Network maintenance

A call to a mobile phone in a sketchy zone of coverage, an e.mail from a former customer contact’s executive assistant and two new clients, all in one day, painted a vivid picture of the business power of personal networks.

The qualities of “network derived” opportunities have long made the care-and-feeding of them a requirement of employment in any professional services setting. It makes good sense to persistently invest in, engage and expand the crazy-quilt of friends, contacts, former colleagues, clients and classmates each of us keeps.

After all, cultivating a network is more than a good way to guard against staring at your own navel (it is) or a better way to stay smart about the things affecting your business (true, too); it is the best way to build new business.

All it takes is one day to prove the point.

The mobile call came first. A former client CEO, getting ready to sell a company he had bootstrapped for three years and aimed at the homeland security market, was on his way into the office. Amidst the highway dodging and weaving, he took me on a tour of public policy and its personalities; investment strategies and the differences among investment banks and, finally, a thumbnail sketch of the companies he thought had a future and how they could be approached as clients.

The personalities he described jibed with my own recent Capitol Hill visits. The investment discussion helped both frame an upcoming presentation and trigger a pledge to make (since done) an introduction to a potential buyer. The sketch of companies led to a plan to get together for dinner to plot a more fully formed course in pursuit of three.

Total time of the call: 26 minutes.

The e.mail came next, asking for some time next to review the business plan for a new company to be launched by a (twice) former client company CEO. Since his last company was acquired, he has joined a number of boards, too. The last time we met, not only did I get his perspective on the economy as measured by the opportunities coming his way, but also the relative merits of the Land Rover. Useful, both.

Total time of the e.mail exchange: 4 minutes.

Finally, two new clients arrived within minutes of each other. The events were marked by appropriate congratulations to the sales teams and to one of their members in particular. Those were the ones who had the relationships with executives at the prospects and found separate ways to turn them into the clients they have become.

They were exhibits A and B in the case for building business success. The names in a personal network are not the only source of new business, but they are among the most cost-efficient ways to win trauma-proof clients.

“Cost-efficient” because there is a level of trust and degree of confidence at the start that often takes weeks or months to otherwise establish. “Trauma-proof” (a bit of an overstatement, but close enough) because whatever ups-and-downs the business relationship might encounter, there is a shared sense that everything that can be done, is being done.

Total time of the pursuit: months in one case; weeks in the other.

Not everyone sees the ties that bind the people they know. Smart people do. They know their networks are the keys to professional success. Not all companies see the hard-edged value of what might seem a soft skill. Smart companies do. In fact, they help to underwrite that network development.

The point gets made in one day, every day.