Tour 42- Standing
According to Cornell Law School, "standing" is the capacity of a party to bring a lawsuit in court. To have standing, a party must demonstrate a sufficient connection to and harm from the law or action being challenged.
Recently a facebook friend wanted to know what her facebook friends considered was the appropriate "payback", if any, when referrals are given.
The answers were many and diverse. From "I don't ever expect anything in return," to "If I don't receive in return I tend to stop giving."
Naturally this question interested me, and I wasn't sure what my answer was. Until, a few days later, the word standing popped in my head.
Networking Gives Us Standing
While I don't give referrals transactionally, meaning for every referral I give you, I expect you to give me one in return, I do network with some expectation. The expectation is that if I've passed you a referral, or supported your business in other ways, I have standing to ask you to help me.
My google search of the key phrase, "legal definition of standing" returned a few results. I choose the one above because of the word connection.
"A party must demonstrate sufficient connection to and harm from the law being challenged."
Translated into networking jargon, a networker must demonstrate sufficient "connection" to the person being asked.
Connecting in order to gain standing is what networking is all about.
Try these activities to connect with a person you would like to eventually have the confidence or standing to ask him to help you in a specific way:
Support him on social media. Don't just "follow," comment and share his posts too.
Introduce yourself at a networking meeting or event that you both attend.
Ask for a 1-2-1 meeting with him.
Ask good questions at your 1-2-1 meeting, that both make him feel like you are genuinely interested in him, and that help you know what kind of referral he is looking for.
Work to send him a referral.
Networking Doesn't Give Us An Automatic "Win"
Just as a plaintiff doesn't expect to win his case just because he has standing, we don't expect to win access to introductions or win referrals from others, just because we have standing with them.
While we don't expect a yes when we ask for referrals or introductions, we can still ask confidently, knowing we've made a good faith effort to improve lives, and support others.
Go network my friend, and remember:
Let the chips fall where they may and have fun looking for opportunities for our fellow networkers, then go boldly before those same networkers and ask them for the help you need to move your business forward.
The Networker's Tour Guide, Faithann Basore, and her husband Dave have owned Window Cleaning Plus (WCP) for 10 years. Growing WCP through networking has given Faithann the desire to guide other small business owners through the networking terrain so they can feel comfortable and build long lasting relationships in their business.
Got networking questions? Email me at [email protected].
