Notes

Building Valuable Connections
Forward

"Building Valuable Connections: Inside & Out" was written to meet the countless demands from my clients and associates to find out more with this important topic.

Four years back, when I founded my own consulting & training company, I was primarily worried about increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of sales organizations. There I was, happily doing GAP Analyses to determine what was wrong, and delivering recommendations for improvement. This might frequently be accompanied by a program of training & coaching.

My business expanded, and I was often asked to speak on topics such as selling and business networking. Since I was an avid person in Toastmaster's International and the National Speaker's Association, I'd jump at the opportunity to speak to these audiences.

The demands for my services changed as time passes, partly because of my speaking requests. They evolved from expounding on sales ways to topics such as Career Networking Strategies, and How to Influence from the Podium. The normal thread uniting these topics was the underlying theme of creating Valuable Connections.

Whether selling, presenting, or networking, the skilled professional seeks to create a series of trusted connections.
As I delved deeper into this subject, I began collecting my thoughts and putting them down on paper.

Yet another twist was added when it had been requested that my workshop be expanded to add the main topics internal communications and team building. Once again, the topic fit well beneath the umbrella heading of creating connections of value, and a new theme was created.

Everything you read today in this simple booklet is a brief summary of my thoughts regarding how to become more efficient in establishing and growing our relationships with other individuals and groups. A large part of that proficiency rests on increasing one's ability to connect, communicate, and to build value.

Success is largely determined by one's capability to build lasting relationships with the people who most matter.

It is my hope that work will set you on the path to greater connections, enhanced networking, and improved relationships.

To Your Success!

Building Valuable Connections

Inside & Out

No-one achieves excellence by themselves. Whether your organization is developing a meaningful career, creating a loving family, coming up with a forward thinking idea, crafting a work of art, or developing a vast commercial empire, your success depends on others, and theirs depends on you.

Walt Disney had this to state: "It is possible to dream, create, design, and build probably the most wonderful idea on the planet, but it requires visitors to make the dream possible."

The father of Mickey Mouse, Disneyland, and the Epcot center knew what he was talking about. He was an innovative genius with innovative ideas, tremendous energy, and the will to achieve success. Yet, without others joining his cause, his best ideas would have died before ever becoming reality.

You may be exceptional ditto. You have good ideas, great experience, valuable insights, and tremendous energy. You've taken the initiative and launched your personal business. Now, with full confidence and optimism, you expect the planet to beat a path to your door. And that means you wait. And wait. And wait even more.

What you need to do is build a Team! You have to set up a network of valuable connections which interact to help each other out. You need to create an army of advocates that willingly take the initiative to recommend your company to whomever they meet. Likewise, they need YOU on the team to recommend their services.

get more info on the team can win the overall game, if they all interact for the common good. Every person can achieve their goals by helping each other.

The main element to success in life and in the business world would be to Build Valuable Connections!

T here are two deceptively easy steps to get this done:

1. Build Connections

2. Create Value

It's all about Building Connections and Creating Value.

To accelerate performance you must first create a connection. On a personal level, we spend 90% of our lives alone, surviving in fear and loneliness. We simply assume that everyone else is "normal" and that we're the only real ones who have

these strange feelings of alienation. We know, deep down inside, that we don't belong here and that people never will. Everybody else seems to be happier, more adjusted, more affluent, and much more satisfied with the way things are going.

Perhaps Robert Heinlein was correct when he wrote his science-fiction classic "Stranger in a Strange Land." His main character, Michael Valentine Smith, grew up by Martians and had somehow developed highly-evolved skills including mental telepathy. When meeting folks from this planet for the very first time, he noticed how lonely and unhappy they appeared to be. There was no bond, no connection between them. They were all strangers, even to one another.

These concepts are equally relevant to the business enterprise world. Getting connected and staying connected have never been more important. Companies spend millions of dollars annually in an attempt to "make a connection" making use of their consumers. Besides media & advertising exposure, you might also need a plethora of technologically-enabled solutions such as websites, blogs, and Podcasts, and newsletters.

Needless to say, consumers and businesses have adopted defensive ways of filter the unwanted connections (spam) also to spot the desired communications with sophisticated electronic defense systems such as for example firewalls, "denied lists", voicemail, and elaborate security systems to safeguard their resources and people.

The driving goal of most business communication would be to create visibility (i.e. reference to) your potential consumers. Success in business demands that you get over the internal "loneliness" and self-centeredness, and focus your time and messages outside, on your own customers.

