s wasting his time (and money) and, more important, he’s wasting other people’s time–which is earning him nothing more than a bad name.
The moral of this story: If you aren’t prepared to follow through, networking is no more than a big waste of time.
If you have a “Blake the Flake” story of your own, I’d love to hear about your experience. Please feel free to share your story in the comments section.
As National Director of BNI in New Zealand – I often hear of members who tell me that things are so busy right now that they don’t have time to network. This is a tricky one – because if you are genuinely too busy for any more business, then to attend networking events does seem somewhat pointless – or even counter productive. My advice however is that things can change – and quickly – and however busy you may be today – don’t neglect your networking as you will need them if there is a downturn in the economy. It is important to be clear why you are networking and what your goal is. I you are not looking for business – or are only looking for that ideal referral – it is important to remember that if you receive referrals and don’t follow up – you are actually damaging your reputation/business and wasting other peoples time as well. So my advice is to keep on networking – and focus on networking to be a gatekeeper – to help others through your experience and contacts but don’t be afraid to politely turn down people who approach you for work. It may seem that you are being nice to them by not hurting their feelings – but if you give them the run around – you are creating more stress for yourself as well as wasting their time and damaging your reputation.