Fraternising With The Competition - It’s Good for You.

August 3, 2008 Networking 3 Comments

I received an email recently seeking my networking guidance, it went on to ask… “I am a solicitor and thinking about becoming a member of a networking organisation, should I find out how many other solicitors are members of the group before I join and if there is too much competition? Melissa

Dear Melissa,
Even if the networking group you are considering joining had over 100 solicitors as current members you should NOT be using this to calculate the value you will gain from also joining. Fraternising with your competition can pay dividends. I’ll expand out with a few pointers on what I mean.

The 80/20 Rule:  Joining an organisation is easy for anyone to do, it’s what happens after and how actively you participate that will decide the outcomes of your networking activities. Only 20% of people can be bothered actually doing anything, so this wipes out 80% of your competition straight away. Read the rest…