Lists, lists, lists!
Copyright 2006 Henry Winter
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Having your own business, or even being an employee who is involved in helping win new busiuness, means you are involved in networking that business.

I don’t mean networking as in MLM as you don’t build a”downline” or anything like that BUT, some of the techniques used in MLM are very useful in helping you get off the ground.

It is said there is a "300 hundred" rule.

Through family, close friends, and loose friends, and all your business contacts,
if you really think about it, you can create an extrta list of 300 hundred people you could contact to help you get your business more widely known.

It is possible it could be true for you.

However, not all those people will of great use to you.

Some will, some won’t.

Key to having them help you is to decide which of the contacts you have would be in a position to help you the most. So how do you do that?

You filter them by creating a list that enables you to qualify who would be a great contact who can help and those that will be helpful but less so.

To do that you need to score them.

I use what I call the MILE.

An acronym for:Money, Influence, Location, Entrepreneurial.

It works like this:

Depending on which section of the market you plan to operate in, do the contacts you have have enough money to circulate in the circle you want to operate in?

Do they have a role, authority, charisma that enables them to be seen as an influencer in that circle?

Are they in a location that is relevant to what you do?

Do they share an entrepreneurial spirit like you and would be willing to pass your name along?

If you ask your self those 4 questions, for each person you know, for each busines contact you have, you can create a list.

The scores on that list will help you focus your attention on the right people.

The easiest way to score them is relative to yourself/your business, by doing the following:

On a sheet of paper, or in excel, create a 6 column table.

Column one has "Name" as the title, then put the initials M, I, L, E in the next 4 columns. The last column has total" as the heading.

TRhe score each name against yourself.

If they have more of any of the above then you score them 3.

If they have about the same as you score them 2.

If they have less than you score them 1.

As far as location is concerned whilst the person you know may be miles away they may still have connections in your area.

If they do score them 1.

If they do not score them 0.

Ultimately you will end up with a list that has some 10’s and some will be 3’s.

Those that are 7’s and above are most likely to be your best bets to help you get your business known amongst their circle of friends/contacts/business contacts. And it is most likely those friends and contacts/businesses could have a need for your services or at least know someone that might.

This exercisemay take you less than 1 hour but you will be amazed at the names and contacts you had forgotten about, did not think could help you that can.

Best of luck, Henry.