Spheres of Influence: Extract Maximum Value From Your Network
Are you building a strong network that offers value to yourself and others?
Your sphere of influence is one of the most important components of your career. The ability to draw value from the people you know and deliver value back to them is essential for professional success.
The rise of social media influencing has reinvigorated the concept of building networks for mutual benefit. Let’s look at some fundamental principles that will enable you to build a stronger sphere of influence and extract maximum value from it.
Meet First, Sell Later
Great networkers get to know people before trying to sell to them. This is one of the most fundamental rules of networking, and often the number one reason why people fail to turn new encounters into solid business relationships.
Busy networking events can make you feel under pressure to identify people who might be interested in your product or service. The same can be said for exhibitions and trade shows. But great networkers don’t tend to think solely in these terms. Instead, they primarily see first encounters as an opportunity to sow the seeds of a great relationship.
Whenever you meet someone for the first time, focus on making a great first impression that builds rapport as quickly as possible. That means active listening and using a range of questions to learn more about the other person.
Even if you meet someone who happens to be looking for exactly what your organisation offers, it can be better to hold back a little. People need to like and trust you before making a purchasing decision. Hard selling straight away gives the impression you hard sell all the time.
The greatest business value comes from longstanding partnerships, so don’t see initial encounters as the only opportunity to talk to someone. It could be the start of a prosperous relationship that lasts your entire career.
Map Connections and Their Value
Great networkers understand their sphere of influence in detail. You may be blessed with a photographic memory that enables you to do this with ease, but most people use some form of digital or paper system. Naturally, the most sophisticated approach is to use customer relationship management (CRM) software.
The aim is to identify and record the value of everyone in your sphere of influence. However, think beyond the product or service they offer. Ideally, map who your contacts know, and other potentially useful information such as associations they belong to, companies they used to work for, and resources they have access to. Thankfully, researching contacts is significantly easier in the LinkedIn era.
As you map your sphere of influence, prioritise contacts to identify those who potentially offer the greatest value to your organisation or career. These are the people you want to build the strongest rapport with.
Furthermore, don’t limit your sphere of influence to people you meet professionally. Any family member, friend or acquaintance could add value to your network. The advantage of these people is they probably know and trust you already.
Mine Further Value
Great networkers continually hunt for new value within their sphere of influence. That means analysing what you know about your contacts to identify the potential benefit they can bring.
For example, did any of your contacts formerly work at an organisation you want to do business with? Does anyone belong to the same association as a target you want to meet? The stronger your rapport with contacts, the more they will be willing to help out.
Also, bear in mind that your contacts’ spheres of influence are growing day by day. This is one of the key reasons for keeping in touch with them. It’s not simply about checking whether they are ready to try out your product or service. It’s about learning more about them to find areas of mutual benefit.
Spread the Value
Great networkers see value as reciprocal. In other words, they look at their sphere of influence objectively to identify opportunities that help others. This is by far the best way to start a new relationship as it demonstrates your value straight away. In most cases, your new contact will feel compelled to reciprocate in some way.
Work through your contacts list and identify what would be of value to them, such as sharing contacts, resources or business opportunities. Doing this also gives you an organic and authentic reason to keep in touch with people and develop the business relationship further.
Ideally, stick to introductions that have immediate value for the person you want to build a relationship with, rather than simply introducing people ‘just in case.’ The more genuine help you can offer, the quicker you will gain a reputation as someone who likes to share the value of their network.
Keep Building
Great networkers continually expand their sphere of influence proactively and reactively. Proactive expansion means turning insights about your network into an action plan that adds further high-value contacts. Reactive expansion is simply making the most of every first encounter.
Don’t restrict your networking to business events or periods when you are specifically looking for new business or job opportunities. Any new encounter is an opportunity to build your sphere of influence. Even a chance meeting could turn into one of your closest professional relationships.
As you build your sphere of influence, also take the time to consider its characteristics. For example, do you know a lot of people who do the same job, work in the same sector or have the same business interests? In which case, you may need to broaden the diversity of your network. Similarly, consider whether your sphere of influence is limited geographically or in other ways such as age and ethnicity.
In most cases, diverse spheres of influence offer a greater breadth of opportunities. They enable you to extract more value for yourself and deliver more value to others.
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