You’ve probably heard of the Pareto principle: 80 per cent of consequences stem from 20 per cent of causes. When it comes to networking and meeting people, the same ratio can help you nurture existing relationships and create new ones.
Photo by iofoto (Shutterstock).
John Corcoran at Dumb Little Man thinks a lot of us don’t have our priorities straight when it comes to networking:
If you were to measure the amount of time most people spend on networking activities aimed at meeting new people versus the amount of time they spend following up with the people they already know, you’d be shocked at how imbalanced it is.
People spend too much time trying to meet new people and too little time following up with and nurturing relationships with people they already know.
In fact, your efforts should be the other way around: use the 80/20 rule (aka the Pareto Principle) to further and develop relationships with your existing network.
He explains that if you spend most of your networking time connecting and catching up with people you’ve already met, they’ll be more likely to introduce you to others. By comparison, spending a lot of time at networking events with strangers who you rarely speak to again won’t get you as far.
5 Killer “Hacks” For Networking at Events [Dumb Little Man]
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