Another chapter is upon us. In this one, our author illustrates how important it is to know your audience. This is getting into the "nuts and bolts" of making a connection. There are a few steps to take here;

1. know ahead of time who you want to make a connection with. This usually involves getting an idea of who will be at a given event. In the author's example, he helped organise a business conference, and so had access to the list of people who would be there.

2. Find out about your target. A little research goes a long way. Try to find some common ground that you can use to kick start a conversation. People will appreciate that you made the effort to find out about them. After all, "people naturally care, generally above and beyond anything else, about what it is they do." (Ch. 7, p. 67)

It kinda sounds dehumanizing to call a prospective contact and valuable part of your network a "target," but that's really what your doing; you're singling out a specific person. And really, it works a lot better than a shotgun approach.