This article is by Mimi Spangler, a partner at Harding & Company.  Some of the material in this posting appears in  the second edition of Ford Harding’s book, Rain Making, which will be published in February and contains about 40 percent new content. 

This is the third in a series of eight blog posts on networking for women. These entries originally appeared as an article in Management Consulting News.

3. Start Building Your Contacts Early 

Young professionals are often intimidated by the idea of developing new business, and initially relate the task to cold calling senior decision-makers. What they don’t realize is that their existing contacts are the best place for them to start, even if the contacts are not in a position to give them work.

A partner at a large firm told us about an informal neighborhood gathering that catapulted her career. When she had just started working at her firm, she attended a cocktail party hosted by a neighbor, who was a college trustee.

At the party, she talked with the President of the college who commented on an administrative issue he was facing. She said, “When I got back to the office, I researched the issue, sent him a summary and asked him if he would like to meet a senior partner with our firm. The three of us had lunch and he liked the senior partner. After that he hired us and five years later appointed me one of his key advisors. At the time the firm created no pressure to bring in business, but I thought here was an opportunity and went after it. It opened up doors later.”

In addition to personal contacts and school alumni networks, many of the women listed trade associations as their first focus for meeting clients. Younger professionals join trade or industry associations, but many don’t recognize the opportunities for client development.

The CEO of a New England consulting firm related how she built her business from her industry association network. Fresh out of school, she joined a group and became active on a committee. The committee leader took her under his wing and made a point of introducing her to everyone and explaining who they were and why they were important. She became chair of a committee and learned that “if you do volunteer work in an organization with people you want as clients and you do a good job, they will know that you will do a good job if they hire you.”

Another woman rainmaker explained how her network has evolved from industry associations to more senior executives. “Early on I spent a significant amount of time giving speeches to groups of people I hoped would know and remember me. I would ask clients if they were members of an association that would like to have me speak and some would call me to ask if I would. That’s where my first clients came from.

Now I get my clients primarily through referral sources from clients. My target market is senior executives of corporations. It is harder to find opportunities to contact these people and they attend fewer outside meetings, so they are harder to reach with speeches. I try to get invited to meetings at which these people are present, and the firm has meetings to which it invites these people.”
 Mimi Spangler is a partner at Harding & Company, which helps professionals learn to develop business. She has worked with consultants at many firms, both large and small. For more information, visit the company’s web site at http://www.hardingco.com/ and blog at www.hardingco.com/blog. Spangler can be reached at mspangler@hardingco.com.
 

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2008 at 9:49 am and is filed under Networking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.