Some thoughts about effective construction marketing networking

"Networking" is one of those buzz words that connotes images of looking-over-their-shoulder business types trying to figure out how to score a deal by "working the room".  Artificial, plastic, phony and downright irritating, both to the participants and those who somehow feel roped into the yukkiness.

Perhaps some of this negativity is because of the association with "network marketing," the nicer world for multi-level marketing, where "downlines" are recruited with the lure of wealth and easy money, which virtually no one sees or experiences.

Of course there is a better approach to networking, and it takes a relatively simple attitude change.  The goal in any networking event is NOT to sell anything -- it is to give.  Your entire function at the networking event is to learn about the other person and then, if at all possible, deliver value to the individual, perhaps with a referral, some useful information, or simply a listening ear.

Most importantly, while you won't turn down any business you happen to receive in the process -- and you likely will receive some -- your goal is not to give anything with even the slightest bit of "return" expectation.  This is not a give-and-take exercise.  This is pure "give".

The attitude change, expressed on a wider scale, has powerfully positive impact.  First, you no longer need to dread the networking event, because your success measure is not how many leads you acquire, but how many people you can help, and how much you can assist each individual.  With this attitude, it is obviously impossible to fail.  There is no "qualification," no worry about whether you have a real business interest in the other person in front of you; you are simply there to help out as much as you can, with sincerity, enough time to care, and enough ability to meet people who you can assist.

The second positively powerful impact is that, as you enrich yourself by learning about others and helping them as much as you can, some people will really want to help you in return.  This is the law of reciprocation.  Little good deeds invite sometimes really big positive responses.  The fact you are acting without worrying about the reciprocation, however, indicates sincerity and while some people will certainly take advantage of your generosity, overall, most will be responsive and do what they can to help in return.  (Over time, you'll get to know the pure 'takers' and you can, rightfully, spend less time with them -- not to push them away, but simply because you'll have plenty of other people to meet and know.)

In case you are wondering, the great ideas here are not mine.  Tim Klabunde has written a book on the topic and it is turning into something of an Amazon best seller, in part because of his incredibly large network.

I can recommend Network like an introvert:  A new way of thinking about business relationships highly.

Can you emulate this Washington DC initiative in your own community?

This image is from the home page of the Washington D.C. Design and Construction Network's new website at http://www.dcdcn.com. Could you co-ordiante a similar network in your own community?

“Successful networking is all about relationships, not “links.” The goal of the Washington DC Design and Construction Network is to develop mutually beneficial relationships both online and in person.” (from the Washington D.C. Design and Construction Network website)

The Washington D.C. Design and Construction Network is an intriguing and exciting example of how online and offline resources can be combined to create a vibrant regional networking community. Yesterday, in launching the network's own website, Tim Klabunde, publisher of the CofeBuz blog and Director of Marketing at W.H. Gordon Associates Inc., an engineering practice in Chantilly, VA, wrote:

It has been an exciting past two weeks for the Washington DC Design and Construction Network as our membership has grown to over 550 members! With all that is going on, let me get straight to the three things you need to know:

1) FREE Procurement searches, MBE Directory, Construction News, and Networking Information - The Washington DC Design and Construction Network website is now up! Take a moment to stop by at www.dcdcn.com and you will find a wealth of information including: links to all of the regions procurement websites (aka: get work), today’s Washington Business Journal (updated every 5 minutes), and of course the official MBE Directory of the Network!

Please take a moment to thank Melissa Allen of WFT Engineering, Vicki White of ECS, and Carolyn Evans of Global Engineering solutions for all their work helping bring this together!

2) JOBS - LinkedIn was kind enough to add an additional Tab to our LinkedIn page called "Jobs.” If you are looking to hire someone or would like to post your resume, please stop by! I have already been told that several interviews have been set up as a direct result of our group, so go check it out!

