Never Betray A Networking Confidence

Your reputation is all you’ve got so value it like it were the crown jewels.Someone was telling me how they went to a networking event and met a young woman who specialised in making cup cakes. She had the ability to not only produce a beautiful product, but also included an iced logo on the top of each cake – perfect if you were a corporate wanting to raise brand profile during your catering session. My contact was so impressed that he offered to introduce her to his colleague who ran a major events company, and had been approached by a local finance house with a catering requirement; he mentioned, to the girl, the name of the finance house who had made the approach to his business contact.

The woman failed to contact the owner of the events company who was awaiting her call. However, in due course, he was telephoned by the finance house. They wanted a meeting to discuss their catering need, however, they said they would only be discussing drinks and savouries because they had been approached directly by a cup cake lady and had awarded her the contract for the catering sweets! She went behind everyone’s back and, in doing so, created animosity and, even worse, torpedoed her reputation. She will be silently blacklisted among many suppliers but will never know why she is not getting work in certain quarters.  A quick win followed by a slow death is no victory. Make sure people can trust you otherwise you are worthless in business, and never abuse prized information that is given to you.