Should network building be the cornerstone of your business plan?

The world is telling us that networking is no longer an optional extra!

Is that really true?

Well let’s quickly consider what is currently working best for you or your current business (large or small)???

Singing your own praises – telling everyone about your current achievements and how truly great you (or your company) are?

OR

Having others (preferably many others) genuinely advocate for you to people they know and believe would greatly benefit by meeting you?

Most Linkedin profiles contain some version of “I can leap tall building in a single bound – just try me” – but how well does that work?

How much money do you currently spend pitching your business – attempting to tell everyone just how great you are via a marketing campaign?

How many resumes are you sending to potential employers letting them know what you are capable of? Do they even both to reply to you?

How effective is this type of very hard work compared to someone saying to a trusted associate:

I have the ideal person – let me arrange a meeting with you?

Do you already have a fantastic network of people who would do anything for you……that is if you asked them (and normally we don’t like to continually ask for help do we?)

How much are they habitually advocating for you without being asked?

What if you instead, you systematically expanded your network in an environment where the value of proactive advocating is continually reinforced?