The new, effective Architect networking method that will ensure you bigger projects

Networking is a subject where many false beliefs abound. The fact is you don't need to push yourself onto powerful people or wine and dine them in order to network effectively. In fact, it's better for your peace of mind if you don't – to say nothing of results that you can achieve with a correct, intermediate networking strategy.

Factors influencing Architect's networking

Let's get rid of the basic false datum concerning networking right away:

Networking very little to do with how much your personality pleases influential people. It has NOTHING to do with trying to make these decision-makers impressed by your personal abilities and character.

You knew it all along really, didn't you? After all, if someone applying for a position at your firm goes out of his way to please you, showers you with insincere compliments while self-promoting his own uniqueness... how impressed will you be? How likely will you be to choose this guy over the other applicants? Right – you're likely to make sure he is the LAST one on your list of preferred choices!

And so it is with networking. Don't make the mistake of assuming public officials aren't capable persons with a sincere intention of making the best possible selections in the interest of the group they represent. A few, well-publicized exceptions don't mean anything. You're going to be measured on your own merits ninety-nine times out of a hundred.

Here's the basic governing factor of networking:

The only factor influencing the potential usefulness of your network is the number of projects successfully completed.

That's the only true factor governing it. The potential is and will remain a potential for most part until you take active steps to utilize it and engage it to work for you.

There are NO exceptions in the underlying factor governing networking. There ARE factors that can greatly influence the engaging of the POTENTIAL – in other words, make most of what you've done. A huge project winning wide acclaim can give a great boost to your prominence, get you on the right communication lines and result in a flow of requests for proposals and invitations to competitions.

You hit a mother load... but chances are, that to get such a big project, you already HAD quite some projects under your belt. For it is not the SIZE of the project that is the cause of your network potential, it's how MANY of them you have successfully completed.

Infrastructure of a network

Opinion leaders in industry and commerce KNOW people. They each have their OWN networks. They know other opinion leaders. They know high-ranking officials in the public sector... and so on.

Networking is like the old joke: How do you eat an elephant? – Piece by piece! And that's networking really. You build the foundation first with dozens of satisfied clients in different industries. It has to have DEPTH – three dimensions – and each piece is a network of it's own.

Every project ads another infrastructure of its own to this foundation. The more projects you do, the more independent infrastructures there are. Eventually, these individual networks will "meet" – people know people, word gets around and so on. The basic element is the word of mouth and the "number of hits" your name gets in the conversations of influential people... until your name is the one on top, the most known, the most widely acknowledged as someone who does his or her work well.

And that's all there is to it, really.

The potential in smaller projects

Of course you want big and challenging projects. But the fast road to those is through doing lots of smaller projects first. The way out of smaller projects is the way THROUGH them... with the tools of clever networking and onto the level of recognition that will GUARANTEE that you get enough big projects to NEVER have to take smaller ones unless you want to!

There's no guaranteed way to bypass this and just jump directly onto a constant flow of bigger projects. You want big and challenging projects – but so does every Architect in the whole wide world. Competition is brutal. There's NO WAY to find out about these projects before others – to say nothing of getting in there before publication. No, you're on the same line with every colleague...

That equals very few projects. Big ones, sure. But FEW.

By all means, don't change anything in what you do to get the extraordinary projects... but ADD onto your system a way to get a constant flow of smaller projects – something that will build up your network (and definitely also your net worth). Simple, smaller projects... with hardly ANY competition!

Don't like dealing with smaller projects?

If that's your viewpoint, it's understandable. It's not what EVERY Architect thinks... because small projects can sometimes offer both more freedom of creation as well as a higher profit for your work. But admittedly, they seldom provide instant fame or huge income.

However, before you throw the idea away, let's make sure it IS small fish we're talking here. After all, big fish follow the small ones...

First, let's look at the way things are now. I'm sure you rightfully consider that your chances right now are quite good – and I'm not going to disprove that to you, either. Nothing that we suggest here has any bearing on what you CURRENTLY do... in other words, if it works, KEEP DOING IT.

