Hi I'm Jenny Rae the Managing Director of Management Consultant and I'm here
today to talk about warm networking. We're in our advanced networking series,
and as I'm talking about more networking, I want to talk about how you convert
someone that you already know, that has insight in or is currently working for a
consulting firm, to a proactive contact that will refer you. And specifically I
want to talk about three pieces of the process, so that you can understand how
everything works together, and then four guidelines. So the three pieces of the
process are pretty straightforward. First you want to reach out to them by
email, you want to set expectations about what you're planning to do, and also ask
them for a call. And the second step of the process, in the call, you use that as
an informational interview, we're going to cover those in depth in another
separate video – but in that informational interview, your goal is to highlight your
benefits that you're going to bring to the firm, and also drive the process to a
referral. What the referral is, is when someone is actually advocating for you
inside the firm. So they're talking about what the specifics are that are really
beneficial about your application and why a firm should interview you.
It's beneficial to know that this process happens because, a lot of warm contacts
are warm for a reason, they're actually someone that you know really well, and
you should still go through the process of making this formal. You want to get
straightforward with them, but you don't want to get awkward. So you don't want to
get into a situation where you're keeping things too informal, and you
can't ask directly for what you need, and you don't want to make it too formal of
a process, as if you don't know them. So it's just helpful to be straightforward,
but pretty formal as you're going through this part of the process.
There are four key guidelines that are important to think about when you're
going through a warm networking contact, and this will just help you in your
strategy to determine how you can both best present yourself, and also how you
can best equip them to be a strong referral for you inside the firm. So the
first thing is that you need to have a strategy. A lot of people go into the
networking process relying only on relationship, but what's important is
that somebody is able to advocate for you and that they have all the material
that they need to do that. They need to know things that they already know about
you, areas that you are excellent, and things that they might not know, awards
that you've won, or places that you've worked, your things that they might just
not have all the specifics about. So, make sure that you give them everything that
they need to talk about the story. Also make sure that you approach them early
enough so that you're not infringing on their personal time or they're really
busy season, so that you're able to establish and stone your intentions and
really follow through with your strategy as you go through the process. The second
thing that it's helpful to know beyond always having a strategy, is that you
want to make the contact your advisor. Consultants love to advise people, so if
you ask them questions where they're just giving you wrote information, that's
not interesting to them. You don't want to ask them transactional questions, you
want to ask them questions that say something like, "I am planning to do this,
this, this, and this, here's my strategy what do you think about it is there a
way that I could make it better." If they have the opportunity to say, w'ell that's
a great strategy," you've impressed them. If you don't have a strategy, or you
don't have a good strategy, it gives them the opportunity to jump in and kind of
change the course of your ship. So, they're helping to determine your
fate, and they get very invested in the outcome of your process when they serve
as an advisor to you. So make sure that as you're asking them questions, you're
setting your intentions up in front, and making them your adviser, not just
asking those transactional questions. The third thing that it's important to know,
is that you want to ask specific questions. You don't just want to say
tell me a little bit about the firm. You want to say, tell me three things that you
really enjoy about working at the company.
Remember networking is two ways, it's to help them have everything that they need,
but also to help you have everything that you need to make a smart and
intelligent application. To build a tailored cover letter, to prepare for fit
interview questions about why you want to work at that firm. And that process
starts with the goldmine of information that's available to you in this warm
networking process. So, make sure that you're not just asking
general questions, but asking very specific questions, things that
the answers to will be useful to you as you go through the process later.
And then finally drive the conversation to a referral. When somebody is actually going
through the process of warm networking with you, they're likely to already plan
to refer you, but sometimes it's just helpful to ask to make sure that
expectations are clear. So you're not expecting them to refer you, when they're
not prepared to do that. So a way that I always like to ask that is, "have I given
you everything that you need to make a referral for me, or is there something
else that I could do to bridge that gap." When I ask that question, I'm able to
both drive to, "hey I'm interested in having you refer me, I want to make sure
that you're comfortable with that, and would really like for you to do it, but
also I want you to have everything that you need to do that successfully." So if
there's something that I haven't done, or a way that I have not convinced you,
let's take the time to do that. So make sure that you keep these four guidelines
in mind when you're converting somebody who's just a friend, or an acquaintance,
and warn networking contact, to someone who will actually serve as a
referral to you, and an advocate inside the firm. If you've got questions about
networking, make sure that you check out our website at managementconsulted.com