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By Chuck Jones
Filled with scads of self-assessments, practical tips,
checklists, dos and don'ts and word sketches, Make Your Contacts Count:
Networking Know-How for Cash, Clients and Career Success, by Anne
Baber and Lynne Waymon, is a conversational, pop-psychology look at what
works and what doesn't in the often-nebulous world of networking among
potential customers and fellow professionals.
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| If you can get past some of
the cloying word constructions, the book offers interesting networking
concepts and a lot of practical tips, in evocative language. |
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To glean what's useful from the book, you need a tolerance
for the cute, however. For example, there are a couple-dozen word sketches
that are too clever by half. To train readers to listen better, the authors
present the EARS formula. EARS stands for:
Encourage
your partner.
Acknowledge your partner.
Respond to your partner.
Save what's being said.
You get the idea. A little of this goes a long way.
Still, if you can get past some of the cloying word constructions, the
book offers interesting networking concepts and a lot of practical tips,
in evocative language. Take, for example, this paragraph about learning
how to make conversation:
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Make Your Contacts Count: Networking
Know-How for Cash, Clients and Career Success
By Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon
AMACOM
$14.95, paperback
www.amacombooks.org
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"Few families today sit down to a long Sunday dinner
where Uncle Charlie tells stories and Grandma chimes in with the morals.
Good conversational skills are learned. Contrary to popular opinion, nobody's
born with the gift of gab. But anybody can learn how to use conversation
to build networking relationships."
What most readers want from a book like this, however,
is tips on networking, and Make Your Contacts Count doesn't disappoint.
Page after page, there is tip after tip, some of them sales-specific and
some not, that are practical and truly helpful. Here is a sampling:
- Airplane seating: "A lot of business flyers have made
a business contact with someone they met on an airplane. On a trip to
Chicago, Bob sat next to David, a sales rep for a box manufacturing
company. Bob told David he was looking for a heart-shaped box for his
company's new specialty food product. David faxed him the specs the
next day and got the contract."
- Exchanging business cards: "The biggest mistake people
make with business cards is giving them out too freely, too soon. When
you do that, your contact will go back to the office, look at the card,
say to himself, 'I wonder who this is?' and throw the card in the wastebasket.
Challenge yourself not to give out your card until you've found some
connection, some reason for exchanging names and phone numbers."
- The top-20 turnoffs: These include "Don't do monologues,"
"Don't give unsolicited advice" and "Don't be so eager
to . . . pass along the names of people or organizations that you haven't
thoroughly checked out."
- Small talk: "When somebody asks, 'What's new?' Sam says,
'I've moved my business. My new location is right next to the Metro--and
the rent is actually lower!' The reason he gives for choosing that topic
is that he wants to show how easy it is to get to his graphic design
business."
The last third of the book addresses the role that membership
in a professional organization has in networking—a subject that should
be near to the heart of NAIFA members. The book guides the reader through
how to choose a professional organization wisely, the biggest mistakes
members make and how to get the most out of attending a convention.
Finally, Make Your Contacts Count offers some
rather blunt advice that ought to be heeded by every member of NAIFA:
"You can't buy a network. Networks are built conversation by conversation,
not by writing a check for your dues."
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ADVISOR TODAY
also recommends
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Money Forever: How
to Make Your Money Last as Long as You Do
By Donald Ray Haas
$19.00, paperback
Crofton Creek Press
www.croftoncreek.com
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Open Book
Voices
from the Field
Short Takes
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About Us
NAIFA
