• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

512-693-7132

Packages   About   Testimonials

Career Pivot

Career Pivot

Repurpose your career. Pivot now.

  • Get Started
  • Books
    • Repurpose Your Career
    • Personal Branding for Baby Boomers
    • Repurpose Your Career 2019 Book Launch
  • Podcast
    • Career Pivot Interviews
    • Interviews with Career Experts
    • Repurpose Your Career Audio Book
    • Repurpose Your Career Series
    • Becoming an Expat
    • Question and Answer
    • Other Topics
  • Blog
    • Life and Careers in the 2nd Half of Life
    • Ageism
    • Career and Industry Disruption
    • Career Success in the 2nd Half of Life
    • Career Pivot
    • COVID-19 Pandemic
    • Job Search
    • Entrepreneurship in the 2nd Half of Life
    • Encore Careers
    • Social Media
    • Networking
  • Community
  • Resources
  • Expat
  • Contact

Get Career Pivot Insights

5 Steps to Engage with Your Network and Build Profitable Relationships

Engage with Your Network and Build Profitable Relationships

5 Steps to Engage with Your Network and Build Profitable RelationshipsAs we emerge from the pandemic are you ready to engage with your network? For most of us in the 2nd half of life, our network probably grew stale and possibly aged out. It is very likely that some of our friends, colleagues, and mentors may have retired, be out of work themselves, or passed away.

I attended a conference and attended a sales session by Phil M. Jones. Phil is the author of Exactly What to Say: The Magic Words for Influence and Impact and spoke about a 5-step process for a successful sales program.

Okay, you are probably saying you are not in sales. I totally disagree with you. You are in sales and your product is … you.

I found these 5 steps to be incredibly practical and can be applied to engage with your network.

Let me take you through these 5 steps as I interpret them.

Questions

Everything in sales and networking starts with a question. If you want to get to know someone you have to start with a certain level of curiosity about that person.

When I used to network face-to-face (remember those days?) I put total focus on the other person. I wanted to know who they are, and what problems they are working on solving. The only way to do that is to ask probing questions to get them to talk.

I might start with why are they at the event. When I lived in Austin, Texas, I almost always started a conversation with the question “How did you get to Austin?”. This was an easy one as most residents of Austin came from somewhere else.

I keep asking questions until I find something that we have in common either professionally or personally.

We move on to the next step to engage with your network, conversations.

Repurpose Your Career Podcast

Listen to the most recent episode

Conversations

You can have meaningful conversations once you know something about the other person. This is not the idle chit-chat that most people detest about the weather, traffic, or the latest COVID infection rates.

This is your opportunity to both show that you are truly interested in the other person and demonstrate that you are an intelligent human being who brings value to the world. Remember that conversations are bidirectional, you do not want to dominate the conversation doing all of the talking.

We move on to the next step to engage with your network, relationships.

Relationships

You do not build relationships in a minute or two. It takes time. Think of this like dating and marriage.

You will need to date for a while before a relationship forms. As we come out of this horrible pandemic, many of you will need to form entirely new relationships as old companies disappear, new companies begin and entire industries adapt to the post-COVID-19 world.

This is the stage you will need to spend most of your time.

You will also want to re-establish old relationships. Where do you start? You start with questions, move to conversations, and then work on the relationship.

Are you starting to see the pattern?

Opportunities

Whether you are selling a product or looking for a job this is where most people start. You just want to find that next opportunity. The problem is the best opportunities come from our network. More importantly, they are most likely to come from our weak ties or relationships that look more like acquaintances rather than close friends.

We know that spending a lot of time digging through a job board is mostly a waste of time.

Where did your last few opportunities come from? My guess they have come from former colleagues, friends, and other people you have relationships with.

Sales

The last step is to make the sale or land the job. This is where we want to get to and either minimize time spent on the previous steps or skip them altogether.

We can spend a lot of time optimizing our LinkedIn profiles, tweaking our resumes, and applying to jobs. When we should be working on questions to ask, conversations to start, relationships to build, and opportunities to find.

My guess is most readers of this blog have not been seriously networking during the last year. The reason I say that is in the last Career Pivot reader survey, the words “isolated”, “isolation” and “lonely” appeared A LOT.

Curiosity, Empathy, and Courage

Phil Jones had one other memorable theme in his presentation.

To be successful in sales, which includes you, you need to be:

  • Curious about your prospect and what the problems they are working on solving
  • Have empathy for their situation
  • Display courage to ask for what you want

It is the 3rd step that many of us fall short of. We do not ask for what we want.

If we start with questions and by being curious, we can fully engage with our networks and build profitable relationships.

What are your next steps?

Marc Miller  

Like What Your Read? Get Career Pivot Insights

Do You Need Help With ...

Check out our Help Center where you have access to 14 different content portals.

 

Category iconNetworking

Primary Sidebar

Are you ready to take control of your career?
Are you ready to stop reacting and start planning what is next?

 

Join Career Pivot

For those who want to fall in love with their work again, redeploy their experience and skills into a new career, and prudently make a shift, Marc Miller’s strategic guidance is a pathway to success.

Kerry Hannon, author of Never Too Old To Get Rich: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Starting a Business Mid-Life

Available on Amazon.com and other fine retailers

Blog Categories

  • Age Discrimination (19)
  • Becoming an Expat (39)
  • Career and Industry Disruption (35)
  • Career Pivot (92)
  • Career Success in the 2nd Half of Life (108)
  • COVID-19 Pandemic (32)
  • Encore Careers (19)
  • Entrepreneurship in the 2nd Half of Life (17)
  • Job Search (110)
  • Life and Careers in the 2nd Half of Life (63)
  • Networking (32)
  • Podcasts (313)
    • Podcast – Becoming an Expat (28)
    • Podcast – Career Pivoter (60)
    • Podcast – Expert (160)
    • Podcast – Other (20)
    • Podcast – Question and Answer (18)
    • Podcast – Repurpose Your Career Book (18)
    • Podcast – Repurpose Your Career Series (16)
  • Retirement (14)
  • Social Media (15)
  • Survey Results (17)
  • The Multi-Generational Workplace (20)

Popular Posts

  • What If You Are Not Passionate About Anything? [Updated] (369,206)
  • College Degree After 50 – Is It Worth It? It… (133,230)
  • Talents versus Skills – Do you know the difference? (127,476)
  • Are you a Multipotentialite? (65,446)
  • What is Your Current Salary? How to Answer! [Updated] (64,080)
  • Perfect Fit for the Position? Expect to Lose! [Updated] (46,976)
  • Who is Really Making the Hiring Decision? [Updated] (43,671)
  • How Long Will My Job Search Take? Longer Than You… (40,979)
  • Dealing with that Directionless Feeling [Updated] (29,853)
  • 3 Steps to Get the Hiring Manager or Recruiter to Respond (27,748)
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • RSS
  • Twitter

© Marc Miller and Associates, LLC 2012-2019 ~ All Rights Reserved | A Standard Beagle Website | Read Our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions