Why Do We Network? Because It Helps
It is well understood that there are many advantages to having a strong and diverse network. By having many contacts in many industries we can share opinions, share leads and opportunities and cooperate on projects. We can also provide and receive referrals and benefit from being part of a larger community leading to greater collective knowledge and we can lean on each other during tough times and help each other find business and even jobs. There is little doubt that there are many benefits of having a good network. But why do we really network?
In modern business most activities have a quantifiable and tangible cost and that cost must be understood. They will also have a value, which may be less tangible and difficult to quantify which must also be understood. Where as many activities such as attending a trade show or running an advertising campaign have measurable costs that can be tied to measurable benefits such as orders placed, what about networking? When we attend a networking event, or join a networking group we can know the direct costs but what about the benefits? Very often the benefits of networking will be impossible to measure, so why do we do it when the cost and the value cannot be easily correlated?
One of the best networkers I ever met was my late Step-Father. He worked as an industrial chemist and his network spanned the UK and many other countries. Always meeting people he got to know them and willingly connected others where he saw an opportunity, not just for himself, but most often for them. And his network was not restricted to his own industry, it spanned many industries and often the connections he made provided no tangible benefit to him, his business or even his industry, but he still did it. In fact, it was an industry entirely disconnected to his own that his greatest networking success occurred and we only learnt of it by accident.
One evening my Mother was walking their Jack Russell / Cocker Spaniel cross , Sam, along the shoreline in West Kirby, the Northern English town where I grew up. And as dog owners will know, when we walk our dogs we meet and converse with other dog owners and to a degree we get know them and a little about their lives. In effect, we network. On this particular evening my Mother encountered another dog owner who knew Sam and they started a brief conversation. After the initial greetings the other dog owner said, ‘Do you know, that your husband saved my business?’ A little surprised, she replied that she didn’t know as he had never mentioned it. He then went on to explain that one evening over a year previously he had been sat on a bench, not far from where they were, looking out to sea in utter despair. He had lost a major contract through no fault of his own and that, in conjunction with a number of other unfortunate events his business was now facing ruin. He was all out of ideas and was at a loss for what to do.
Sensing that all was not well, my Step-Father asked him if he was OK to which he replied that he wasn’t and he alluded to the dire straits that he was facing. Always one to help, my Step-Father enquired as to what business he was in and was instantly able to offer a referral to a contact of his. He gave his details and advised him to call. The call led to a meeting, which led to an order, which led to an ongoing business relationship, which took the business through its challenges and enabled it to return to viability.
The business the guy was in was not remotely related to the chemical industry and my Step-Father had not conducted any business with the contact that he had provided, but through having a genuine interest in people and what they do, along with an inbuilt desire to help he was able to make a connection that saved a business. While it’s likely that whatever activity it was that he was doing that led to him getting to know the contact had a cost, that cost is lost in time and it was absorbed as he went about his business. But the value, well the value lives on in the countless altruistic acts and the connections made by a man who networked, not for tangible benefits, but because it is good.
