The JF Guest Author Spot

“BUILD YOUR BUSINESS THROUGH SMART NETWORKING”
By Andrea Nierenberg
________________________________________

Many of us still have a negative perception when we hear the word “networking” and as I always say, it’s a misunderstood word. My theory is that good networking skills build links and alliances with people we meet along our career path.

“The opposite of networking is not working”-you can learn from everyone you meet and also be a resource to them. If you are lucky, down the road something may come back.

Here are a few questions that I am asked as one thinks of this “new philosophy” on something that has been around since the beginning of time.

1. Is networking just about finding customers and growing one’s business?

Networking is all about developing and building relationships first. When this happens with hard work and sincerity, customers will come. It’s like a garden. When you meet new people for the first time, it’s like planting a seed. When you stay in touch by meeting for coffee or sending a holiday card, it’s like watering the seeds. Finally when there is a genuine reason for you to have a closer working relationship or friendship, it’s like the harvest. Remember we can plant and we can water-however the growth is a natural and organic process. You cannot rush it. One needs to think win/win and patience. I look at each connection I make as how I can help or refer that person. The biggest joy is when I put someone in touch with someone else and they do business together. Three of my major corporate clients took over three years to develop-lots of staying in touch, patience and finally an opportunity to work on an assignment. Each has turned into multiple referrals within the organization. The goal is stay in front of people, to be on their radar screen as a thank you. I do this with my electronic tips of the month, my quarterly newsletter and a variety of articles.

2. What has been the biggest “negative” that I have heard about networking?

The top complaint that came from a national survey that my company did was about people who act like they are trying to sell you something-right when they meet you. They pounce on you and tell you only about themselves and don’t have any interest in you. Another complaint is about people who lose interest if they don’t think you can help them-the people who figure they only need to “network” when they NEED a job or business.

The key is always to give first. Be a resource-go through your database and think how you can help the other person. Every day, get in touch with three people just to say hello. I do this systematically. It could be as simple as sending an article including a note saying “I haven’t spoken to you in a while, and thought you might be interested in this.” Or let them know about an event they might enjoy, or congratulate them on a recent accomplishment. Keep it sincere, short and make it about them-not about you.

3. Is networking costly in terms of time?

Networking the way I look at it, is part of everyday life. Think of your current business or company-how can you connect with each person, vendor, or client and then plant seeds so that you get referrals. Ask questions, show interest and ask about things that are of interest to them. The “time” that you invest will be paid back many times over as you are developing and building relationships.

Think of the associations you belong to and make the time that you go to these meetings and functions work for you. Get involved: work on committees and meet and develop new contacts throughout the year.

4. What are some things you can do to become more visible in your community?

Offer to speak at a local organization meeting. You might also offer to do a free mini seminar on your specialty in business. Write articles and publish your own newsletter, which you will send to your master file and also to a prospect list and database that you continually are developing and building. On the market, there are many pre-produced marketing pieces that can be created and customized with your name and contact information. Just be sure to always sign it yourself and if possible add something personal. For me, the newsletter is a “piece of gold”. I send out 2,500 copies quarterly and I always personalize each one-it can be as simple as: “Hi, Lisa, hope you’re great! Andrea.”

5. What are the five great keys to building your business through networking?

o Meet people and nurture your current network.

o Listen and learn from everyone you meet. We learn more by listening then talking, which is why we have two ears and one mouth. Also-we can learn from those we do not like-we learn how not to be. When you listen-you also learn what people need and how to be a resource and give to them.

o Make connections for others-find ways to connect other people together. I say 1+1=3. People will remember who made the original connection.

o Follow up-this is critical and the one thing most people forget to do. Under promise and over deliver. Do what you say and do it in a timely fashion. A wonderful quote I live by: “Give without remembering, and receive without forgetting.”

o Find creative ways to follow up— There is always an opportunity to stay on people’s radar screen with an article, note, something of interest to them-even remembering their birthday.

Remember this:

N Remember people’s Names and Nurture your Network

E Have good Eye contact, Empathy and know when to Exit

T Talk less, listen more-think, Trust, and Timing is everything

W Write personal notes to people and remember this is Work!

O Every time you meet someone is an Opportunity to learn and be Organized

R Reputation, Relationships, Reflection, Rapport, Results

K Knowledge is power with execution, Kindness pays!

I Be Interested in others, Integrity is key, take the Initiative

N Sometimes you have to say No

G Goals, Gratitude, be Generous with your time

Andrea Nierenberg, “a networking success story” (The Wall Street Journal), is the author of Nonstop Networking: How to Improve Your Life, Luck and Career. Ms. Nierenberg works with leading companies to improve interpersonal communications for management and staff. She offers keynote addresses and custom-designed programs on motivational techniques, networking tactics, and presentation skills.

