Networking can open the door to incredible opportunities for you and your organization and referrals are the life blood of the small business owner. In fact studies tell us that 70% of all business is done within their network. When it comes to business networking; you never know who the people you meet know. One of the important keys to being successful at building a powerful personal network is that of diversity.
I often speak to people who tell me they want to network exclusively with other business professionals who work with clients in a similar socioeconomic target market—in other words, they want to network with business professionals with similar clients. Although it is good to include these people in your personal network, any attempt to network with them exclusively would be a tremendous mistake.
It is human nature to congregate with people who are very much like us. People tend to cluster together based on education, age, race, professional status and more. The bottom line is that we tend to hang out with people who have experiences or perspectives similar to ours. Often, most of our friends and associates are friends and associates with each other as well. The problem with this is that when we surround ourselves with people who have similar contacts, it may be difficult to make connections with new people or the companies we desire to do business with.
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