A move to make now for a killer Q1

Don’t look now, but we’re already midway through January. 😲 

Quick note: I’m giving a virtual keynote on January 21 to a women’s community on “How to Turn your Network into your Most Valuable Asset.” RSVP through the link below. 👇

Let’s dive in!

If you want the time you spend networking in Q1 to actually feed into your business goals instead of just filling up your calendar, now is the time to do what I call network mapping.

This is the first step I take our Networking OS clients through to add clarity and structure to their networking. In today’s newsletter, I’m offering you an abbreviated version.

But first, let me break down why this exercise will be so essential to your networking success in Q1. 👇

1. It’ll tell you who you should re-engage with in your network: While it's tempting to always focus on new contacts, mapping uncovers how much opportunity lies in your current network already. Q1 is a great time for strategic rekindling.

2. It’ll inform not just the “who,” but the “how” of your networking: Mapping reveals what formats will get you to the people/companies you want to engage with. You might realize, for example, the need to kick off a quarterly dinner series with mid-level execs to seed relationships that pay off over the long run, while planning a private event for C-suite to get major partnerships over the finish line in Q2.

3. It gives you permission to say “yes” or “no” to certain people and activities: Most executives I work with already attend great events and have people reaching out to connect, but few know what to say “yes” or “no” to. Mapping allows you to be deliberate in identifying who or what is genuinely helpful in reaching your business goals, and to fill your Q1 calendar accordingly.

4. It gives you clarity on the new contacts you need to meet: This clarity orients you in so many ways, from how you talk about your purpose, to if or how you host events or build community, to where you strategically position yourself, and so on.

How to Map Your Network for Q1 Success 🗺️

1. First, list your current business goals. Where do you want to be at the end of the year? That may seem far off, but relationships take time to mature, hence why you should start this now.

2. Then, list the people or companies you need to engage with to reach those goals. If you’re a media exec who wants to get more eyeballs on your content, that might mean engaging SVPs of Partnerships. Or maybe you’d like to launch specific philanthropic or civic initiatives; that might mean connecting to rising “future of the city” talent in your market.

3. Next, analyze your existing network: Time to log into LinkedIn, open up that CRM or address book, and review the old, the new, and even the forgotten contacts. Before you worry about how you’re going to meet “[insert their name here]”, start figuring out who you already know.

4. Now it’s time to group/categorize your existing network by goals. By actually taking the time to organize your network in this way, you may realize you’re a lot closer to some of your goals than you think. At a minimum, you’ll have a much clearer idea of who to reach out to first to start making progress towards your goals.

5. Finally, you can identify gaps. It’s only once you consider who you know that you can realize who you don’t. Where does a lack of relationships represent an obstacle to your goals? That’ll make it very clear what networking events to show up to, what sort of introductions to ask for, and so on.

A network map isn’t the only map you end up with at the end of this exercise. What it also provides is a roadmap, empowering you to track Q1 networking against business goals, assess the performance of particular networking tactics, and ultimately provide confidence and clarity on what to do in Q2 and beyond.

As I said at the onset, this is an abbreviated version of network mapping. To get the most robust look at your network, you’d also want to enrich this with data and analysis, employ formulas to properly categorize the people/companies in your network, and build out visualizations and heat maps - just to name a few things we do for our clients via our Networking OS. If that interests you, reply back to me.

Thanks for reading,

Nicole

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