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Neat Networking
by Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
So you want to significantly increase your personal
productivity and success in all areas of your life? You can
go it alone or enjoy the help of others.
Networking is a major Time Management tool helping us to
learn from others, getting introductions more easily, and
saving precious resources of time and money in the process.
I have accumulated five "Neat Networking" suggestions that
might help.
- Make the list.
There is power in writing things down
rather than trying to remember everyone you know. I use a
software contacts program to help. Who do you include?
Everyone. Everyone you know, everyone you have met. Don't
just copy the white pages from your local telephone
directory. "Contact" means you have had "contact". Add
everyone to the database. Leave no one out. Include name,
address, and contacting information. The average person can
easily come up with an initial list of over 1,000 contacts.
Sounds unlikely? Start with your family, then your
neighbors, and co-workers. How about the co-workers from
your last job(s)? Your high school and college graduating
classes and the teachers you had. You belong to a
professional association, a club, a church? The bank teller,
your dentist, your bookie, they all go on the list.
- Categorize the list.
This is when a contacts software
program is really useful. Identify those who are friends,
those who are acquaintances, customers, suppliers,
politicians, professionals, or those who enjoy golf or
tennis. The more categories you can place people in, the
quicker you can access the right contacts. Through my
database, there is not a problem I cannot get answered for
myself and those whom I want to help.
- Feed the list.
Once you create the list you have to
continue to feed it. Update, correct, and add more and more
people as you meet them. We probably meet dozens of new
people every week. My database has grown to over 4,000 now.
I spend about an hour every Friday to feed my list. It's a
chore. It's not convenient but it's worth it.
- To Have a Friend, be a Friend.
Here's how you make all
this data work for you. Networking is not a selfish
technique. If you want this tool to work, you have to be
like a good Congressman. You do things for people. You help
them first. I'm always clipping articles I come across and
sending them to people I know. I send a lot of birthday
cards. I call the majority of the people in my database at
least once a year to talk about them, how they are doing,
what they may need that I can provide for them. Then when it
comes around "election time", when I need something, I feel
no hesitation to ask for a return favor.
- Use It.
Whenever I start anything, a new marketing
program, a career move, buying a house or a car, I think of
my network first and talk to those in my database who may be
able to give me some answers. I have saved tons of time and
money and advanced my success in so many ways by tapping
into my Network database first.
Dr. Donald E. Wetmore-Professional Speaker
Productivity Institute, Time Management Seminars
60 Huntington St., P.O. Box 2126, Shelton, CT 06484
(800) 969-3773; (203) 929-9902
Fax: (203) 929-8151; Email: ctsem@msn.com
http://www.balancetime.com
Professional Member-National Speakers Association
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