Label Your Contacts

01. Identify each of your contacts as “Personal” or “Professional”.

02. Label these contacts as follows.

• Labels For Personal Contacts: Close, Casual, Remote
• Labels For Professional Contacts: Decision Maker, Influencer, Information Provider

What are these labels?

• Decision Makers: Hiring managers who have the final say in who would be selected for the job.

• Influencer: People who know the decision makers.

• Information Provider: People who can’t influence your selection directly, but can give you names of key contacts and inside information about organizational structure.

• Close, Casual, Remote: These labels identify how well you know these contacts.

Tip: A contact may be both professional as well as personal. For example your friend’s father may be a manager in another company where you are applying for a job.

How would labeling your contacts help you in networking?

The labels would guide you since the conversation you want to have with a Decision Maker Professional contact would be different from that with a Influencer Professional contact in the same company. Similarly, the conversations you would have with an Close Contact would be different from that with a Casual Personal contact.