Words of Wisdom: Networking & Opinion Leaders

Posted on June 17th, 2015

by Sarah S. Fallaw, Ph.D.

President, Data Points

While going through some training materials in my father's archives this morning, I found a section that defined networkingvia an example geared towards attorneys. Regardless of your industry, it is a great summary for effective business development and was the focus of the book Networking with the Affluent, published this month back in 1993. 

From his workbook:

What is Networking?

Networking is the essence of high-performance marketing. Networking is influencing the people who influence the patronage behavior of dozens, hundreds, even thousands of important prospects.

Ordinary professionals target ordinary prospects. In sharp contrast, extraordinary networkers target prospects who are opinion leaders of major affinity groups. Imagine the impact on the revenue of an ordinary lawyer if he or she is endorsed by the president of a trade association whose members include hundreds of potential clients. It happens.

How does an endorsement of this kind come about? The transformation of an ordinary legal professional into an extraordinary networker begins with targeting. The very best networkers identify and then prospect the advisors and role models of groups of clients.

These opinion leaders have a significant influence on the choice of suppliers, especially lawyers. Hiring providers like attorneys is typically associated with moderate to high risk. Hence, most buyers attempt to reduce this risk by choosing suppliers that opinion leaders endorse.

- Thomas J. Stanley