To contact Andrea Nierenberg, write to The Nierenberg Group, 420 E. 51st Street, Suite 12D, New York, NY 10022. She can be reached by phone at 888-605-5911 or by e-mail at info@mybusinessrelationships.com, web address: www.mybusinessrelationships.com

Personal Note: Andrea is not someone who merely “talks the talk” – she really practices what she preaches, which is why she is genuinely a “guru” on the subject: Since the Top Sales Experts team was formed last March, I have come into contact with some wonderful people and Andrea is right up there. I am so pleased that we have become such good friends and she has my complete admiration for both what she does and who she is. - JF

NB:This is just one of the articles that you will find in the latest edition of “The Top Sales Experts Share Their Top Articles” and you can download the full book for free by clicking on the banner in the left hand column.

Today’s News: On Monday we announced Salesopedia’s latest initiative, Jobs Central and today’s podcast features Clayton Shold in conversation with Derrick Moe and Jeremy Miller – the subject is: “Recruiting Trends” You can catch it here.

Tomorrow: “Always finish strongly” has always been a personal motto of mine and so tomorrow, I give you:”The Most Persuasive Presentations”

The JF Guest Author Spot

Networking is a social activity. As such it ebbs and flows in tune with the annual business calendar. Many professionals lose sight of the annual business cycle and how it fluctuates, often dictating the pace and productivity of networking. Check out the list below and reflect on how it has affected your efforts. Then use the information as you prepare for the next quarter.

First Quarter (Jan/Feb/Mar). This part of the annual cycle is a little slow out of the gate. Don’t expect much activity on an individual or group level for the first part of January. Most people, even the most successful professionals, seem to suffer from the “Christmas hangover” until mid-to-late January. Events are not usually well-attended until early February when people get caught up from the December layoff. Groups generally shift into high gear during February, then hit a hiccup as the annual March Break hits. Most groups tend to meet before or after this short holiday period as many professionals and entrepreneurs schedule a holiday where it’s a little warmer. Keep this fact in mind as many marketing plans are delayed or go off-track because of this (seemingly) sudden obstacle.

First Quarter Networking Success Strategy. Make sure you emphasize any major self-marketing effort for February. This will maximize your impact on the group. Expect delays in any project or relationship-building exercise that extend into March. You may not be taking a holiday at this time, but most successful entrepreneurs and professionals do.

Second Quarter (Apr/May/June). The business cycle builds at this time of year. Most professionals increase their quantity and quality of networking activity during this three-month span. Networking groups move into high gear and membership attendance at functions is usually high. This timeframe also includes additional group activities such as trade shows, conferences and special events. This is an opportune time to create new contacts and leverage involvement through efforts such as group presentations or sponsorship of events.

Second Quarter Networking Success Strategy. This is a high-activity segment in the annual cycle. Use it to develop new contacts and expand your network. Take advantage of any marketing opportunities as they will have maximum impact. There is a danger of losing control as activity builds. Utilize a follow up structure that keeps you in touch and helps stay on track.

This Quarter (July/Aug/Sept). Many professionals hit the proverbial wall at this time of year. They are not prepared to shift gears as our society slows to a crawl in mid-June. Most networking groups shut down for the Summer, the exception being a group bar-b-q or golf tournament. Most professionals will lose about a month of momentum in their business cycle: a week before they leave, gone two weeks then a week catching up when they get back. This mindset stays in place until the second week in September when everyone wakes up for the Fall rush.

Third Quarter Networking Success Strategy. Summer networking becomes a one-on-one activity that takes a holistic approach. Use innovative and leisure-oriented activities as networking efforts. Focus on the personal aspect of colleague conversations to build stronger relationships. And be ready for when the switch turns on September 15th.

Fourth Quarter (Oct/Nov/Dec). This is known as the “Golden Quarter” in the business world. It actually starts in mid-September when people come out of the Summer doldrums. The focus is now on business until mid-December. Networking groups work at full speed with many events and functions filling the calendar. Like the second quarter, there is usually a host of networking opportunities. This changes again in early December as most people begin their Christmas schedule. The talk again turns to personal issues and family agendas take over.

Fourth Quarter Networking Success Strategies. Be ready for the sprint in mid-September. It’s incredible how people seem to wake up and the networking mindset moves into full swing. It’s all-business, so stay on top of new contacts and use your follow up system as you could easily miss some hot contacts. Lead the Christmas slowdown by focusing on a holiday mindset. You can actually use this perspective to accomplish more relationship-building at this time of year.

