Strategic Networking Starts By Tapping Into Connectors

“The point about connectors, is that by having a foot in so many different worlds, they have the effect of bringing them all together.”
— “The Tipping Point,” by Malcolm Gladwell

Mike Beebe found himself in Rogers between gubernatorial campaign stops in April, tying Windsor knots on Wal-Mart mannequins for a 25-year-old marketing whiz. Connections and personalities brought them together.

The business world is numb with numbers, quantitative analysis ad nauseam and enough jargony gibberish to tongue-tie a preacher. But successful area executives said one tangible that accounts for the majority of their business can’t be crammed into a spreadsheet — the ability to network smart.

Truly cultivating networking opportunities can be particularly daunting for young professionals who aren’t mega extraverts like Beebe, the state attorney general, and Amber Savage, the energetic director of retail promotions at marketing dynamo New Creature Inc.

That’s why experts say strategic networking and volunteerism begins with getting over fears of failure, a sincere desire to contribute and choosing activities that help build a personal “brand.” Steven Worden, a professor of sociology at the University of Arkansas and a published authority on communities, said professionals rightly seek to accomplish those goals by aligning themselves with leaders who display confidence and integrity.

“Integrity manifests itself in a sense of willingness to help others first,” Worden said. “That’s what inspires trust, the fact that we’re not going to be exclusively self serving or promoting.”

A former standout at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Savage was in charge of prepping the stage and props for an international Wal-Mart Stores Inc. media show that expected 400 guests. Dick Trammel, executive vice president of community relations at Arvest Bank-Rogers, was introducing Beebe’s team around town and they had an hour to kill.

They wandered into Rogers-based New Creature, where Savage was dressing dummies in clothing labels such as George and No Boundaries. Beebe took one look at the chaos and said, “Hey, can I help?”

Savage tossed him a necktie and said, “Can you tie a tie with a thick knot?”

Patrick Sbarra, New Creature’s president, said what ensued is the result of the duo’s ability to take their work, but not themselves, seriously. It’s simply what Malcolm Gladwell refers to in his book, “The Tipping Point,” as connectors in action.

“All of a sudden, here’s the attorney general of Arkansas and a kid from Rogers who’s trying to finish a huge project for the world’s largest company, tying ties and dressing dummies together,” Sbarra said. “What they have in common is the spirit to just jump right in, and the ease of being able to talk to anyone.”

Involvement

Gladwell defines the three main types of networkers as connectors, mavens and senders. Connectors bring people together because of their vast network of experiences and contacts. Mavens are human data banks. Senders pass on useful or motivating information.

The New Creature situation is a perfect case for Gladwell’s argument that connectors know everyone, largely because they’re eager to, and that their resulting spheres of influence make them more able to put deals, people and projects together. Connectors, and their web of contacts, are what networkers seek most.

Trammel, whose Northwest Arkansas networking skills are legendary, triggered the meeting between Beebe and Savage — an accomplished connector through law and politics and a connector-in-training for the retail supplier/brand development world, respectively.

All three are omni-involved in civic and philanthropic causes at the local or state level, where they have cultivated relationships with diverse groups of people. Savage, for instance, is active in First Leadership Rogers and several charities, mostly involving young people because, she said, “They keep me cool and hip for my job.”

In past lives, Savage has been a gas station clerk and an assistant to the ultra-chic Randi Rahm, a haute couture New York designer catering to women with $100,000 wardrobe budgets.

Trammel, who draws on his experiences as a cotton farmer and banker, sat on 18 boards until recently cutting back to 14 following his appointment by Gov. Mike Huckabee to the Arkansas Higher Education Coordinating Board. A “connector emeritus,” Trammel said he doesn’t know how many phone numbers are in his Rolodex, but he said, “there’s probably a thousand in my brain.”

Trammel estimated he keeps up annual ongoing communications with more than 600 people. Beebe, a Searcy native and capital city veteran, is trying to cross paths with as many of Arkansas’ 2.7 million citizens as possible before the 2006 elections.

Choices

Everyone can’t be at the top of the connector pyramid, although most professionals apparently do multi-task when it comes to networking. Seven out of 10 people in the United States belong to at least one professional or social organization, and 25 percent are members of four or more, according to Career magazine (see story below).

Time constraints mean most executives have to prioritize. Sbarra warns that too often people get spread too thin and wind up becoming “nobody to everybody instead of somebody to anybody.”

“The key is surrounding yourself with a constellation of advisors and mentors who will help build the right kind of diverse network,” Sbarra said.

It’s the full-time job of Trammel and Joe Spivey, vice president of business development at First Security Bank in Rogers, to function as connectors. They’re in a lot of people’s constellations, but they still have to choose.

Like Trammel, Spivey’s experiences are layered and rippling: linking UA engineering students with corporations, mentoring college athletes, two stints in banking and a couple of years with a local packaging firm.

He’s a staple of the Rogers-Lowell Area Chamber of Commerce, a trustee for NorthWest Arkansas Community College and sits on more boards and volunteers for more charities than one ought to be able to do.

