Engaging with your network
Talking the talk
Formal meetings are making a bit of a comeback now. Meeting people face to face used to be the best part of my job, so whilst MS Teams and Zoom are practical, you can’t beat IRL.
Position yourself confidently. Open questioning, secondary questioning and listening to experiences people have worked through. Situations they have found themselves in. All captivating.
No two contacts or their backstory are the same. Each relationship you develop throughout your career journey is different. The contacts you value the most, those are the ones that I have developed MyExecLoop for. It’s not the friendly guy/girl at the conference, handing out business cards like sweets whose name you can’t quite remember, nor the FX trader that contacted you randomly through LinkedIn hoping you might like the photo…
So far you have made the leap to network, create your pitch, define your network and now need to engage with them. This ought to feel natural and stress free. You need to set simple goals and then you will have a positive experience. It will encourage you to embrace networking and build it into your regular routine. The beauty of the notification through MyExecLoop is that you don’t bunch it into one or two days per month. You call/meet and then after the meeting, tap a few notes and set the next contact. When you have covered your network one or two actions every two or three days is enough.
Meetings don’t last an hour. They can be short and sweet with a promise to catch up again in one, three, six months. It could just be a message just to say ‘Hi’ and check in. Networking is about being remembered and remembering people for things they are best at. The only way this works is by staying in touch, what I call nudge theory.
This could be a:
· Phone call
· Videocall
· Meeting for a coffee/walk
Building your network via MyExecLoop helps you to do this. You can phone, videocall or message your contact through the App (Which uses your own phones functionality), and this will update your last contact date on your contacts profile page. You are then able to set a next contact date reminding you via a phone notification to get back in touch. You can also make notes about your last call in their record as a prompt.
But… what do I say??
Easy. Peasey. Lemon Squeezy.
First contact:
Reflect and build common ground – how and why do they know/remember you?
Talk them through your most recent/years of experience.
Ask them to bridge their history gap, bringing you up to speed, create their pitch.
Explain your pitch – validate it with them and explain that you use MXL to network and stay in touch.
Ask for a referral – do they have any connections there might be some value in you speaking to? To help you or who would benefit from your expertise.
Set a follow-up date
Second Contact:
Thank them for reconnecting
Relay your understanding of their expertise and ask them for any recent interesting experiences (Refer to the notes area of their profile on MXL)
Explain your networking journey and update your experience of their introductions, thanking them for successes and asking for new ones.
Set a follow-up date.
Third Contact:
By this point they are expecting your call/message. More informal
Repeat second contact
Ask them to contact you next – confident, establishing two-way network.
Whilst all of this might seem logical and common sense, the level to which social media has built anxiety around being noticed, being taken seriously and being relevant has warped the optics.
You will celebrate your best successes by staying close to those whom you know and then working outwards, rather than trying to captivate an audience that you don’t know. If you ask one friend to tell two friends about you, very quickly you will start to attract the right attention.
