To succeed you must continually meet new people, build relationships and leverage your network. Ultimately it's not about who you know but who knows you!

Working is about making connections and building enduring, mutually beneficial relationships.

In initiating contact with someone, make three things clear:
1) What you want by initiating contact
2)What is in it for them to engage with you and
3)What the next step is.
This way you both know exactly what's going on. You're both confident and prepared so you can get on to the business at hand.