3) HAPPY HOUR – The details of our next Happy Hour are almost finalized! During our last Happy Hour I promised many of you a larger venue, and I am excited to announce that we have arranged to shut down an entire restaurant and use it for our Happy Hour! Yes, you read that right, one lucky restaurant in Arlington will be closed down to the general public and open to the members of the Washington DC Design and Construction Network for our happy hour! So, if you know someone that might want to come that isn’t in the network, be certain to send them this link (http://www.linkedin.com/groupInvitation?gid=926787) and tell them to click “Join Group.” As all of you already know, it is completely free and all that is required is a LinkedIn account.

The network's new website is impressive, with an incredible collection of links and resources for anyone to use without requiring any sort of paid subscription -- and participation within the network is also free.

Notably, the network developed and found its potential in an incredibly short time; just a few months. Online resources such as linkedin.com combined with offline groups and associations can combine effectively to accelerate the process.

The network here succeeds because the leadership and membership appreciate the most important underlying principal of successful networking: You always put yourself second and focus on the interests and needs of your colleagues and others joining the network. While your own marketing and self-interest rewards are indirect, they happen, as your community grows and people want to do business with you.

Could you take the lead and co-ordinate a similar network in your own community?

If you are looking for a rainmaker, look to yourself

Tomorrow, I'm heading to Washington, D.C. to attend a meeting of the Society for Marketing Professional Services DC Chapter, meeting fellow SMPS bloggers and rainmaking/marketing gurus Ford Harding and Tim Klabunde. Hopefully, as well, by the end of the day in Washington (I catch a 10 pm flight to Toronto), I'll be ready to engage the final selection for our new Washington Construction News publisher.

Through this whirlwind day in the U.S. capital, at back of mind is Friday's deadline for an article in the upcoming issue of The SMPS Marketer, the association's national magazine. The assigned title is "Recruiting rainmakers".

Here is the paradox. If you ask people like Tim or Ford, "What is the best way to recruit Rainmakers", they may say: "Why don't you become a rainmaker yourself -- especially if you are an owner or partner in the business/practice?" Essentially, as Ford Harding points out in his most recent blog entry, if you own or are a partner in the business, you can't simply dump this responsibility on someone else. Hired sales people (or "business developers" if you want to avoid the word "sales") simply cannot do the job as well and with as much passion and client relevance as a real partner/owner -- and if you have been around for a while, your network of existing relationships will far exceed any contacts your new hire can bring to the picture.

But here is the interesting thing -- you don't need to sell your soul or twist yourself into contortions to be an effective rainmaker; you simply need to change your attitudes to your business development responsibilities. If you are true to yourself, if you are authentic, and your relate your own interests and passions to your business development model, you can succeed.

Still, there are times when you will have to go outside your organization to hire talent. This ideally happens when you are growing, to new markets and opportunities. This is where an effective and relationship-oriented business development and hiring system really works well.'

More soon . . .

Back to the BD basics

Tim Klabunde posts his lastest SMPS Marketer article, Back to the BD Basics, in his most recent Cofebuz blog. His blog entry is worthy of several re-reads if you are wondering what you should do to make it through the recession.

Among his suggestions, he writes:

Focus on being the best: Now is the time to set-aside change orders and additional work authorizations (within reason) and give all of your clients 1,000 reasons why they should never even consider another firm. Begin by asking yourself, “What can I do to help this person that is above and beyond what they hired me to do?” Remember that focusing on being the best isn’t something that just one person or a group of people can do, it is a company-wide focus that requires buy-in to be successful.

The basics of construction industry marketing remain consistent -- but if you remember the basics, you will make it through.

Online Networking is not real networking -- Tim Klabunde's solution

In the past year, I've had the fortune of meeting with Tim Klabunde in Washington through our mutual involvement in blogging and the Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS). Tim and I share some fundamental values -- that effective business development occurs when you put your short term interests aside, and focus on sharing, giving, and developing relationships that go beyond your immediate focus and requirements.

Tim has shown these qualities at the highest degree with his imitative in coordinating on linkedin.com Washington DC Design and Construction Network. He writes about this process in his Cofebuz Blog posting: Online Networking is Not Real Networking.

