Business Networking Strategy

I recently met a very interesting woman, Servane Mouazan, who describes herself as a social entrepreneur and social innovation coach. Servane has a theory about networking which she calls 'The 51-51 Equation'. Servane describes this as a way to measure and value your connections and your networking standards. Relationships which follow Servane's equation should result in benefits for both parties.

I constantly hear people at networking meetings ask for a contact and then say, "Why I want to talk to them is....." At the risk of delivering a jolt of reality, if you take this approach can I ask you a simple question: "What do they care?" If you want to generate business referrals for your business, don't tell people why you want to talk to their contacts. However much your fellow networkers want to refer you, they just won't know how. Once they are with their contact; the person you want to speak to; they will stumble as soon as they try to make the introduction.