Your success running a business, in your career, and in your life is dependent upon your capability to create value Also to established new connections. To create your personal team takes a deeper understanding and mastering the procedure of Building Valuable Connections.

Building Basics

First, some general comments on the topic of Building Connections.

As the title implies, connections don't just happen, they are built. This requires taking action! If you wait for connections to occur, you'll be looking forward to a long time! You need to take time to create an Action Plan which has the aim of building the proper Connections you should forward your purposes. Additionally, you will need to review each one of your current connections and classify them. Below are a few sample categories:

Friends and Family

Associates

Partners

Prospects

Qualified Prospects

Customers & Clients

Referral Sources

Super-Connectors

Who do you Connect With?

The short answer is "everyone important to my business."

Harvey MacKay, one of many world's best networking experts and author of "Dig your prior to you're thirsty," explains some maxims about who you have to be networking (connecting) with:

1) If everyone in your network is the same as you, it's not a network, it's an anthill.

2) Networking is not a numbers game. The theory is not to see how many people it is possible to meet. The idea would be to compile a listing of people you can count on.

3) You can't continually be an expert. You can't always know a specialist. Nevertheless, you can always hire a specialist.

Here are a few other tips about who to connect with:

-- Once you find someone that is well-connected, connect to them. If "everyone knows" Joe, so should you.

-- Ask around. If you are new to a gathering or group, find out who's running the meeting and obtain introduced to them. Then you can certainly tell them who you are and who you want to meet.

-- Get introduced. When you create a valuable connection, keep these things introduce you to others in their personal network. And become sure to come back the favor by introducing them to others in your network.

-- Plan beforehand. Look for out who'll be at the event beforehand. If you do your research, you'll know who you truly want to meet.

Where do people connect?

Everywhere! Any time several people are meeting there's an opportunity to create a connection. After learning more about one another and their businesses, they will make decisions about whether this chance meeting has potential, and whether it must be expanded and became a far more productive business connection.

There are a large number of locations where business people congregate, and you ought to make it your organization to get and use all of them. Here's a short list:

Industry Associations

Networking Groups (BNI, RBN etc)

Company-wide meetings

Clubs & Hobbyists

Churches

Volunteer Groups

Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, Lions

Toastmasters International

Political Action Groups

Fundraising Groups & Events

Sporting Activities (golf, baseball)

Alumni Groups

Special Interest Groups

College & University Events

Social Events (Plays, Opera, Music)

Any moment people congregate, there's a chance to "meet & greet" and to connect with individuals who may be important. Needless to say, this will also be their possibility to meet and connect with you. Whenever building connections, be sure you take the initiative and offer to give first. The simplest way to get a valuable connection started is usually to be the first ever to connect them with someone of value.

Since time is a critically scarce commodity, it is important to spend it with folks who are the most relevant to your success. Therefore, you will need a approach to selecting who, from among the vast amounts of people available, do you want to make connection with.

You can certainly do this right now. Create a list of all of the people you would like to meet. This should include business leaders and others that would be most helpful to your job. Include companies that could be candidates for your services or products. Give it some careful thought, and come up with a complete list. When the list is done, at this point you have a higher impact "target list".

The next thing is to learn who you know that may know someone on the list. Or who do you know that may know somebody who.......? You get the idea. Now you know who you are looking for and you have a better plan.

Aside from the planned list, it is best to look for new potential connections. This normally occurs if you find yourself among a crowd of people, mostly strangers. How would you make the optimum connections then?

Here's the easiest method to do that. When meeting someone new, find out their "sphere of influence." Utilize the following Connecting Drill at group events:

BUILDING CONNECTIONS DRILL

What now ? with your Connections?

Follow Up! If you have spent the time to meet up and greet new people, and have sorted out the ones you want to build a relationship with, follow-up! Enter the information into your contact database and follow-up within 2 days with a telephone call or an email at the very least.

Create a coffee meeting or luncheon. Take action within two days or the person may just forget who you're and why it is important to meet? This LAW ought to be cast in concrete and encased in gold. Follow-up NOW!

Once you do meet, this is when you have the chance to really establish your value and build the relationship. Remember, it needs to become a mutually beneficial relationship. Try to be the main one who gives first! Find out what you can do to help the other person, and do it. Connect them with your other valuable connections whenever possible.

Your individual network of connections operates nearly the same as the internet. The linkages you build between and among your connections establish your value (ranking) in the search engines. The more you connect others with others, the more valuable you become. When you make a connection and help another person, you have built good will among two people. Each of them will now be actively seeking to promote you as well as your services with their circle of friends.