Now that the network has grown to more than 200 participants, he is taking things to the next stage, creating off-line opportunities to connect, share, and communicate.

Can you make similar connections and build relationships within your own community?

Relations, trust and the golden rule

This image is from Bob Littel's NetWeavers International web site. Littel advocates focusing on giving rather than taking in your networking; an altruistic attitude and spirit to give rather than receive. The key to success here is to really put yourself second and focus on the interests of the people around you. Then good things start to happen.

In his most recent Cofebuz blog entry, Defining Success, Tim Klabunde writes:

"I believe that the best way to succeed in life, and business, is to help other people. A life built around helping others will yield not just the joys of relationships, but also the sweet success of achieving your own goals.”

Tim of course is capturing the essence of networking and business success -- you don't succeed (at least in the ethical world) by plotting, scheming, and taking -- you find enjoyment and success in life through trusting, long-range relationships.

There is an irony here, though, in that the best way to build these relationships is to do what you enjoy, and do it well. In other words, to contribute the very things you (apparently) selflessly enjoy the most.

The reason this type of 'selfish' selflessness works so well is that you can sustain it without feeling pressure or discomfort -- and because you do your thing so well, you truly provide a valuable contribution to the community.

Does this work? Yes -- but the irony is you can't succeed by worrying about making it work. When success happens through the relationships, it occurs naturally, and without artificial effort. You receive the call, the opportunity, and the success when it is meant to happen; not when you set it out to occur.

The other shoes are dropping -- tough choices ahead

Ed Hannan's report in the PSMJ Resources Blog states the disturbingly obvious fact that architects in the U.S. are reporting project delays and cancellations and a sharp decline in new orders.

"With all of the anxiety and uncertainty in the credit market, the conditions are likely to get worse before they get better," said AIA Chief Economist Kermit Baker. "Many architects are reporting that clients are delaying or canceling projects as a result of problems with project financing."

That last statement from Baker is worse than the numbers themselves would indicate. When clients delay or cancel projects, that leaves architecture firms who have allocated resources to a project in the unenviable position of having to find something for their architects and project teams to do. Then it's down to the lesser of two evils: either let them go or risk having them sit around the office with nothing to do. Letting employees go is painful, but necessary to maintain a good balance sheet. Keeping them to look like the "good guy" only sets you up for a bigger fall later if things don't turn around.

Now, if you are an architect, you have an immediate problem. And if you are further downstream in the industry, while you have a little time to consider your situation, you can see the train coming through the tunnel. What should you do?

Here, wisdom coupled with experience teaches us a few lessons, but not all the answers. Simply put, each economic bubble and decline in history doesn't exactly mirror the ones previous -- policy makers and individuals 'learn' from previous experiences, adapt, and then (in an ironic sort of way) make the same mistakes, only differently. Your head may be spinning when you read this. But as you do, ask yourself the question, how could the supply and demand of oil be so out of whack that it goes to $147 a barrel and drops to $67 in a year. Surely supply and demand couldn't explain it all. And how can, realistically, some bad mortgages largely in the southern U.S. plunge the world economy into a crisis? Does this really make sense? Your guess is as good as mine.

Nevertheless, most of us behave rationally, despite the circumstances, and so when we start cutting back and saving, and protecting ourselves, then, bam, we make things worse overall, but if we don't do what we need to do, we are the first to go as things start falling apart.

So, yes, if you are an architect and you have surplus employees, you are going to have to make the hard decision to say goodbye to everyone but the core people you need, I'm afraid. And if you are one of these surplus employees, you will need to make the choice about whether you can find some other career to make your life, or you wish to start up your own practice. (And if you are in the latter category, and that good at rainmaking, business development and marketing, hopefully your current bosses will see that, and keep you, and promote you!)

Contractors, tradespeople and others down the construction cycle have a little more time to prepare things in an orderly manner. If your employees have business development/marketing experience or wish to prove themselves in these areas, give them room, a little time, and let them go to it. (You'll want to keep these employees more than anyone else). But you need to do what you need to do. Being an ostrich won't help.

