Elevate Your Networking to NetWeaving

As a sales manager, you know how one selfless deed can come back to you one-hundredfold in referrals and recommendations. Bob Littell has put a name to this tendency: NetWeaving. It’s an elevated form of networking that focuses entirely on helping others, and as a result, it is a much more powerful way of connecting with people, says Littell, the self-described Chief NetWeaver. Business people who practice NetWeaving consistently, he says, are rewarded long-term with enough referrals and recommendations to keep them from ever having to cold call again. Witness Littell: as a financial consultant, he says he’s having his best year ever in business and it is all referrals and repeat business.

In NetWeaving, “helping others” means connecting others, which means that when you meet someone new, you’re no longer allowed to think about whether that person is a prospect and whether they might be able to get you in to that VP you’ve been targeting for the last six months. Instead, you must selflessly figure out how you can help this new acquaintance. Think through your catalog of contacts. Who do you know that this person would want to meet? Do you know anyone possessing the kind of expertise the person seeks? Do you know anyone with the same avid passion for his or her obscure hobby?

Sure, you need to make sales and you probably have certain questions you must ask to move toward those sales. But Littell points out that while asking these questions, you need to ask yourself three additional questions:

1. Do I know someone who could help this person?
2. Do I know someone who could benefit from this person’s expertise and capabilities?
3. Is this someone I want to know and add to my trusted referral list?

When you shift your mind-set from “What’s in it for me?” to “How can I help this person?” others sense it – and they respond to it, either by giving you their business or referring others to you.

Once you master the art of being a strategic connector of others, the second element of NetWeaving is to become a strategic resource for others. “Learn how to position yourself as a no-strings-attached resource so you build a reputation of being the go-to person,” says Littell. Whether you can provide the expertise yourself or you know someone in your trusted resource network who can provide it, your goal is to be top of mind when someone needs help.

In order to provide that help, however, you need a resource network – and that’s the final element of basic NetWeaving. Littell says you need to imagine you are an executive search firm. Be constantly on the lookout for people who are exceptional at what they do, regardless of what they do. Your goal, he says, is to assemble a broad group of experts in a variety of fields who “agree to be a part of your gratuitous network, in exchange for your agreeing to be part of theirs. The strength of the resources you can provide your clients, friends, and prospects is limited only by your imagination.”

On paper, this may all sound pretty basic. In reality, you’ll find it’s no small feat to shift your mind-set from one of making sales to one of helping people – especially when your job is to make sales. Littell says he often runs into people who like the concept of NetWeaving and say they are going to practice it, and then quickly ask for a favor. And that’s not NetWeaving. True NetWeavers have the single goal of helping others with no thought as to how they’ll benefit personally. And yet in doing so, these are the people who benefit the most – in a nonstop flow of referrals and recommendations.

For more information about NetWeaving, visit www.netweaving.com.