The Networker #13: Mini Networking Goals for Big Results

Welcome to edition #13.

Thankfully, a lucky one for you!

Why?

Because today we dive into networking goals.

And is the start of a 3 part mini series. Focussed on networking goals, habits, and tracking.

This week marks the start of a new quarter. A new tax year. And for me, a new financial year in my business.

So it acts as an appropriate angle at an appropriate time.

Plus, with 90% of networkers not setting goals, it’s a networking exercise so often neglected.

If you don’t know what you’re trying to achieve, where do you start and how do you know if it’s working?

Today I’ll share where to start. A small exercise, with big long term returns.

And how within 3 months you can go from drifting from event to event seeing what sticks, to having a set of realistic, achievable, goals giving you direction, clarity and purpose to your networking.

As always, if you don’t see value in the newsletter, you can unsubscribe at the bottom. If you’ve been forwarded this, you can hit subscribe at the bottom too.

Let’s dive in.

I’ve written about how understanding why you network is important.

But you must also understand what you’re trying to achieve.

And 9 out of 10 networkers I meet don’t really know this.

They don’t set goals.

They’re networking blind.

And wasting countless hours at events.

Hoping something sticks.

That’s like driving to an unknown destination without a sat nav or map (if anyone still use one of those?!).

Just hoping you eventually get to where you’re trying to.

Sure, you can ask people along the way (I like to think of The Networker as ‘that person’).

But a little bit of thinking before you start, helps make a big impact down the line.

Setting goals gives you clarity of knowing what you’re trying to achieve. And direction to help you stay on track.

As Yoda famously said…

The Current Goal Setting Problem

Unfortunately, the 1 out of 10 with networking goals I do hear tend to be vague, broad, and/or audacious.

Something like:

• • Get new business from networking
  • Gain £[enter unrealistic amount] in new business from networking
  • Get [enter unrealistic amount] new clients from networking by [enter unrealistic date]

Whilst I admire the ambition – here’s the kicker.

The focus is on the end goal too much.

It makes your networking become transactional. You end up networking to chase the results.

Not thinking about how to achieve them. Or how you’re approaching events.

You start coming across as pushy or ‘salesy’.

Which is a great approach to push away potential opportunity.

As I was once told; “desperation is a stinky perfume.”

The cycle that follows is typically.

Set broad goal -> go networking with the wrong approach -> not gain traction -> lose motivation to network -> end up saying ‘networking doesn’t work’ -> try something else.

Let’s scale it back to more bitesize, more achievable, goals.

Your precious time and money are at stake here.

Realistic (Mini) Networking Goals

It’s great to have a big, end goal in mind. Sure.

Which let’s be honest, for most of us, is something along the lines of real new business and £££.

But expert networkers know networking is a marathon, not a sprint.

And the challenge with networking is all opportunities and results are over the horizon.

You can’t see them.

And we live in a world of instant gratification.

You as a business owner want results. Or maybe you’re a sales manager with an impatient boss.

Which means it can be frustrating not seeing results. Or achieving the goal you set.

That’s where mini goals come in.

Mini goals that, when achieved over time, help achieve the bigger goal.

Much like when you create a marketing campaign.

Let’s say the goal is to achieve £50,000 in sales.

You then break that down into mini goals to achieve to get there.

Be it weekly, monthly, quarterly goals.

Goals that when you review them – it’s a simple ‘Done’ or ‘Not Done’.

Examples of Mini Networking Goals

• Attend 3 networking events per month
• Meet 2 new people at each event
• Connect with 2 new business owners in X industry per month
• Make X amount of introductions between my contacts this month
• Schedule 1 x follow up meeting from each event
• Organise 1 x meeting with a client or prospect before or after every event
• Connect (meaningfully) on LinkedIn with 3 new contacts in my target audience per week

Easy to track, and far more achievable. All contributing to the bigger goal and objective.

It makes your networking much more motivating achieving these and working towards the bigger goal.

It feels like you’re making progress.

Which, let’s be honest, can be difficult to feel when networking.

My only caveat to this is – don’t expect by achieving these mini goals all your networking dreams will come true.

What follows and what you need to focus on is your approach, methods, and finding the right groups/events.

And these won’t be perfect right away. They’ll need some adjusting to and tweaking.

Which is where looking at habits and tracking (in future editions) will help.

The Wrap Up

Start small.

SMART goals have been well documented.

Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time Sensitive.

And if you’re struggling to think what mini goals to set:

1. Review The Networker #1 – Why You Network to understand why you’re networking in the first place
2. Establish mini goals attached to your why
3. Write them down

Review them weekly, bi-weekly, monthly. Whatever suits you.

Add a monthly slot into your calendar to review your mini goals.

(Go on – do it now.)

After 90 days, you’ll have a data set to see what’s working and what’s not.

Data you can start to use to explore setting bigger goals.

After all, networking is part of your sales and marketing strategy. And I’d be surprised if you don’t set goals and KPI’s for other activity within that.

Whilst you want to allow for the serendipity that networking is great for, having mini goals will keep you motivated, and ensure you’re maximising the time and effort you’re putting in.

“What gets measured, gets improved.” Peter Trucker (not Yoda)

And my ultimate mission with The Networker is to improve your networking.