Are You Referral Ready?

Archive for the ‘Connecting with Yourself’ Category

Have you ever asked yourself why you do what you do? Obviously you have other choices, but people respond positively to professionals with a true emotional connection to their work.

Think about the recently divorced woman who put herself through law school to fight for the rights of other women going through a similar experience. Her story resonates with people and with her clients. Her story wins business. If you don’t have a compelling story, you consistently lose business to people who do.

Simon Sinek reminds us that “people don’t buy what you do, they buy WHY you do it…the “what” only serves as proof.”

When your emotional connection to your work becomes part of the way you market and talk about your business, you appeal to people on a very human level and differentiate yourself from other people in your profession who are simply going through the motions of “what” without daring to show the “why.”

Most people have a dominant networking style: Laid Back (easy going but socially limited; waits to be approached); Involved (engaged in social activities irrespective of networking potential); Strategic (follows a plan to pursue networking and leadership opportunities); and High-Energy (personally and professionally connected in various community affairs). Which one best describes you?

Because networking organizations are guided by social energy, it is easy to find yourself in situations that have appeal but don’t necessarily fit your networking style. When this mismatch occurs, your results will be compromised.

Networking from a position of strength means defining and intensifying the style that already works best for you. To be Referral Ready, you consistently put yourself in networking situations that foster relationships based on who you are when you are at your best.

Formally or informally, networking is a regular activity for most business people. From health clubs and Toastmasters groups to structured meetings like BNI, networking happens, impressions are made, and relationships are built and developed. Sooner or later it is smart to ask yourself, ‘Am I getting a return on my networking investment?’

If you are not getting a return on your relationship time, it doesn’t make sense to continue doing the same things and expecting a different result. You are either moving toward your goal, away from your goal, or not moving at all. An honest assessment of your current networking activity is where it starts.

Make a list of all your current networking activities. Which ones are NOT working for you? Why? Which ones work well for you, and how do you define that? Do you prefer more socially-oriented or business-oriented activities? Try to determine why some activities are more effective than others.

By determining and eliminating what is NOT working for you, you free up time for activities that 1) you don’t really have time for now, and 2) could offer greater rewards. With the understanding that you tend to get out what you put in, position yourself to succeed with activities that you look forward to and support the kind of business and person you want to be.

Your networking activity becomes more focused and effective when it is consistent with your business goals. Goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time Driven) carry the most impact for you and your business.
Without clear business goals, your networking activity loses its strategic advantage. Meeting more people will not necessarily lead to more connections, referrals, or closed sales. As long as this is out of alignment, the results you gain will be minimized.

Can you think of 3-5 SMART business goals that you want to reach over the next year? Try to determine how networking can contribute to reaching each goal. Who can help you? Who can introduce to someone else who can help you? What networking organizations are best suited to connecting you with those people?

Referral Ready means having a networking plan that is integrated with and supports your business goals. It starts with knowing what you want and reaching out to others to make it happen…while at the same time helping others get what they want.

Failing to plan is planning to fail. …you’ve heard that before, but it applies to networking as well. There are many different networking groups and activities to choose from. The best ones for you are the ones that are in alignment with your goals.

People who network without a plan can still get positive results, but those results are random, finite, and impossible to plan for. Referral Ready means taking responsibility for achieving your goals and making strategic choices about what it takes to get there.

Make a list of networking organizations that might interest you. Include a healthy mix of social, business, and community service groups and professional associations. From that list, explore the possibility of joining two or three different kinds of groups.

Just as an investment broker might advise you to diversify your financial portfolio, a networking plan that consists of different types of organizations will strengthen your social capital. Choose wisely, and get involved based on where your skills, interests, and goals intersect.

To become Referral Ready, the single most important concept to master is the ‘give first’ mentality. You either believe that the way to become successful is by helping other people become successful, or you don’t. If you do, there are no limits for what you can achieve through networking.

If you don’t, then you must be planning to be successful all by yourself. Good luck. We all need help somewhere along the way. Do you really expect to make withdrawals from the bank of humanity without having made any deposits along the way?

I’ll bet it wouldn’t take very much time at all for you to play ‘give first’ right now with an influential person in your network. Just a phone call for no reason, or an e-mail with a link to an interesting article or blog post, or a greeting card with just the right sentiment…not because it is almost Christmas, but because the spirit of giving, and expecting nothing in return, is the fuel that makes it all work.

If afterward you don’t feel 100 times better about yourself, the ‘give first’ mentality might not suit you at this time.

If you do feel better, you have connected with the mechanism that makes Referral Ready possible and the real reason we network with others in the first place–to serve more people.

That is why you network…right?

John Suarez

Chief Education Officer

Referral Ready LLC