Networking & community building

Turn connections into stronger relationships and opportunities

The people around your business can play a powerful role in its growth. Customers, professional contacts, referrers, collaborators and supporters can introduce you to others, share valuable insight, recommend your expertise and open doors to opportunities you may never find alone.

The value, however, comes from what you build around those connections. At Extended Thinking, we help B2B businesses, professional firms and individuals develop stronger networks, referrer relationships and communities based on genuine mutual value. That might mean making existing networking activity more purposeful, developing a group of trusted advocates and introducers, or creating a community that people genuinely value being part of.

Businesses and individuals typically come to us when…

“We’re doing plenty of networking, but we’re not seeing enough from it.”

“We’d like more introductions and recommendations from the right people.”

“We know lots of people, but we’re not developing those relationships consistently.”

“We’d like to build a community around our business, but need a clear purpose and approach.”

How we help

We help you look beyond simply growing your contact list and focus on the relationships, activities and communities that can create genuine value. Depending on your goals, we can help with:

• Networking strategies and reviews that identify where to focus your time, which relationships to develop and where opportunities or gaps exist
• Referrer strategies that strengthen relationships with people who could confidently introduce or recommend you
• Relationship-building plans that help turn promising contacts into stronger, mutually valuable relationships
• Community strategies and plans that define the purpose, audience and value for both your business and the people you want to bring together
• Networking coaching that helps individuals prepare for events, have better conversations, build relationships and follow up effectively
• Strategic introductions that connect people where we see genuine potential for mutual value or collaboration

Strong networks are built on mutual value

The best networking relationships aren’t transactional. People are far more likely to recommend, introduce and support someone they know, trust and understand. That takes more than an occasional coffee or connecting on LinkedIn.

We help our clients think more deliberately about the people in their network: where relationships could be strengthened, how they can stay connected, what value they can offer and whether contacts really understand when and why to recommend them.

It’s an approach that puts relationships before immediate return, while still keeping sight of the commercial reason for investing time in them.

Creating communities people want to be part of

Community building takes that thinking further. Rather than simply communicating with an audience, a business can create opportunities for customers, contacts, referrers and supporters to connect, contribute and become more involved.

We help businesses establish what they and their prospective members should gain from the community, who to involve and how to create worthwhile reasons for people to participate. That could take many forms, from business clubs and customer panels to events, roundtables or online groups.

The aim isn’t to build the largest possible community. It’s to create one with a clear purpose, where people value their involvement and the business benefits from stronger relationships, insight, advocacy and opportunities over time.

Typical outcomes

Through our work and support, clients typically achieve:

• A stronger network of relevant and trusted relationships
• More purposeful and productive networking activity
• Stronger relationships with referrers and introducers
• More introductions, recommendations and collaborative opportunities
• Greater confidence and consistency in developing professional relationships
• Communities with a clearer purpose and stronger member engagement
• Greater advocacy, insight and opportunity from the people around their business

When connections create opportunities

Strong networks and communities can create conversations, introductions and opportunities. When an important commercial opportunity emerges, the challenge becomes how to make the most of it.

Explore our Winning new business service to see how we help businesses evaluate opportunities, sharpen their proposition and develop pitches and proposals that give them the best chance of success.

Ready to make more of the people around your business?

Whether you want to strengthen your network, generate more referrals and introductions or build a community people genuinely value being part of, we’d be delighted to help.

Get in touch to arrange an informal conversation about how Extended Thinking can help you build stronger connections, communities and opportunities.