Are you farming or hunting?

I attend a regular early morning breakfast networking event and I’d like to share with you something that I’ve learned recently about relationship marketing.

One of the members of the group, David Rhodes of Horizon Business Agents, gave a short presentation in which he made the simple but effective analogy of hunters and framers with reference to networking. It went something like this:

Many people see networking events as a hunting ground and they arrive poised to pounce, pitching right off the bat. Before they’ve even taken the time to get to know you they’re trying to get in bed with you, like lounge lizard trying to schmooze his way into the pants of every woman, single or otherwise at a wedding reception. There’s no relationship to be had in this scenario.

Forget the pitch, and think about the person

Taking a farming approach to networking can really yield results. A farmer studies the lay if the land and the quality of the soil and if he believes that the conditions are right he starts to sow his seeds.

Then over a season of time he waters them and cultivates them until they are ready to bear fruit. If he’s chosen good ground and taken the care and effort to nurture and tend to his crops then he’s handsomely rewarded with a bumper crop.