Never assume the person you’re speaking with already understands what you want from the conversation or relationship. Dropping a hint or sending a vague email is indirect and unlikely to help you get what you’re looking for. You need to understand that nobody is inside your head. The colleague you casually mentioned a referral opportunity to is not sitting at home thinking about how to help you. If you did not say clearly what you wanted, needed, or were offering, you might as well have said nothing at all.

This plays out constantly in business development and networking, two areas…

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