It helps to know who your competitors are. Why? Here are a couple of first-hand examples.

A few years back I was talking with a prospective client. Shortly into the conversation I realized they were looking for more services than I had capacity for, and more than I was in a position to handle. In short, they were looking for a larger firm. At the conclusion of the conversation, I told them this. The prospect then asked me if there was anyone else I could refer them to, and I gave them a name. Shortly after, they signed on with the firm I recommended, and I got a nice steak dinner out of it.

After I moved to Chicago from Boston, I continued receiving the monthly newsletters for Marty’s Liquors, a great food, spirits and cigar store in Newton and Allston, MA. I emailed them and told them I had moved and they could take me off their mailing list. The response I got from them was not what I suspected. They told me they were going to keep me on their newsletter mailing list, and if I wanted to buy anything in it, to go to Sam’s in Chicago and buy it there.

Both of these are examples of selfless, customer-focused networking. Recently I got a call from the firm in the first example, so I guess what goes around sure does come around.

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