Next,you may be scratching your head -- if business is being deferred, if projects are being cancelled, exactly where do you do your business development and marketing? I reported in my last blog entry Tim Klabunde's recommendation that you focus on your current clients, which indeed is the wisest advice. (Unfortunately, if your current clients are also cutting back, well, you can see how that advice doesn't help you from cutting back yourself.)

Should you spend more money on leads services and head hunters, marketing consultants and advertising? Yes, if you know what you are doing; no if you are desperately clinging at straws.

For example, if you are a retail-focused contractor and have found certain forms of advertising work in a predictable manner, you can safely increase your budget within your parameters to increase our volumes. If you know through references, experience, and good insights that the marketing consultant or business development employee is talented and capable, then go ahead and hire the person (find the money, somehow). But if you don't have systems to measure, to review, and to know what is right, you may be throwing more good money after bad.

One thing you should not cut -- in fact you should increase -- is your resources allocated to professional or trade group membership. If you are a SMPS member, or belong to your local chapter of your specialized or generalist association, don't cancel your memberships to save money; spend more on programs, activities, and the like. And especially (and this is vital) don't cancel -- but increase -- your marketing resources and budgets for the association members of your client markets. These association memberships -- and relationships -- may save your business (and if you are about to lose your job, help you find another.)

How important is this solution? Last posting, I reported on my near death experience caused by an ill-fated expansion out of market scope. But I can also report about one of my business-saving moves. As things declined, I considered cancelling the company's membership in the Greater Ottawa Home Builders' Association (then known as the Ottawa Carleton Home Builders' Association).

The dues seemed high -- hundreds of dollars a hear -- and these were supplemented by monthly dinner meeting fees. "Surely this is not an essential expense," I thought, then corrected myself. "This is my market."

As the early 1990s recession intensified, out of the blue, someone from the association phoned me. "We are starting a newsletter and would like you to bid the job," he said. "Is there any competition," I asked. "No, you are the only qualified member in the category." The association, indeed, practiced its motto: "Be a member -- do business with a member."

We won the contract to publish The Impact!, pricing the work really low.

We still produce the Impact! six times a year, and with the initiative of Chase and good references from the GOHBA, received a contract to produce a similar publication for the Niagara Home Builders' Association, Structures. Both publications are of real value to the associations and certainly our own business viability. (And rationally, we can look to expand to produce similar publications and other materials for other associations -- this is not wild-goose-chase expansion; it is in areas where we are knowledgeable, competent, and experienced.)

To conclude:

• Be ready for a rough road ahead -- and do what you need to do. Don't act rashly, but don't hold on to staff in the faint hope of better times.
• Avoid careless and irresponsible marketing expenses. If you are spending money, know what you are doing. There are few magic bullets out there that you don't already know.
• If you have talented business development or marketing people, keep them. If you know of good consultants, or have had recent success with advertising or leads services, spend more on them. Just be wary of any 'answer' that comes to you out of the blue, with a price tag.
• Maintain and expand your association involvement, especially at the client level. This is one thing you should not cut, even if you think it a non-essential expense. You are wrong if you do.

The power of sharing

Fellow SMPS member bloggers Mel Lester (left) and Tim Klabunde discuss the finer points of blogging at the SMPS conference in Denver.

We left the SMPS conference at noon today, for a day at a High Country Club condo in Keystone, CO, about 100 miles west of Denver. Through the relaxing day tomorrow (before we return home on Sunday), I'll have more time to reflect on the conference, and provide some observations.

The single most important lesson suggested by several speakers is that successful marketing in the AEC world is all about sharing, giving, returning the favour of our good fortune, and relationships. In that regard, I succeeded at the conference even though I cannot track a dollar of direct business from attending, despite paying about $1,000 in conference fees, plus airfare, hotels, rental car fees, meals and so on.

