Network Goals by Paul Johnstone

It has been said by much more successful people than me, that if you don’t have a goal how can you score? I guess this means set goals for yourself. Such as a goal for the number of people you'll meet, or contact with on a daily basis.

Your goal must be achievable as its no use saying I want another 40 first line connections on Linked in every day? Why is that unrealistic? Because you would end up doing nothing but work the Linked In connections. But to send out 5 invitations to connect every day is realistic.

In the face to face networking field set yourself the goal of attending two networking events every week. Now that’s a good start but lets go one step further. Identify a reachable goal based on the attendance of those events. Some you may know 20, 25 others you may not so your goal setting will have to be made as you work. But write them down and assess afterwords how successful you were.

Lets say your goal at a weekly B2B meeting is to meet 15 people, and make sure you get all their cards. Better still make a note on each card so you remember the person later. Now is that goal a) realistic and b) useful. I will agree with a but on it’s own it is just a collection of cards. Lets be honest some people take to this like ducks to water and others need time to feel comfortable in this environment. If you don't feel confident, go for less.

But don't leave until you've met your goal. So what are you going to do when you can't meet the 15 people you set as your goal? Network on line its effective. Answer a question on Linked In, You’ve all got a linked in account haven’t you? If you haven't get one they are invaluable and the basic level is free, you would be missing a trick if you let that slip by.

A colleague of mine has a trick. He uses hotel lounges for business meetings and when he walks into the lounge. He will approach every single person there and ask if they are J Smith? When they say no he gives them a card and simply says “When you need him you now know where to find him”

His business has doubled in the three years he has been using this technique.

How many contacts have you made today?

Paul

And remember to put the work into network