Revolutionize Your Business Success
Ditch Networking and Ignite Explosive Growth
Just over 3 years ago, I acknowledged two fundamental truths about myself and my business; I’m an introvert (INTJ – Myers-Briggs) who chose an extroverted profession and I was tapped out on the networking scene.
As Susan Cain outlines in her wonderful book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking, we’ve over indexed on networking, aka “catching up”, “grabbing coffee”, etc.
Now I can’t speak for others, but after 30+ years of handing out business cards (now virtually) and asking about someone else’s business in search of overlaps, I was exhausted!
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anti-social, but this business for an introvert can be draining. For you extroverts reading this, you do you and enjoy. Ultimately, these realizations cemented it for me, and I think for many of us: we’d lost the thread.
At the time, I was engaged in a project actively working to build out a deal team for my client’s company that we were getting ready to bring to market and sell. We’d locked in M&A counsel, shored up financials with adjustments to EBITDA, and reached out to several great investment banks to represent this founder and drive the right outcome for them and their company. In short order, three of four of those firms pinged back to schedule times to meet the sellers and talk about why their firm might be the right choice for the role of investment bank.
We didn’t hear back from the 4th firm at all. However, I separately received multiple emails from that firm’s principal, in his capacity as the head of a networking group, about upcoming events. Wanting to include him/them, I followed up again directly about participating in the “bake off” to represent this client, but still did not get a response. I did, however continue to receive follow ups about the networking event. So, we chose one of the three firms who did respond and ultimately, we drove a very successful sale for our client.
Fast forward to about 6 months ago when I ran into the principal who didn’t respond to my outreach about the deal, at a local coffee spot over the weekend. Neither of us were networking – just getting a quick coffee before we were on to the next weekend activity. During our interaction, I recounted the missed deal opportunity, and he was chagrined at the reminder; both because of the social faux pas of not responding and due to the missed potential of participating in a huge deal that could have netted him and his firm well into seven figures in fees. His best guess was that he missed the email because of “countless” other daily emails related to coffees, events, and run of the mill SPAM. Turns out our inboxes are doing too much networking too!
It's a sad AND instructive story. But it could also be taken as a lesson - don’t be that guy! For me, I’m out of the networking game. No more spending time talking around the issues or leaning into conversations that probably won’t lead to either of our businesses or causes benefitting. We’ve been conditioned around social niceties that cause us to stay in those unproductive chats for far too long.
I’m more interested in fewer conversations with greater emphasis on productivity and being truly useful. In my experience, this leads to more mutual benefit and more leverage for both parties.
My thought is this: I’d love to help you build your business or further your cause, assuming we’re both aligned on mission and values, and I don’t need anything in return. But life is short, time is precious, and narrowing our focus is the best way to accomplish our goals. So, taking things from amorphous and hopeful down to specific and practical will serve all of us. Let’s lean into that.
Here’s what I’ve done to stop engaging in unproductive networking activity and how I’ve gotten more intentional about driving my business, while still being open to helping you drive yours:
Refined My LinkedIn Profile – My profile’s description tells you exactly what I do and what my firm does for our clients. It has an updated picture, links to our company website, and regular updates on our activity pushed to the feed of my connections and their networks. When someone sends me a connection request and it’s not clear to me that we have overlap, I ask where the sender sees mutual benefit, and if they clarify it for me, I’m happy to accept and explore.
Clarified My Services Page – We’ve added a video introduction that explains exactly who we are, which clients we serve, and what services we provide to them. We continue to roll out updates and maintain a regular quality check of the site to make sure that if you land there and think that we can help you or someone you know, you have all the information you need to access me and our resources.
On-Going Strategic Growth of My Network – By letting you know the kind of firm we are, and the specific companies Candor Advisors’ works with, we have taken the guess work out of finding the overlap. Whether it’s through introductions, respectful outreach, or referrals, we continue to grow and improve on our deal partners, vendors, and adjacent professionals – all of whom help us to drive better outcomes for our clients.
If you’ve been handing out business cards for years and have attended countless networking meetings and business events, maybe it’s time to pause and consider the point of all that activity. If you enjoy it, by all means, continue. However, if you’re tired of it and this message resonates, maybe try a different approach to being truly useful in your work.
For people just entering the workforce, some networking will help to build out a productive realm of acquaintance and is probably necessary for weaving your way into the right groups. Just be careful not to get so busy making connections that you fail to make them intentionally and with purpose. The point is productivity AND connectivity. Without the productivity, you’re just making new acquaintances, and that may not be helping you get to where you want to be in business.
Or, if you’re an exhausted introvert like me, there’s a better way. Come join me and stop the mindless networking.