The reason for this positive perspective is that I appreciate that really meaningful business (on a longer term scale) is measured not in days, and immediate Return on Investment, but in the connections, knowledge, and understanding of what it takes to be successful in this business. This is especially noticeable because I haven't yet had the privilege of linking closely with the foundation of SMPS success -- the local chapter.

Ontario will soon have Canada's first SMPS Chapter, and we have a modest business in North Carolina, where the association indeed has vibrant local chapters in the Research Triangle and Charlotte. But while North Carolina publisher Bob Kruhm can connect with the North Carolina Chapters, at present my place within the organization is just one of 13 Canadian members at large.

Fortunately, I decided to take some action and apply the first basic principal of marketing success -- engage in activities which you enjoy, are passionate about, and relate to your marketing objectives. I am a writer and journalist. So I started this blog. Then I proposed and wrote an article about blogging for The SMPS Marketer, the association's national magazine/journal. A few months later, I proposed a story about social networking. Then SMPS Editor Randy Pollock (who has been doing this work for the past decade), invited me to work on the Marketer's editorial committee, and this year, I've been assigned or initiated a collection of stories. (I am writing a piece about Public Private Partnerships for the next issue, with a deadline in just a few weeks.)

Yesterday, after the first working session where Randy Pollock hosted a panel discussion Navigating Uncertain Times: An Executive Briefing on What to Do Now, fellow blogger Tim Klabunde greeted me. We decided to have lunch, and on the way (talk about co-incidence), we met the third known SMPS blogger, Mel Lester (who gave his own presentation later in the day, Marketing the Experience.) Finding a spot in the exhibit area, as we ate our box lunches, we explored the whys and wherefores of blogging. Our mutual conclusion: This is very much a worthwhile activity, but we are doing it because we really enjoy it, and not because we are expecting any immediate business from it. (Though we can track business advantages and utility in the exercise.)

Yesterday evening, Randy Pollock invited Marketer contributions to sit at a special table at the SMPS Awards Gala, as several SMPS leaders received recognition -- including the founders, who created the organization from scratch just 35 years ago. (Today there are about 7,000 members). Other members received recognition for service to the association, their chapters, or their marketing communications materials. My rewards were, of course, less tangible, but no less meaningful.

At dinner, I asked Tim Klabunde what motivated him to start his excellent CofeBuz blog. He said, without hesitation, it was my blog. Seems I recognized one of his solid Marketer articles in a blog entry some months ago, and he decided to start his own blog. Tim certainly gets the message and shares it wherever he can -- networking is not about plastic phoniness, it is about real, lasting relationships, and the ability to give rather than worry about the take. The rewards arrive in due course.

These observations, I realize, do not help someone struggling to get by; especially some smaller-scale contractors in the residential sector, hammered hard by the spin-offs of the current crisis. I'm reading the stress of one contractor I know about in a closed forum; and it is disturbing in a way -- this contractor certainly cannot afford to fly to Denver, pay conference fees, and be told that you must patiently give and contribute, with the hope that you will find longer term relationships and business satisfaction.

Then again, however, I review this blog's history -- and its start a little less than two years ago when the business seemed to be hitting bottom, and (but for some fortunate chance occurrences) turned around; almost miraculously. I realize the start of this blog also coincided with a complete values shift in the way we relate to our clients. The troubled contractor is asking for help, and indeed is receiving support from his peers on the closed forum. This is right. Because giving and generosity do not preclude our right -- in fact our obligation -- to ask for help when we really need it. I will also work with him to help him overcome his crisis.

I sense next year I'll be giving a presentation at the conference; we will network with colleagues and businesses where we indeed have a direct business relationship, and that the excitement of contagious success will lead to mentoring, relationships, and even more business. For now, I'm happy that I can be part of an exciting, intelligent, and success-focused community; one which shares common values of mutual respect, sharing, generosity, and career satisfaction.