Okay. How many proposals have you got out there? Ten, fifteen? More?

Next, how many competitions have you entered that you don't know the outcome of yet? Another five or ten perhaps? More? Less?

And how many leads have you got right now – upcoming projects that you're networking for in order to get in there? Another ten perhaps?

Let's say your "future opportunities folder" contains 30-40 possibilities. Now, that's a very active marketing portfolio for any Architect firm, small or mid-size. If you have that many – well done! If you have only a quarter of these... still quite good!

And the bad news...

I don't want to be the bearer of bad news... but here's a reality check if you're interested. Answer two questions concerning your 30-40 different possibilities on new projects.

1. How LONG has this list remained mostly unchanged? In other words, is it moving, developing and, above all, producing results in form of several contracts signed each month? Or, are the same opportunities there month to month, counted every month again and again?

2. How many OTHER Architects and firms are COMPETING for these same projects?

No matter what, it's still WELL DONE and my only message here is... with that strength and tenacity, what could you really achieve if you had a better system for obtaining new projects?

Logically, you'd have to divide the number of opportunities you have with the combined number of other Architects that also compete for these same projects. Of course you might be way above the average in your proposals-to-contracts rate. So, let's say you have 40 opportunities and there are 80 Architects competing for these. Mathematically, it wouldn't give you a single project, but let's say you're in the upper quarter – that'll be two projects, then.

Technically, you should divide the number of possibilities with the number of weeks or months you've HAD these ongoing to arrive at an estimate of "project opportunity turnover" – in other words, how many months it takes from the moment you first find out about it until you know the outcome of it and it becomes either your project or ceases to exist for you.

When you then combine these two vectors, you'll get a realistic idea of how much and how fast your networking is actually progressing. If you're like the rest of us, you'll probably feel it'll take too long to get where you want – with the present development, that is.

Comparison figures

The comparison here concerns only the aspect of networking – the basic plan of creating an infrastructure of contacts that will eventually make your name to be included in every competition and RFP in your area. Again, what I'm talking about here is ADDING certain things to what you're doing presently – not REPLACING anything.

Compare these figures to the ones you wrote down earlier:

1. Imagine if you could easily find FIVE new projects every month and be the ONLY Architect they talk with. Developing this idea further, what if you had an added-value service to offer these prospective clients... and tools to sign them onto a service BEFORE the final decision about the project was even MADE -- and get an 80 percent certainty that the actual project comes to you – and definitely over half of these clients will want YOU to design their building...

How many projects would THIS alternative bring you... and on what schedule?

2. Think for a while what it would mean if there was a way to ensure that the average cycle from first contact to some kind of service contract would at best be only weeks. And what if your service was such, that with it you would ALWAYS actively expedite the final go-ahead decision for the project... shortening the waiting period a minimum of 25 percent (and often MUCH more)?

Do the math. Imagine getting projects from as many industries as you want, each opinion leader becoming your goodwill ambassador... working for you though the word of mouth. See, it is the NUMBER of these spokesmen that has to be up to a certain level for a "chain reaction" to occur -- your satisfied clients bumping more and more often into each other, YOU becoming the positive subject of conversation... and so on. It's like you need to have a certain number of those goodwill ambassadors to get enough "hits" between their respective networks to amount to actual GROWTH of your network potential.

Thus the governing factor of networking is put to effect: The only factor influencing the potential usefulness of your network is the number of projects successfully completed.

The full details of this method and actual tools to effectively sign on lots of new clients we have reserved for our Architect Marketing Guidelines system. It will give you a formidable head way in increasing your network potential in a very natural way without ever having to wine and dine anyone. Furthermore, it will increase your income and profits in a way most Architects can only dream of...

Click here to see the content of Architect Marketing Guidelines – the system that will build up your networking potential while building up your net worth!

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