This article is compliments of Sue Schnorr, Associate for Contacts Count.
Beyond Networking: Relationship Management
by Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon
“You gotta have Hart” heralds the newsletter from Leadership Dynamics in Lafayette, Colorado. That slogan is the only “marketing” in President Lois Hart’s information-packed, bimonthly newsletter. “It’s my best way to stay in touch with past and potential clients, friends, and key influentials, who contribute to my success,” she says.
By systematically staying in touch, Hart is practicing relationship management. Rather than taking a haphazard, scattershot approach to cultivating contacts, Hart has a plan. She uses her newsletter to proactively build and refresh business connections.
Unfortunately, few people – - and even fewer organizations – - understand how the daily work of building business relationships can result in the achievement of overall, long -term strategic goals. Carefully managing the quality and frequency of your contacts can bring in more referrals, increase repeat business, and provide access to “hot” information on business trends and resources.
If your networking is not working, if you hand our your business card to dozens of people at Chamber of Commerce events, but nothing ever comes of your efforts, use relationship management to develop and re-connect with strategically placed contacts who can help your business succeed and whom you can help in return.
Target Your Contacts
“If everybody’s your client, then nobody’s your client,” warns Samuel Maitz, marketing director for Leadership Management, Inc. of Waco, Texas. “We research the issues and get to know the industry before approaching the movers and shakers.”
Goal-setting is essential. Jessica Lipnack, coauthor of The Team-Net Factor (Wight Publications, 1993), points out the importance of building strategic alliances that are in concert with organizational goals. “If the purpose is clear, then all else will follow,” she says. “If the purpose is murky, then the relationship will flounder.”
“We are very conscious of the need to cultivate contacts in our industry,” says Edwin Corbin, assistant to executive management with Irwin Financial Corporation in Columbus, Indiana. “But the process starts long before we go out and meet people.
First, we analyze our past successes and set goals. For example, if we want to study a new line of business to look for possible acquisitions, our executives get together. We pool all our existing contacts and also look at who they could introduce us to,” he says.
Ask yourself, “Who has given me the most amount of business in the least amount of time with the least resistance and the most profit?” advises Dennis Fox, president of the Client Development Institute in Reston, Virginia. Fox conducts customized workshops for sales executives on how to systematically cultivate referrals.
One clever way to target customers is to start a referral club. Choose four or five business people, whose reputations you trust, who are in non – competing businesses, and who focus on the same customer base you do.
Get to know each other well, so you feel comfortable making referrals. A florist, for example, might team up with a caterer, a photographer, a bridal consultant, and a wedding cake baker.
Or set up a larger, more diverse group whose purpose is to use each others’ services and products and to exchange leads. Dennis Riley, president of Alarm Data a commercial and residential alarm company in Beltsville, Maryland, has created nine clubs. One of his salespeople is a member of each group. “We keep the focus on building business relationships.” he says. “With 20 other business people in the room, you’re bound to make three or four good contacts each week.”
Trust Is the Baseline
“You don’t sell only what you make. You sell who you are,” reminds Faith Popcorn, author of The Popcorn Report (Doubleday, 1991). Trust is built by exhibiting character and competence over time, not by making random contacts at networking events.
Sam Visner, Booz-Allen & Hamilton’s program manager for the Department of Defense’s Mentor Protégé Program, recommends two ways to create trust. “First, describe what you do in a way that highlights the benefit. The fact that you have a master’s degree in engineering is not what we want to hear. But how you have used it, what you have done with it, how you are unique, is of interest to us when we go looking for business partnering relationships,” he says.
Second, Visner says be ready to describe an opportunity you’ve researched that can be jointly pursued. “Do your homework. Bring something – - an idea , an angle, an opportunity – - to the table, in addition to your capabilities. People stay in contact only if the contact is productive, so have an agenda when you approach people.”
Lipnack, whose consulting company specializes in organizational networks, suggests visiting each other’s offices as a way to build trust. “The most successful and creative networking relationships are the results of taking the time to set up good communication links,” she says. When two companies begin to make referrals or do any kind of partnering, it’s not just the executives who need to be involved, she cautions. “Make sure the secretaries know each other, too.”
Focus on giving. “If you give you get, but not always where you gave,” reminds Maitz. Giving invites reciprocity. If you give, people will try to pay you back. Jay Levinson, author of Guerrilla Marketing Excellence (Houghton-Mifflin, 1993), says, “Networking is not the time to toot your own trombone, but to ask questions, listen attentively to the answers, and keep your marketing radar attuned to the presence of problems.” When you discover a problem, give ideas, resources, and information. In return, the people you have helped will help you. It’s human nature at its best.
Teach Each Other
Teach people about yourself and your product or service. When it comes to introductions, be prepared to be spontaneous. Plan ahead how you’ll answer the oft-asked question, “What do you do?” JoAnn Smith, president of Advanced Target Marketing Group in Gaithersburg, Maryland, omits her title and company name in favor of giving an introduction that exhibits her competence and lets people know that she goes the extra mile for her clients. She says, “I track down customers. Recently, I found a very hard-to-get, but amazingly responsive, mailing list for a client who wanted to reach high-income customers.”
Be visible. Take an active role in a civic, professional or industry group. Contribute your time and talent. Become known as someone who can be counted on. Demonstrate your expertise. Your stellar performance as program chair, will convince people that you also are someone they want to do business with. And don’t forget to put as much effort into learning about your contacts as you do into teaching them about yourself.
Track the Trends
One thing all business people worry about is the future. It’s an unknown. But you can find the future through your relationships with knowledgeable people. “The future is out there in the world, and the one place you won’t find it is in the place where most people look for it,” says Trendtracker Faith Popcorn. “It’s not in your office.”
To increase your exposure to new ideas, get to know a variety of people inside your organization and industry and outside. Create your own “Board of Trustees” and meet every fourth Friday for lunch. Or start an Executive Roundtable — invite people in adjacent or far-flung industries to meet and discuss what’s coming down the pike. Look for innovative ideas from other business settings that you can put to good use immediately.
Go beyond networking. Build your business relationships strategically and systematically. The acquaintances you make today can develop into your closest business allies tomorrow.
Your Relationship Management Plan
To create your plan, answer these questions:
What strategic business and career goals will be easier to achieve if I create a relationship management plan now?
What relationships have brought me the best results in the past? What has been the pattern of development in those relationships? How can I replicate this pattern?
Whom do I need to know to stay informed in my industry? What behaviors do I need to practice to build trust with key contacts?
What organizational and personal resources and ideas do I have to give as I develop business connections?
Anne Baber and Lynne Waymon are principals of Contacts Count, a nationwide consulting and training firm that specializes in business and professional networking, and career development. They are co-authors of six books. The most recent is Make Your Contacts Count: Networking Know-How for Business and Career Success (2007, AMACOM). Fortune 500 companies license their training programs. Visit them at www.ContactsCount.com and www.FireProofYourCareer.com
