Networking: What do you want to be known for?

There are always plenty of networking events for young professionals and as your profile starts to grow, you will find more of these event invites will come direct from clients and other industry professionals.

I know first hand how exciting is to receive the invite personally, rather than through your Partner or Director, however I want you to learn from my "mistake". You don't need to accept every invite!  One of the senior members at my last firm, when discussing a double-booking I had, asked me an invaluable question "what do you want to be known for?".  

While I love networking and every event presents a new opportunity, I was getting overwhelmed with trying to keep up with the events. Wine tastings with accountants, trivia nights with young professionals, lunches with women associations. I was spreading myself too thin and I started to loose sight of where I should be concentrating my business development activities. But given I have been told I can be an "extremist", I did not want to end up at the other end of the spectrum - not marketing at all (remember the worst time to market is when you need to). 

Being a list person, I revisited my personal business development plan and decided to do the following:

1. Assess each event so I had a balance between social business development events ie the trivia nights and the Business Chick type lunches, from client potential business development events, ie the wine tastings with accountants and the industry luncheons.  

2. Limit myself to no more than 2-3 events, maximum 4 in peak seasons (end of financial year and Christmas), per month with one being a client potential event as these events should be prioritised over others. 

3. Above all, make work related events a priority. These are the ones were the Partner has been invited and I'm an extended invite, or Firm hosted events. 

4. Continue to follow up key introductions from events to maintain contact. 

After being asked what I wanted to be known for, I now read through invites in more detail, including having a look at key sponsors and promoters of events. I want to attend events that will help build my profile in the area of law I want to be known in. Looking at key sponsors can also help you assess who you could also invite to the event. 

I will forever be grateful for being asked what I wanted to be known for. It has helped provide me with an advantage in taking my business development to the next level. 

My parting tip for young professionals, while we have LinkedIn, still collect business cards and create your personal database. Maintain contact with these new connections by having a coffee every few months or send a case/article that may be relevant to their industry. I speak regularly on using social media to promote your profile and obtain clients, however I don't believe traditional forms of business development should be abandoned. 

I hope this post helps you and as always feel free to comment below or email me with any questions. 

One last thing - BE AUTHENTIC!!