Business Development Blog

Looking at your networks newly unlocks the potential of the relationships you already have.

I recently listened to a podcast from Stan Relihan and Christian Mayaud (two big names in the Social Media space) and in their conversation, Christian talked about how he manages the contacts and relationships in his networks.  He shared his taxonomy - CAN (Currently Active Network), FAN (Formerly Active Network), and PAN (Potentially Active Network).

As I thought about this and the application to what we teach in network and business development, this struck me as especially powerful.  Think for a moment; You've got a new product, or market, or what not, and you do an audit of your network to see what resources you already have - CAN-FAN-PAN.  You see that you can reach into your networks and begin the planning of how you are going to position yourself and you have people who you already know who can help you.

With the power of LinkedIn, you can also quickly ascertain who you need to meet in the space, and you can look to see who you used to know.  You may need to do some work to rekindle or build some of those relationship, but you will not be needlessly wasting your valuable time and resources.

I recommend that you take a few moments now to do this exercise.  It will open your eyes to a whole new world. 

Build it deep and build it strong!

Raymond Chip Lambert
Network 2 Networth
Deep Business Development

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