In a previous musing, I talked about clichés, and why they should not necessarily be discounted.

Here’s one for you – “People buy from people”.

God, this is true. It’s a cliché, but it’s soooo true. And never is it truer than in the arena of networking.

Yes, some folk find networking easier than others; creating vast cobwebs of connections with an ease and rapidity that makes a funnel web spider look like a slacker.

Others (and there are more in this gang than the spider-folk) do not take easily to the activity, regarding it as professional whoring and a socially awkward necessity that takes resolve and grit to endure.

So, some networkers are born gifted, and we all know a few of them.

But so many of us could be better, if only we could remember the cliché at the start of this piece.

Many of the people I have met who claim to abhor and detest networking, have an enviable number of friends; their Facebook profile looks like a telephone directory and makes me feel like a hermit, and their social diary would test Peter Stringfellow’s stamina.

And here’s the thing; business networking is NO DIFFERENT from making friends.

Just stop selling, and start making friends.

Richard Pettinger

Marketing & Commercial Manager