There is no more powerful connecting tool available than this. Connecting others with others builds your value over the network and will improve your worth by an exponential basis.

Think about the "Godfather" group of movies. Don Corleone was the main person in the entire movie because he was the "head to" person. He knew everyone of importance and he could easily get the job done. He actively looked out for his friends and he ensured they were introduced to each other. He sat at the nexus of all of these communication lines. He was the crossing point, and he created the connections!

The Inside Connection

That is called "Looking after Business." Your established network (your rolodex) includes your present associates, friends, contacts, and partners. You curently have built a residential area of Contacts. Now it's time to deliver VALUE to the existing network and look after them like they're family. Here's how:

Deliver Great Service

Make them Special

Get Testimonials

Distribute Testimonials/Post them

Give Referrals to

Get Referrals from

Expand your Database of Contacts

--- friends

--- clients

--- referral sources

--- Super Connectors

Publish Newsletters & Blogs

Special Website login for the "secret sauce"

INTERNET AFFILIATE MARKETING --- Web

Co-Branded Events (Seminars, Workshops)

Co-Sponsor Events

Remember their Important Dates

Make it Personal

Hand out Valuable Reports/White Papers

Special Offers

Free attendance at your Events

Rewards Programs

Spiffs for Referrals

Cultivate Referral Sources (parallel services)

When asked, consultants will tell you that 80-90% of their business comes from referrals, and it is vitally important to deal with these "inside" connections. So should you.

The Outside Connection

This is actually the extremely powerful business expansion system which most people call networking. I prefer calling it Creating New Business Connections by Building Value.

A network filled hastily with anyone and everyone does not have any value. Rushing through networking meetings and handing out your business card to anyone who breathes may feel like it's networking, nonetheless it does not have any value. Sending out email blasts or mailings to "the world" is really a waste of time and money. Today's smart marketers prefer to TARGET their marketing. When building your personal/business network, you have to adopt exactly the same principles. This implies you target exactly who ought to be in your network, and then you find ways to build a connection to them. This is a precise activity, not haphazard.

Here are come of the greatest methods you should use to build external connections:

Newsletter

Networking Groups

Industry Associations

Speaking Opportunities

Writing

Prove your Expertise

Positive Press

Communicate Your Value

Give Away Something

"Who do you know who"

Networking Meetings --- Strategies

Research

Target Market Analysis

Target your Networking

Be Helpful

Target who you wish to Meet

Discover the Super Connectors--and connect

Working a Networking Event- Tips & Techniques

A networking event can be explained as anytime several people gather together with the purpose of exchanging ideas, information, or resources.

The main element component is RESOURCES. You are a resource in their mind. They're a resource for you. You are already exchanging information and ideas. Where it becomes most effective is when you're able to now connect them with other resources in your network and vice-versa.

You want to become the Conductor....the one who is directing traffic. You are at the intersection and you are directing traffic in one point to another. Without you in the centre, these two other connecting points would never know about each other. You're the glue which attaches them. Therefore, you're the in a position of power and influence.

The correct networking attitude is usually to be a Resource, Not a Vendor. You should approach the meeting with the resolve to help with making everybody else in the meeting more successful. Your talent in connecting them with other people, resources, and ideas is the key to your individual success.

To make the most effective use of your time and effort, you should spend it with the those people who are most important to your organization.

There are three Kinds of People at a Networking Event:

1. Decision Makers

2. Centers of Influence to Decision Makers

3. All Others

Your key objective would be to identify the Decision Makers or Centers of Influence and to minimize spending excessive levels of time with anyone else.

Some more Suggestions for Effective Networking

1. Carry Business Cards constantly

2. The objective of Networking is to WIDEN your circle of Friends. Don't just hang out with people you already know.

3. Talk to Everyone. Whenever two people meet, it is a networking event.

4. Let the other person speak, and you LISTEN.

5. Be Helpful. Give first. "How do i assist you to" is MAGIC.

6. Be Memorable. Short and Sweet and Memorable.

7. Networking is NOT Sales, it's about developing relationships.

Building Value

How do you go about building value? Let's focus on a definition.

"the worth of something in money or goods at a particular time"

"the quality of something that makes it be thought of as more desirable, useful, important"

Notice something? It's all relative to one person. Just like "beauty is in the attention of the beholder," so too is value. It really is an intangible quality that is assigned by one person. It is all tangled up for the reason that person's perception of what's being evaluated.

If you fall into line 3 different cars and have people select which they like, it’s likely that they will pick differently. They'll choose the car they like based on their perception and their values. They'll choose based upon their PERCEPTION of the most important thing, desirable, and useful at that time. There is no absolute best choice; it is all based upon the values held by the average person.

