Episode 150: “Relationships Are Currency”

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Synopsis

It’s not the number of contacts you make that’s important, but the ones that you turn into lasting relationships. You’ll always get better results trying to deepen relationships with people you already know than starting relationships with strangers.

Here are some tips for creating closer connections:

1. Give your clients a call. Find out how things went with the project. Ask if there’s anything you can do to help. Don’t ask for a referral at this time.
2. Make personal calls to all the people who’ve helped you or referred business to you. Find ways to help them.
3. Put together a “hit list” of 50 people you’d like to stay in touch with. Send them a card on the next holiday, then follow up with a phone call 2 weeks later. Then you can ask for a referral.

If you’re having trouble making calls, start with the people you’re at “Profitability” with in the VCP scale.

Dr. Misner recommends reading Stephen M. R. Covey’s The Speed of Trust for more on this topic.

Brought to you by Networking Now.

Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 150 -

Priscilla:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables.

I’m Priscilla Rice, and I’m coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and I’m joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner.

Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you?

Ivan:
Hi, Priscilla. Well, this week I’m in Rhode Island and Boston meeting a lot of BNI members. I’ve had a chance to be up here before, and it’s a great group of BNI members, and I love visiting this region.

Priscilla:
Well, what are you going to share with us today?

Ivan:
Well, today I’m going to talk about relationships being currency, and when I ask BNI members how many times have you seen an entrepreneur, maybe even yourself, go to a networking event, meet a lot of good people, then leave and never talk to them again, right? It probably happens too often. It’s not because the entrepreneur doesn’t like them; it’s really because they haven’t had system to connect. It’s really a shame because new contacts are really where future business is often born, visitors who come to a BNI meeting or if you go to a Chamber event of some kind, it’s meeting those new people and getting into visibility that leads to the rest of your business.

It’s, I think, important to understand that you can’t be misled. It’s not the number of contacts you make that’s important; it’s the one you turn into lasting relationships, and there’s quite a difference. So trying to make ten cold calls and introducing yourself, that doesn’t work so well. Now, call five people that you already know and tell them that you’re putting together a marketing plan for the next year and you’d appreciate any help that they might be able to provide in the form of either a referral or feedback, you’re much more likely to get that. Better results are always in Door Number Two, they’re in that second option. So you want to go with people that you have relationship with and try to strengthen those.

So here’s a few suggestions on how to deepen the relationship with people you already know to the point where they might be willing to help you out in the future. Here’s four quick steps to moving you in that direction.

First, give your clients a personal call. Find out things went with the project that they’re involved in. Ask if there is anything that you can do to help. Don’t ask for a referral at that point; just make connection with them.

Second, make personal calls to all the people who’ve helped you or referred business to you. Ask them how things are going. Try to learn more about their current activities so you can refer business to them.

Three, put together a hit list of 50 people you’d like to stay in touch with this year. Include anyone who’s given you business in the past 12 months, as well as other prospects that you’ve connected with recently. Send them a card on the next holiday. Just stay in contact; connect with them.

Here’s the fourth. Two weeks after you’ve sent those people cards, call them and see what’s going on. If they’re past clients or people you’ve talked to before, now is the perfect time to ask for that referral. If they’re prospects, perhaps you can set up an appointment to have coffee and to find out if their plans might include using some of your services.

That’s so much easier of a process, and after a few weeks, you’ll have more than enough social capital to tap into for the rest of the year. It’s not just the people that you’re meeting at an event; it’s the people that you’re making those contacts with. Social capital is really the international currency of networking, especially business networking. If you take as much care in raising and investing your social capital as you do your financial capital, you’ll find that the benefits that flow from these intangible investments will not only be rewarding in themselves, but will multiply your returns many, many times over in business.

Priscilla:
Well, that’s great. I just have one little comment to make.

Ivan:
Sure.

Priscilla:
Why is it so hard, I guess it’s a question, to call people? It just – somehow you feel like you’re bothering them or you can come up with a dozen excuses of why not to call them, and it’s just difficult. Do you have any idea?

Ivan:
It’s not as hard to call somebody that you’ve got a relationship or a connection with just to touch bases and see how things are going. I think if you focus on that, it’s easier to make the call.

If you don’t know where to start, here’s where I’d recommend. Start with the people you have profitability with. You’ve heard me many times in these phone calls say you really need to track your VCP. Take your database and figure out who am I at profitability with? Who am I passing referrals to and they’re passing me referrals? Who am I at credibility with? Who are people who would give me an endorsement, if asked? And who am I at visibility with? Who are the people that know who I am but we’re really not doing any business?

Okay, so don’t start with the people you’re at visibility with; start with the people you’re at profitability with. Have those kinds of conversations. Talk to those people. And then move on down the list to credibility, to visibility. And the people that you had visibility with, you need to build that relationship a little bit more before you can do some of the things we’re talking about here.

But making that phone call is easy when you’re talking about starting it with people that you’ve got some kind of relationship with.

Does that make sense?

Priscilla:
Yeah, I think that’s really good advice.

Ivan:
So Relationships Are Currency. There’s a book I’d recommend by a friend of mine, Stephen M. R. Covey. He wrote a book called The Speed of Trust, and I know I’ve talked about it in my blog, may have talked about it here on a podcast in the past. I’d really recommend that book. I know last week I recommended the book Use Your Head to Get Your Foot in the Door by Harvey Mackay, but here’s another book that I really recommend, The Speed of Trust. And he uses a very similar phrase, that Relationships Are Currency; he talks about Trust Being Currency, that when you have trust, it is part of your social capital, and he’s absolutely right.

Priscilla:
Okay, great! All right. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Misner.

Ivan:
Thank you, Priscilla.

Priscilla:
I think that’s it for this week. I’d just like to remind the listeners that this podcast has been brought to you by NetworkingNow.com, which is the leading site on the Net for networking downloadables. Thank you so much for listening. This is Priscilla Rice, and we hope you’ll join us next week for another exciting episode of The Official BNI Podcast.