Michael J. Hughes has spent over 38 years in the business world. He honed his business and managment skills with world-class retail organizations: Woolco-Woolworth (now Wal-Mart) and Canadian Tire Corporation, one of the most successful retail franchisor companies in North America. He has invested the last fifteen years building Michael J. Hughes Consulting & Training Inc., a business development and management consulting practice. He is a successful entrepreneur, business coach, international trainer and speaker, and respected author

To receive a FREE copy of his Summer Networking Strategies 10-page Executive Overview, email him at info@NetworkingForResults.comThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . http://www.networkingforresults.com/

Today’s News: My very good friend, Joe Heller, “The Revenue Warrior” is in conversation with Clayton Shold of Salesopedia and you can catch the entire interview here: http://www.salesopedia.com/content/view/1031/10347/

Tomorrow: It’s time to role out Sales Leadership Zone which launches next Tuesday – be very excited!!

Rapport is the most important process in influencing others. It is vital if you want to maintain relationships. Without it, you are unlikely to achieve willing agreement to what you want. People who have excellent rapport with others create harmonious relationships based on trust and understanding of mutual needs.

Rapport is the cornerstone of all mutually effective relationships. It needs constant vigilance to keep it alive and effective.

Why Is It So Important?

Rapport is similar to money – when you are short of it, it increases in importance. Without rapport you will reduce your chances of getting:

• Unconditional agreement to your ideas and suggestions
• Full commitment from others
• Business, promotion, friends

The way in which you interact with others has a major bearing on your success as an influencer.

Being in rapport means that you are in agreement with others both verbally and non-verbally.

Ten Good Reasons To Build Rapport:

• To really win friends and influence people
• To connect rapidly with a wide range of people
• To communicate magically
• To build solid, lasting relationships
• To create incredible results
• To help others improve performance and increase success
• To handle conflict
• To get promotion
• To talk your way in to things
• To talk your way out of things

A Recipe For Successful Influence:

Ingredients:

Trust
Openness
Comfort
Acceptance
Empathy
Flexibility
Something in common
Shared understanding

Method:

Mix together as required. Notice changes and be prepared to maintain a flexible approach throughout. Keep communication flowing on all levels.

Self-Disclosure:

Telling others how you feel and what you think and believe, as well as telling them about your background, is a kind currency. Give out information and usually you will receive a lot back in return.

People swarm, flock and group together by type, background, interests, beliefs, gender, work and so on. And one of the most efficient ways to get close to one another is through self-disclosure.

As we begin to experience a powerful common bond, so too does rapport begin. Mutual interests, ideas, values and beliefs are the wrap and weft of social interaction.

Most people like people who are like themselves!

Biographic Matching:

It is rare for two human beings to be together very long before seeking to discover similarities about themselves. This biographic matching can be social or economic, achieved through outlook, education or background – common experiences of the world.

When you match, you reduce resistance by playing down differences while building on similarities.

Pacing:

Once you are matching one another, you can continue to maintain the rhythm you have created by agreeing with one another, seeing from the same point of view. Pacing is a conscious continuation of matching.

When talking, you can pace:

• Words that are used
• Tone of voice
• Language patterns
• Volume
• Body language used

Don’t overdo it – you may be accused of mimicry. Be elegant – your skills should remain unnoticed.

Leading:

One of the goals of matching and pacing others is to be able effortlessly to lead them in another direction. Once you are deeply in sync. With the other people, a change of pace from you will usually result in a similar change in others.

Matching and pacing help you share someone else’s experience and you will begin to know intuitively when it is appropriate to make suggestions, to influence, to lead.

Mismatching:

You can also influence behaviour in others by mismatching. It is useful to mismatch when:

• You want a meeting to come to an end – clear up papers, put a pen away
• You want to conclude a telephone conversation – minimise responses and noises off
• You need time to think before acting – use the bathroom, make a telephone call, add up figures on your calculator
• What you are doing isn’t working – go for a walk, listen to some music, make a phone call
• Matching is affecting your mood negatively – break off the conversation, change the subject

Networking;

Have you noticed how some people seem to be universally likes, trusted and respected? Chances are that they’re also good at networking – developing a wide network of friends, colleagues, allies and useful contacts.

Networking offers you a structured way of making certain that your ideas are effectively exchanged with others.

And Finally: Networking In Action

How can you get to know your team, other managers and clients better? Are there management associations you could join, luncheon clubs, your local Chamber of Commerce?

Organise team events outside working hours. Be seen at functions, offer to assist whenever you can.
Make yourself known – don’t stand on the edge looking in. Be part of the action.

Very good friend and fellow Top Sales Expert, Jill Konrath, CEO, Selling to Big Companies has teamed up with Lynn Schleeter, Director for Sales Innovation at the College of St. Catherine, (the largest women’s school in the U.S.) to conduct a survey.

This is a groundbreaking study of women who sell into the corporate environment.

