Friday, September 26, 2008

Networking

After nearly three months in India and four weeks in the Sales and Marketing department, I finally understand what all my college professors and administrators have been telling me for three years now: Networking is important!
One of the most important aspects of sales is networking; networking through your current clients to meet other people in the company who could provide more business or leads, networking through guests in the hotel who may know of other guests coming into Delhi and will be looking for a place to stay, networking through colleagues and friends about new companies or upcoming events in the city, etc. Being able to successfully network is an important aspect of being successful in sales.
At the same time, networking among other AIESECers and friends has lead to many opportunities for me personally. For instance, when my computer recently went kaput, a friend of a friend worked for an IT company and was able to get my computer fixed asap for a good price and little money. I later gave his contact info to a lady at work whose computer was also not working. I am constantly meeting people who can tell me about good restaurants, where to buy random things I need, what hotels to stay at during my upcoming trip around India and what trains to take. I've never been so well-connected as I am here in India, and I can tell you it makes many things a lot easier when I know I have a lot of people from whom I can ask advice.