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title: Building Your Personal Professional Network description: [AFW S.8.3] Securities Prospecting Method #3 published: true date: 2026-06-30T08:11:49.543Z tags: editor: markdown dateCreated: 2021-10-21T23:29:14.466Z

Watch AF MKOM 1671 - Person-to-Person Prospecting VIDEO

Watch Person-to-Person Networking Overview (2023-08) VIDEO

Investments, and most financial services, still require a human-to-human relationship. Your competitor is not the Internet, but other Advisors. People want guidance from a real human being, so much prospect that way - person to person.


Preparation

Remember, you are your business. Your name is your company and your face is your logo.


Be Known For It

Read Nick's ATY 329 November 25 - Be Known For It PDF

  • When people need help with their investments, do they think of you?
  • Most of the time you don't get referrals by asking for them. Instead, you get them when other people ask your clients if they know someone. You need to be that someone.


Things You Can Do to 'Be Known For It'

  • Do a fantastic job for your clients (obviously). This is the most important factor.

  • Be "Top-of-Mind" with your clients. Visit AFW S.15 - Client Follow-Up for sugesstions on how to do that.

  • Follow all of the recommendations on the Getting Referrals Wiki page; especially the "referral conditioners".

  • Tell everyone you know- what you do (give out your business cards a lot). But do it softly, gently, non-pushy and non-agressively. Twll everyone who'll listen the Coffee Script.

    Watch Cold Business Card Prospecting VIDEO


Build Your Professional Network

Over time you should build a trusted network of professionals in related industries (but who don't conflict with our business). Such as:

  • Notary
  • CPA / tax preparation / bookeeping
  • Car/home insurance
  • Business insurance
  • Mortgages
  • Real estate
  • Reverse mortagages

You objective is to provide referals (your clients) to these people who will, hopefully, give you investment referrals in return. But also for you to be a resource for your clients when they need help in these areas.


Networking

To achieve your goals in life it matters less how smart you are, how much innate talent you're born with, or where you came from and how much you started out with. Sure all these are important, but they mean little if you don't understand one thing: You can't get there alone.

80% of jobs and sales are landed thanks to networking.

Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi BOOK In this book Ferrazzi lays out the specific steps - and inner mindset - he uses to reach out to connect with the thousands of colleagues, friends, and associates of people he has helped and who have helped him. The secret is in reaching out to other people. As Ferrazzi discovered early in life, what distinguishes highly successful people from everyone else is the way they use the power of relationships.


Three Lessons from the Book


1. Relationships Are Like Muscles

Just like your muscles building relationships takes time. If you go to the gym for the short-term investment of working out once until you collapse, and then expect to look like Arnold the next day, you’re in for a disappointment. Instead, constant generosity and loyalty will get you where you want to go.

For your relationships, this means not giving up on your co-workers once they’ve helped you with that PowerPoint issue you’ve encountered, and loyally repaying the favor, for example by generously listening to them for half an hour about their problems.

In a nutshell, if you want to be a good networker, never ask “How can others help me?”. Rather, always ask “How can I help others?”

Give before you receive. When you help others, they often help you. Real networking is about finding ways to make other people more successful. It's about working hard to give more than you can get. If you take the time to meet with somebody try to make that person successful." Never keep score when it comes to favors.

Success in any field, but especially in business, is about working with people, not against them.


2. Build Your Network Before You Need It.

“The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The second best time is today.”

Just like you can’t buy safety vests when your ship is already sinking, you have to build your network long before you need it. If you build a basis of understanding and trust with someone, you can sure count on their help when you eventually face a problem you can’t solve alone. Nobody likes a leech, who only comes to you when they need your help. Everyone wants to feel respected and valued.

A good networker builds relationships like a marathon runner, not a sprinter. For example, when he was only 22 years old, Bill Clinton started writing down the names of everyone he’d met that day every evening in order to remember them better. He called some of those people when he was campaigning to be president and they helped him because they’d known him as a genuinely nice and interested guy long before.

Use your current network - however small it may be - like an ever-expanding web. Reach out to a friend asking if she knows anyone, then meet with that new contact and ask if he knows anyone. There are some very powerful people only a few degrees away from your current network.


3. How You Spend Time With People is More Important than How Much Time You Spend With Them.

Most people get a headache thinking of networking, because they think of it in terms of width, not depth. You don’t have to have 10,000 contacts, and you sure don’t have to send out 10,000 birthday cards each year. A good network doesn’t consist of fleeting acquaintances. It is a web of real, trusted friends.

Don’t look at how much time you spend with people, just how you spend it with them. Get to know people in a setting where they’re having fun, not where they feel they have to make small talk in order to comply with social conventions. The best small talk isn’t small talk at all.

Be open, honest, share vulnerable moments from your life, and most importantly give people your full attention. One friend is worth a thousand contacts, so don’t rush building your network. Take it one step and person at a time.

People do business with people they know and like.

Meals are a great way to connect with people, so never eat alone!

Instead of reaching out completely cold, try to find mutual contacts that can introduce you to new people

When you make a connection, follow it up! Stand out from the crowd with a hand-written thank you note. Connections require maintenance! Keep in touch with your contacts with little texts here and there to show you're still around and still care about them. Birthdays, new positions and milestones are a great opportunity to reach out

You must be audacious. Fortune favors the bold... and so do people. If you want something from someone, be upfront about it.