The silver lining in the current faltering economy is the renewed recognition by many in the professional community that connecting with others is critically important. This means that meeting people will be easier than ever if you give them a strong enough reason to accept your invitation. Consider their perspective, their timing and their interests. If you can bridge those issues to create genuine opportunities for interaction, you will set the foundation for career and business development success.
Amass Personal Profiles
Start by profiling people in whom you are interested. Let the meeting itself be the vehicle to create the summary of his or her background. Simply ask for an interview, meet or call, and record the conversation as a podcast (with permission, of course). Services like AudioAcrobat.com are very effective for this purpose.
Recording an interview and repositioning it as a podcast makes you appear technologically savvy and offers tremendous benefit whether you are gainfully employed, consulting on your own or searching for new opportunities. It offers a three-way benefit: your current employer builds business-to-business relationships, you get to know others more personally, and those you interview have a tangible means of self-promotion.
If you are not interested in standard interviews, consider starting your own public access cable television program. Though it is a little more involved than a phone call or meeting over coffee, it may allow you to meet more of the people you would like to get to know. Public access facilities are often free and open to any resident of the community, even if that community is New York City with millions of potential viewers. Here is a link to a list of public access cable television stations nationwide from Wikipedia.
Associate Through Associations
If you are not comfortable with a direct cold-call, then instead of trying to meet someone at a company in which you would ultimately like to work or with whom you would like to do business, find individuals who lead associations of which that company is a member. Once you become familiar with the association and its leadership, you will be able to secure personal introductions to individuals at various organizations in your area of interest.
Use the techniques discussed in this article to create relationships with those who can connect you to many others, but do so out of genuine interest in their work and collective mission.
Take Advantage Of Opportunity Alerts
Test this out by adding those people whom you would like to meet or with whom you would like to build a relationship to a Google Alert, which will inform you each time a person on your list is mentioned online. You will then have opportunities to connect in a meaningful fashion.
Add their organization and area of interest to the alert as well. Each time an article in that field is published, you will learn about it and have a reason to interact. By following up, you can build a relationship, which in turn will enhance your career and business development prospects.
Get Going
The more you sit in your office, the narrower your prospects will appear. For some reason, most people are not in networking mode at their desks in front of a computer screen: they’re in work mode. But once they leave the office for a conference or seminar, they generally have a pocket full of business cards and want to get to know you.
To find people who are ready to network, start by checking the upcoming schedule at your local convention center. Some business-oriented newspapers (Crain’s New York Business) list such events regularly. Attend those events in which you’re interested—perhaps you’re drawn to the motorcycle show or the gift fair rather than the regional meeting of the chamber of commerce—so that you will meet people who share your passions.
Law-related conferences (LegalTech) happen to be great for exercising your self-promotion muscles since most of the advertised products are sold to lawyers, which makes the people who run these companies interested in your feedback.
Get Published
Consider taking that feedback and converting it into an article. While good lawyers are well respected, great lawyers are also well known. Many have crafted their reputations by getting published because writing shapes your standing in the community and organically helps to expand your network.
Writers tend to meet more interesting people, develop stronger relationships with them, and find continued reasons to interact. They master the fundamental techniques that are associated with business development by concentrating on a few key points that contribute to their publishing success.
First, craft an appealing story by reviewing your most interesting work and identifying areas of the law in which you can provide clarity. Read trade publications that focus on your field, but more importantly, engage your colleagues and those with whom you would like to connect to brainstorm on ideas.
Second, identify a publication that will provide the maximum exposure to your target demographic, and will prove the most adaptable for future use. Try to maintain your copyright so that you can repurpose your work and post it to your website. Consider what your audience is reading and why. Make the ideas as geographically focused or practice specific as possible to ensure that your article will be saved and shared. Ask clients or prospects what they read. This will give you a chance to engage them while also signaling your respect for their opinions.
Third, make it timely: you want your article to address an issue that’s on the minds of your readers. It could be a general topic like the current credit crisis, or a seasonally based piece, such as reflecting on the close of the fiscal year.
Whatever your idea, bear in mind that there is tremendous upside in the downturn. Businesses are experiencing common pressures and individuals are searching for safety. If you can provide guidance on their concerns or offer them opportunities to stand out, you will enhance your own profile and build a stronger network by creating lasting relationships.
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