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Articles

Networking for Survival - Nine Dot Sales and Training

By Mitch Seigel
10-18-10

A thought occurred to me that positioning myself in front of HR professionals would give me an entrée into several businesses for both marketing and sales consulting opportunities. So just like everything I do, I thought about the relationships I have, and of these people, who would have good advice on reaching the decision makers for organizations in this area of business.

So I contacted Andrew, a coach at Lee Hecht Harrison; who led me to Sharon, another coach at Lee Hecht Harrison, who specializes in HR positions; who led me to Jerry, the President at the Orange County NHRA chapter; who led me to Barb, who handles programming for the chapter. This story led to a breakfast meeting with Barb, and eventually the keynote speaking address at the September NHRA-Orange County meeting. And that’s how this thing called networking works.

Networking is something that is outside-the-box thinking for many HR professionals. So to start off the meeting I had all attendees try and solve the nine dot exercise, which is where the term, think outside the box was conceived. Opening adult’s minds is not always an easy thing to do, but this worked and increased eye contact, excitement in the room and interactivity amongst the participants.