I am sure you have heard many people
around say “It is not what you know, but rather, who you know that determines
your level of financial or career success” I must admit that I believe that it
is most certainly a combination of the two, which will ultimately determine the
level of success you get to enjoy, in both of these areas. As your knowledge
and skills grow, i.e. as you become more, so too will the calibre and type of
people, who will want to connect with you, improve as well. So yes, it is
important to have a lifelong commitment to constantly keep growing, learning
and becoming more, but equally important to build a network of friends,
connections and associates around you. People who you can support and who will
support you in return.
Building mutually beneficial
relationships with people and connecting with them on a deeper level, is one of
the most powerful ways of building financial and career success. I want to
offer you a few guidelines in this article, to help you to build a really
powerful network, which will support you and help you to reach your goals. The
best way to make this process work is to start from where you are right now and
over time gradually build the connections you need. Always trying to form mutually
beneficial relationships with people, who can support you and your efforts.
Listen twice as much as you speak – Be open
and interested
When meeting anyone, do not try to
dominate the conversation in your attempt to be interesting. Rather listen to
what they are saying, show a genuine interest in what they have to say. This openness,
willingness to listen and your genuine interest in the other person, will
quickly build repoire and the other person will mirror your behaviour and tend
to reciprocate, by showing a genuine interest in you. There is a simple law,
which states that the world tends to reflect your attitude back to you. So when
you approach anyone with the intent to find ways to enrich their life, they
will feel your openness and intent and mirror the same back to you.
Always Show Up
I know this sounds really simplistic and
obvious, but it is astounding how many people receive invitations to birthday
parties, dinners, weddings or professional networking events and they don’t show
up. They always justify their non-arrival by saying they did not know the host
very well, the event was too far away or a myriad of other reasons why they
could not go. You never know who you can meet at any of these events, who can
completely change your life. Approach any event you attend with an open mind
and see everyone in one of two ways, friends or future friends. Approach them
and show real interest in them and you will astound yourself at how quickly you
can connect with people.
Exchange Contact Information
Try to speak to a variety of people at
any of the events you attend. Always try to exchange contact information with
everyone you speak to at any event, no matter how briefly the contact was. This
allows you to build a data base of people, with whom you can build mutually
beneficial relationships with.
Follow Up with Everyone You meet
Social media has given us an incredibly
powerful tool to help us connect with and stay in contact with the people we
meet. Try to connect with the people you have met, the following day, via
Linked-In, Facebook, Twitter or any of the other social media networks out
there. Send them a note, reminding them about the place and time you met and
that you would love to stay in contact with them. I always write something of
interest they said to me on their business card and I then comment on this when
I write to them.
I have a system I use every week to help
me stay in contact with the people I have met.
- I connect with 15 people each week via electronic media, email, social media, comment on their blogs, Facebook posts etc.
- I make 5 Phone calls a week to important contacts. I record the things I found interesting about these people and use this in the conversation. The other way to ensure the conversation is valuable is to research them on one of the social networks or via Google. You will be amazed at how much information you can get about someone via these media.
- I arrange to meet face to face with three important contacts, each week. This can either be lunch, dinner or simple for a cup of coffee. These face to face contacts are extremely important and the way I make the best connection with people.
- Finally I send a gift to someone; I want to build a connection with. This gift is not sent with any expectation of anything in return. I research the person first and try to select a really appropriate gift for them. 99 times out of 100, I get to build a meaningful connection with these people.
- Collect all the email addresses and contact details of the people you want to connect with and put together an event, you can invite them to attend. Invite the people about four weeks in advance. I have found the best success, by inviting people to attend a Saturday function with a compelling theme. The more effort people have to put into attending the event, the more committed they will be to attend the event. I have really built up amazing connection with people, using this strategy.
The way to build an effective network of
mutually beneficial relationships with people is to commit to listen, be
interested in what they have to say and to form mutually beneficial
relationships with them. The more open you are, when you meet people, the more
often you show up and the more you follow up with people, the better the quality
of network you will manage to develop.
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