The value of values-based marketing

Tim Klabunde's latest CofeBuz posting, A Values Based Business Marketing Approach, is refreshing and relevant, especially if you are caught in the old-style sales manipulation/"closing" approach to marketing and sales. it is especially relevant to professional services and construction businesses which (should) rely primarily on repeat and referral business, and reflects the powerful effect of going the extra mile for your current clients.

In his posting, Klabunde notes:

What it looks like

Values Based Businesses do several things that most profit and growth oriented businesses have a hard time swallowing. Here are just a few examples:

1. They always do something extra for free: I used to go to an auto shop that would always do something unexpected for me free of charge. They rotated my tires, replaced light bulbs, oiled squeaky doors; the list goes on and on. In return can you guess what I did? I never had my vehicle serviced at another shop and told everyone I knew to take his or her cars there.


2. Take on pro-bono work: Values Based Businesses help out non-for-profits, low-income families, and even their everyday clients. They do it because it is right and because they really care.


3. Finally, when they do it, they treat the non-paying client just as good as the paying client.
   They treat every client like a first class client: Taking calls and returning e-mails promptly is just the tip of the iceberg. Values Based Businesses see what their clients need and help them to achieve it, even if it is out of their scope of work.

Simple ideas, and, if you are a number cruncher, these are a whole lot less expensive than constantly trying to reach out for new clients either by responding to cattle call RFPs, hiring commission-based sales representataives, or spending a small fortune on advertising.

Marketing Engineering Services in a Downturn -- Tim Klabunde

If you haven't already bookmarked Tim Klabunde's blog, CofeBuz, the Marketing and Business Blog, and you are an engineering services marketer, I recommend you review his latest posting: "Marketing Engineering Services in a Downturn". And his posting leads me to another site/blog worthy of permalinking, Civil Engineering Central , co-ordinated Carol Metzner, President of The Metzner Group, LLC, and Matt Barcus, President of Precision Executive Search, Inc.

Making the most of the economic downturn

You can view a PDF of Randy Pollock's SMPS Marketer article on "Making the most of an economic downturn" at Tim Klabunde's CofeBuz blog. If you look carefully, you'll see my modest contribution to the piece.

Rain Making and Networking -- some perspectives

Two of my favourite blogs are written by Ford Harding and Tim Klabunde. Ford focuses on Rain Making -- the specialized skills and abilities for professional practitioners who are also selling/marketing their practice's services. Tim has a wealth of material on networking the right way -- focusing on sharing, generosity and relationship building.

They've posted two recent blog entries worthy of consideration.
In More News from Down Under: How Shawn Callaghan Blogs for Fun and Profit, Harding reports on a successful Australian blogger who addresses the challenges that Ford has not yet resolved himself -- converting blog energy into actual business -- especially for high value professional services. Shawn Callaghan has developed methods to generate a significant lead volume, and then converts these leads to business with an intermediate easy-to-enter and purchase service.

Tim Klabunde, meanwhile, blogs about Ford Harding's latest book: Rain Making: Attract New Clients No Matter What Your Field-- 2nd edition (I also reviewed the Harding's book for The SMPS Marketer. (Note the link off Amazon.ca may take you to the first edition -- you may have to order the second edition directly from Ford or try Amazon.com)

Now if you are wondering if we are in a mutual admiration society, I have given that some thought as well -- blogging, by its nature, involves an interconnected network of communities and readers -- unlike conventional journalism where there may be one organization with 100 journalists and 100,000 readers, with blogging, you may have 100 individual bloggers representing 85 organizations (some organizations will have more than one blogger!) and perhaps 10,000 readers. The difference hopefully is focus and specialization: I doubt I could express an independent perspective about Construction Marketing in the way I am doing before the blogging era arrived -- I would instead need to exclusively work through gatekeeper publications either in the general business press or perhaps (as I am also doing) through the SMPS Marketer.

But does this stuff bring in business? If you are a contractor or trades person who prefers to work with your hands rather than the keypad, I'd definitely leave blogging off the priority list -- the payback in time and return on effort is hardly worthwhile. But as Harding, Tim and Shawn Callaghan show, blogging indeed has a place in your marketing strategy if you enjoy writing, can maintain the discipline, and realize the payback in actual client business may be very much delayed gratification.