Specifically they are looking at:

Determining the challenges women face selling to the corporate market.

Identifying factors contributing to sales success, and

Finding out if women face any unique challenges when selling.

The survey takes approximately 7-10 minutes to complete and as a bonus for participating you can request an Executive Summary of “Top of Her Game” when it’s completed. Click on the logo to respond.

Hey, have a great w/e! Rumour has it that the barometer is going from 14C to 32C this weekend here in Paris – oh yes please, I am dying to cast off my winter garments.   JF

I want to continue discussing networking and the immense value it can bring both you and your company.

Networking effectiveness starts with a positive personal attitude and an understanding that successful networking is built on a spirit of giving and sharing and not of bargaining and keeping score.

Armed with this knowledge, we can now look at how the process of good networking actually works in practice.

The first thing to realise about networking is that everyone you meet is a useful prospective network contact. This seemingly simple fact is often overlooked, as people engage in their own private screening process before they will talk to anyone.

There is obviously a line to be drawn between talking to anyone and everyone in the street and talking to almost no one. However, if you want to network more and to do so successfully, there are many situations that qualify as “the right opportunity”.

Taking Interest in Anybody & Everybody

It is often the case that we don’t really know very much about even close people around us (let alone distant contacts). Even if we do know a little, we are less likely to know how far or deep their skill, knowledge or resources extend. If this is true of your knowledge of others, how much do they really know about you?

Herein lies the basic secret of networking success:

• You have to become interested in anybody and everybody
• You have to share more about yourself than you may have done in the past

It is out of this mutual exchange of knowledge that network contacts will connect and start to offer support, help, advice, favours, referrals and other benefits on a regular basis.

Core Processes

Developing a conscious understanding of this giving and sharing strategy can take some time and some practice.

In her book ‘How to master networking’, Robyn Henderson calls this process earning the right to ask a favour of another person, or giving without hooks. Both of these statements imply two processes that operate pretty much at the same time (and neither of them necessarily our first reaction).

The two processes in earning the right to ask a favour are:

• Giving away information (to be helpful)
• Being open for any help you may need

Let’s look at these two processes in turn.

Giving Away Information

Whether it is accidental or planned, formal or informal, random or structured, in discussion with other people the effective networker offers his or her knowledge, skills, ideas, resources, guidance or data freely – without any ‘hooks’ or expectations that repayment is due in any form. In fact, the only immediate benefit may be the pleasure to be derived from assisting someone with information that was of value to them.

Whilst the giver expects nothing in return, the receiver has a very positive experience and memory of you upon which they can act (if they so choose) in the future. If they do, either directly or indirectly, at some indeterminate time, you may receive some reciprocal benefit.

Along with openly offering any possible help and support, the effect networker does not operate as a one-way helper or super person/white knight/angel coming to the rescue of everyone else, but never personally in need of assistance. He or she also talks realistically about personal goals, tasks, challenges, problems and general issues, and acknowledges feeling vulnerable in not being able to do everything single-handedly. Being open means being receptive to help when it is offered and, on occasions, asking networking contacts if they can suggest ideas, strategies or approaches that could assist you.

Two-Way Process

These two processes operate at the same time and together to create a cycle through which ‘favours’ are continually offered to all who participate. These favours are both offered and taken in order to keep the network strong and capable of growing to include more and more people.

This process is called ‘reciprocity’. It simply means that effective networking is a coin with two sides rather than just one. You can’t have one without the other.

Successful networking is therefore about:

Giving and receiving

Contributing and accepting support

Offering and requesting

Promoting other’s needs and promoting your own needs

Trust and persistence

If you would like to read more of my thoughts on networking, you may enjoy this week’s feature article on my personal site: jonathanfarrington.com – “How to Begin Improving Your Networking Skills”.

The lead article on thejfagroup.com site is very topical considering the record number of British businesses that are sadly failing: “Ten Signs That Your Small Business Is Heading For Trouble”.

My eldest daughter, Rebekah or “Becks” – yes, I know! She may not be as wealthy but she is a darn sight prettier and anyway, I gave her the nickname long before David was born! Well, Becks is an HR Director in Orlando, (where it has been a very chilly 80F this week) and she is working on a new appraisal process for her company. This reminded me that there must be thousands if not millions of companies, world-wide who are about to launch year end assessments and next week, I will share with you some of my secrets for conducting successful appraisals.

And finally…..this week’s sales articles site recommendation is: cashflowseller - www.cashflowseller.com run by a really nice guy called Dave Geer. This is a specialist sales and marketing site and Dave is rigorous in what type of material he accepts or declines. As a consequence, the content is of a very high standard – keep up the good work Dave.

Well, as usual, have a great weekend and do get networking! – JF