Spend time working your network

Article contributed by Hazel Walker.

Have you ever ask a referral partner to introduce you to a contact they have only to be put off or not introduced at all?  Did you wonder why?  You might be surprised to know, that your referral partner did not have the same level credibility as the level referral you were asking for.

I once had a referral partner who boasted a very large database, we decided to sit down and do a little identifying out of each other’s databases. He had great contacts in his database but when I began to rate the level of referral I was looking for against the level of relationship he had with the contact, there was great disparity.

He quickly realized that his network was wide, but not very deep and he had some work to do to build higher levels of credibility with some of the people in his database. You see he spent most of his time networking, very little time working his network.  Once, he had done some of that work, he became a much better referral partner.

Having a very wide network that is only an inch deep does not make you a solid referral partner.  If you spend time working your network, instead of being out there networking, you will create a much deeper network.  One that will produce results for both you and your referral partners.