Networking -- some expert thought

You will gain a lot by reading Tim Klabunde's latest blog entry: "The Experts on Networking". Tim and I share many values about how to go about marketing professional services: It is not about "take", it is about "give".

More and more, I find there are two schools about selling and marketing and if I can find the common denominator defining the difference, (as I have discussed on occasion before) it is the attitude of Push or Pull. Push marketers want to get in your face, whether you want them there or not --they believe telemarketing, canvassing, and intrusive surveys are okay and effective. Pull marketers want you to gravitate to them by creating an environment were you sense trust, respect, and competence. Yes, you can combine both and I suppose I do with my own business -- I'm sure my sales team wouldn't get too far if they were sitting back and waiting for the phone to ring because of the Pull of our publications, this blog and so on.

But I sense that Pull works best in the long run, especially for professional services with long-term relationships. The reason is that the actual process of completing the project or commission is all about a combination of technical competence and personal relationship skills -- you are partners with your suppliers and clients on the work that can last years from concept to completion -- and these clients are more likely to want to work with you if they sense you are respectful of them and their interests. (If you are installing vinyl siding or patching residential driveways, of course, good old-fashioned Push may indeed be the way to go.)

Tim Klabunde's blog

I'm adding CofeBuz -- the Marketing and Business Blog, by Tim Klabunde to the permalink list. Tim is director of marketing for Gordon, a Washington, D.C. top 20 engineering firm, and he has written some excellent articles for the SMPS Marketer. (He is also on the SMPS Washington D.C. chapter's board of directors.) Lots of useful stuff here.

Tim's linkedin.com profile is here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/timklabunde

The real way to network

This image is from the North Carolina government Office for Historically Underutilized Businesses. The website offers a photo review for a 2007 Contractors Networking Reception and Expo. Something for our North Carolina publisher Bob Kruhm to research.

My advance (printed) copies of The SMPS Marketer arrived yesterday, along with a kind hand-written thank-you note from Lisa Bowman. Almost simultaneously, Ford Harding called to thank me for my courtesies to him; in his voice message he asked if there is anything he could do for me. Lisa and Ford are of course practicing one of the most essential principals of effective marketing, by openly expressing their thanks. (In turn, I emailed Lisa to encourage her to introduce an essentially cost-free service that would provide real value to ALL contributors to the Marketer; and when I checked the blog, I discovered that I had inadvertently deleted the permalink to Ford Harding, and reset it. And I called Ford, and told him the only thing I needed in return is for him to continue doing his good work.)

Note that Lisa, Ford, nor fellow Marketer contributor Tim Klabunde (see below) have not sent any business to me, nor do I expect to provide any revenue-generating business or services to their companies in the near future. But we are networking the way it is supposed to be done and the rewards, if not immediate, will be found in the future.

Tim Klabunde, director of marketing at William H. Gordon Associates (whga.com) a Washington, D.C. engineering firm, writes in his SMPS Marketer Article:

Ask Yourself, "How Can I help This Person?"
The next time you head out to network, remember what you are really there to do. It is time to rethink how you perceive networking. No more collecting business cards, giving a sales pitch on your company, or thinking about who in the room can get you the next job. Instead, start by focusing on building meaningful relationships with others. When you walk up to someone, think to yourself, "How can I help this person?" When you learn how to focus on helping others first, the real networking begins.

Klabunde notes in his article:

Some of my most successful days networking I spend sitting at my desk. I don't attend a single association event, no lunches, and definitely not any speed-networking events. To succeed at networking, I work my computer and make phone calls with the sole purpose of helping other people. I make introductions, forward project leads, pass along information from a local paper, and laugh with friends about my two sons' most recent escapades.

Aha.

Networking is not about the 'immediate', nor is it about 'take'. Effectively done, it is a long-term proposition. Note you don't need to spend long hours on the process and you can link your work on one thing to another.