Both bankers still have to manage when they say, “Yes,” or “No,” because of the sheer number of groups clamoring for their connector’s touch.

Worden explains their attraction by citing Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s book, “Confidence.” It says people want to work with others who are in “cycles of winning,” rather than “spirals of losing.” Networkers gravitate to people who have confidence that is also backed up by performance, the book says.

“[Winners] make you more confident, and when you’re around those people you’re also becoming part of their systems or networks which exposes you to more opportunities,” Worden said.

Initiative

Brandon Rains, a project manager at The Barber Group in Springdale, helped fellow up-and-comer David Erstine found the Fayetteville Young Professionals Association after 30 people wound up at his house for an impromptu dinner party. There was so much networking going on, the two decided they should make it a regular event and get someone else to pay for it.

They met with Fayetteville Chamber of Commerce President Bill Ramsey and made it happen. The format, Rains said, was intentionally loose and presented at no cost to remove potential impediments for the rookie business crowd.

“It has been an opportunity to build some serious relationships,” Rains said.

Jeremy Boissevian’s American Sociological Review paper on “The Strength of Weak Ties” asserts that the people who seem to benefit others’ careers are most connected to them through social networks. The ties may not be as strong as, for instance brotherly ties, but even in the case of business people just starting out the social networks offer the biggest payoffs.

Erstine also helped start Benton County version of the group, Northwest Arkansas Young Professionals. Spivey lauded both efforts, but added that they’re just like the many committees and functions sponsored by area Chambers.

“You’re going to get out of it what you put into it,” Spivey said. “That Chamber membership is only going to benefit you if you participate in one way or another.”

Work It

John George, director of marketing for The Pinnacle Group in Rogers, said most of the younger people he sees in networking situations “look like they’re at a college social function.” He said real networking means being prepared to contribute, not just trying to be seen with the right clique.

“You have to initiate discussion,” George said. “Whether it’s about politics, city or business matters or an article you’ve read, you should be able to bring something to the table. If you’re selling insurance, you don’t want to walk up and go, ‘Hey, I want to sell you some insurance.’

“But if you’re talking about crime rates, for instance, you might find out someone doesn’t have a home security system, and you could save them on their rates if they got one. You talk about the things that matter to other people, keeping in mind what you can offer.”

Both George and Elise Mitchell, president of Mitchell Communications Group in Fayetteville and a co-owner in Executive Communications Consultants LLC, said offering free help turns acquaintances into advocates.

“Before you know it, these people are your best word of mouth,” she said. “If you go into it for the right reasons, it will show. If it’s something manufactured, people see through it.”

Trammel said the three most important things in public life are a person’s character, their credit and their ethics. He said it’s important to never miss a chance to make a friend, because that opportunity may never come again and who knows what it will hold.

Worden, the sociologist, likened a true connector’s attitude to a story about the late Springdale trucking magnate Harvey Jones. Worden knew a Salvation Army worker who said Jones would frequently stop by to help.

“My friend was a highly unattractive junior officer,” Worden said. “And here’s Harvey Jones, a very wealthy business man. He walked by one day and she was in there trying to nail some boards together. Mr. Jones grabbed a hammer and started working right beside her.

“For all his money and power, that says something about his humanity. The best at it aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty.”

Groups Link Professionals

A comprehensive database of local networking opportunities is virtually impossible to come by, although a glance at the Business Journal’s calendar section proves there are plenty.

Chris Vest, the American Society of Association Executives’ director of public relations, said his group represents more than 200 million people who belong to professional groups. Many of those have multiple memberships, however.

According to the Internal Revenue Service, there are more than 71,000 associations in America organized under the 501(c)(6) section of the tax code, which is for trade associations, business leagues and Chambers of Commerce.

As of 2000, there were 230,159 charitable groups that filed returns with the IRS as 501(c)(3) organizations. That number was up nearly 9 percent from 211,615 in 1999. The IRS estimates another 446,714 nonprofit groups do not file returns because of various exemptions, such as churches and smaller organizations.

At the state level, Mary Dandurand is executive director of the Arkansas Society of Association Executives. She said her group represents more than 100 of the state’s largest professional organizations.

The average membership among that gaggle of in-state groups is about 1,500 people, she said. But there are many more coalitions and networking groups of all kinds that aren’t official 501(c)(6) organizations, not to mention many cross memberships.

Members range from the Arkansas Soft Drink Association, which represents 39 bottling plants, to the Arkansas State Employees Association and its 17,000 members.

“If you’re the type of person who’s a member of one state association, you’re probably also the member of several because you see the value in it,” Dandurand said.

National statistics tracked by the ASAE show professional and civic associations:

• Have annual combined budgets that exceed $21 billion, which translates into billions of dollars more in indirect benefits to the U.S. economy;
• Pay more than $1.1 billion annually in local, state and federal taxes;
• Employ 260,000 people full time and another 35,000 part time;
• Account for more than 26 million overnight stays in hotels each year.
• Dominate the $102 billion U.S. meetings business since 92 percent of them hold meetings and account for 67 percent of the total meetings industry;
• and do annual membership education and training worth $3.6 billion per year.