Needs-Based Networking Supports Success

While I love networking on a number of levels (notwithstanding my irrepressible and lifelong curiosity to meet new people), networking at its best is discovering the sweet spot that meets the needs of both people (or organizations) engaged in the networking experience.

This is where my career experiential knowledge base starts to trope and intersect in new and interesting ways.

• Sales 101 (courtesy of my dad):  selling is not cramming your product mindlessly down your customers' and prospects' throats.  It is instead:
• Identifying the needs of your customer (or prospective employer); 
• And then, once their needs are known and documented, selling is meeting / exceeding the needs of your customer by providing your products and services in exchange for payment (and for those engaged in job search, your products and services are the relevant talent(s) and skills that meet / exceed the especial needs of your potential employer).  Which meets your needs, too.

•  Mediation 101 (courtesy of my mediation teachers and coaches):  The source of all human conflict is needs met and unmet.
• Mediation is hosting the conversation between parties in conflict;
• A critical step in mediating conflict resolution is helping the parties in conflict each identify their respective needs underlying the conflict;
• Once everyone's needs are identified and on the table, the chances are much greater that both parties in the conflict can come to a (often creative, heretofore unconsidered) resolution that meets the needs of all, on their own.

So:  instead of approaching networking as a reluctant supplicant (or worse yet, a noodge), first consider conducting a needs analysis / intake on those companies / individuals who interest you and with whom you'd like to conduct business.  What does the prospective customer (or employer) need to sustain and grow their business?  A great deal of this information is available via my girlfriend Google and LinkedIn, among other resources (including but not limited to your local business journal), and the rest can be gleaned via your network, which may well include current and former employees, customers and vendors of the executive / company / employer who interests you.

Once armed with that needs-analysis, are you able to meet / exceed their needs with your talent / goods / services?  If not, then be prepared to connect them with resources who can meet their needs, as their networking broker (or networking mediator, hosting the conversation); if you can't, then you are just a noodge.

Or, to borrow a concept from social media:  how can you provide useful information that is of service to your network and your prospective network, which in turn will continuously build and reinforce your reputation?

With that kind of preparation to meet the needs of all involved, how can you be anything but confident and constantly engaged as you continue to grow your network, your reputation, your business, your career and your ongoing success?  And, if you're wired anything like me, also have fun in the process?