How can you utilize this precept in your favor as a consultant?

You are selling yourself as well as your ability to deliver a service. In order to do this, you must create a perception that you are an expert, that you can get results, that you will be the proper person for the job. You are selling the VALUE of your service, not the service itself. And the person/company you are selling to is evaluating that value based upon their PERCEPTION of the most important thing, not what's actually important.

You're projecting an intangible value in fact it is being evaluated by an intangible perception. It's all pretty intangible. It can't really be measured, weighed, felt, tasted, or touched. It's intangible.

The Value Equation

However, there's one critical component that IS tangible. It could be seen, felt, measured, weighed and also smelled. That is your body.

If you have done any public speaking, you already know this startling fact: 80 % of the "message" that's delivered to an audience is delivered by the Body Motion (BODY GESTURES). And 60% of this BM comes from the face!

Your customer is able to see your body as well as your face. They can and can make dozens of decisions about you within seconds of first being introduced. The "first impression" they receive after greeting you, shaking your hand, looking you in the eye and reviewing the others of your body parts will generate an indelible impression.

Like it or not, your client or prospect can make a preliminary decision within the initial 40 seconds should they like you and if you could be trusted. That is why experts always emphasize creating a good first impression in a small business setting.

You can overcome an initially poor first impression, nevertheless, you are fighting against the odds. Once made, a poor impression is hard to overcome.

So, the first rule of creating value is to develop a positive first impression. This requires that you project that you are professional, poised, confident, and friendly. The body language, your spoken word, the clothes you wear, the expression on your face, will all contribute to this image. You want your image to project in the most positive manner.

Needless to say, the intangibles are being communicated simultaneously. We human beings project energy that is distinct from simply the body. The emotions we project create an "emotional impact" on other people. We rub off on other folks quite easily.

The second part of selling yourself is to project the right energy, to use the right emotion also to "broadcast" on the proper wave length. This can contribute to the impression you are poised. What energy you choose to project is totally your decision, but you should ensure it is appropriate to the problem. Most importantly, it must be under your full control, and not a reaction to what is occurring in the meeting.

The third the main value equation is Confidence. That is accomplished by being prepared and ready for the meeting. This means action and research before the face-to-face meeting. The only reason people display too little confidence is because they're not prepared and have not practiced enough. You have to know as much as possible about the person before the meeting, wherever this is practical. For anyone who is entering a meeting, there should be an agenda and an objective. Should you be reviewing a proposal, it must be clear and concise. There must be as few variables as you possibly can.

Finally, & most importantly, is Delivery. You've made an excellent first impression, you've created probably the most optimal energy for the occasion, and you are prepared and ready for the encounter. You're now connected, primed, and ready to deliver your message - also it must be regarded as valuable to your partner.

Your client/prospect can make decisions based on their PERCEPTION of reality based upon their own background and experience. Your task is to break through this false image and connect with them instantly.

People in general are usually listening to the inside of their head ("the committee"). They're mostly concerned with themselves, and they have very little spare attention for you personally. Until you provide them with a compelling reason to listen to you, they will remain unfocused. Until you utilize the "WIFT" factor, you won't capture their full attention.

Your initial delivery, therefore, ought to be directed at them. It ought to be valuable to them, within their terms. It should be regarded as interesting, valuable, humorous, helpful, or educational in THEIR WORLD. In short, focus your attention on your partner and meeting their immediate needs. The simplest way to do this would be to ask them simple questions and show them the courtesy of listening. People love to talk about themselves, plus they are always searching for a good listener. If you are a good listener, you will end up perceived in a confident light, and they'll recognize you as a very important connection and a significant person. Once this initial rapport is established, upon a firm foundation of value, you'll then have the foundation to conduct mutually beneficial business.

To recap, selling yourself as a professional requires building value. To do this, you must master the tangibles and the intangibles. You build value by concentrating on developing a positive first impression, projecting the proper energy, by displaying confidence and by delivering messages that create rapport and establish the basis for conducting business together.

Boosting Performance

To perform your life's goals, you need to recruit a team and inspire them into action. The positive energy which a network of professionals can generate is astonishing, because there is no limit to their accomplishments. Each teammate can recruit a completely new band of connections, and they can recruit another band of connections, etc and so forth. Building Connections of Value leads to exponential growth!

Use these simple steps to Build Your Connections of Value.

To your Success!
Homepage: https://squareblogs.net/kampermueller9/important-discussion-of-magazines-that-the-united-kingdom-publishes