Networking has probably been around since the days of the Romans, which has been deemed the point in time when the term “market” came into existence. It’s kind of hard not to imagine the following conversation not taking place somewhere in Europe “Listen Faustinus, Decimus has some wheat that he’s willing to part with for some barley, do you know anybody who’s interested”
There are several networking gurus out there, who have their own view on networking. With many years of trial and error under their respective belts, I think that they all have something relevant to add to the conversation. However, like everything else, networking is evolving as the world becomes smaller and social media usage increases. Networking is an essential form of business development; however the mistake that most people make is thinking that it is the only form of business development that they should engage in. It may be the case for some professions and industries but for most sales and marketing will always be the king of the hill.
In my experiences, I see networking or referral marketing falling down in the reciprocity stage. In the classic book "Influence", Robert Cialdini, the Arizona State University professor, wrote that sociologists and anthropologists believe that we humans live by the rule of reciprocity. You know, I do something for you, you’ll repay me. In a sense networking lives and dies on the rule of reciprocity. If an act of giving isn’t repaid, there is no sense in the referral relationship continuing. With compressed product life cycles, hyper competition and economic instability, the lack of time and the importance of investing the little time that we all have comes into play. Choosing one’s networking partners is becoming more important than ever.
