Relationship Management
It seems most people like meeting people in business for the sake of meeting. One of the curious things I noticed about the most effective sales people was that their ability was all to do with their tenacity in following up and ensuring that action points agreed were carried out. Other sales people with ‘personality’ and ‘charisma’ were great at the initial bit but not on actually getting things done. This has interesting parallels with entrepreneurs.
I meet with many people on a regular basis who say that they are not very good at networking. I found that strange as many of these people have great social skills – and then I realised that what they were really saying is that they find it hard to build relationships and manage relationships.
To me there is nothing more frustrating than having a good meeting with someone and feeling there is going to be something there – and then there is no follow up or actions promised.
You need to always remember that it is a small world (I have stopped getting freaked out by the incidents that remind me of that) and that every time you interact with someone there is likelihood that you will probably come across them again in a different context – or that your name may come up in a conversation with them and they will offer an opinion. Question is what opinion do you want them to offer?
And yet it is all so easy. We too easily manage people on a transactional basis rather than on a long term relationship building basis. I come across many people who I do feel are just wanting to ‘use me’. There is nothing wrong with meeting people with an objective in mind; but you should try and make the person feel good about helping you.
I have to be honest and say that I struggle to see why people struggle with this. Why not simply treat people as you would like to be treated yourself? And that creates a virtuous circle where favours kept getting passed on.
As an aside, I was talking with a journalist a couple of weeks ago and he was bemoaning the nickel and dime culture here in the UK compared to the US. He felt that Angels/ Advisors in the UK were too focused on their own rewards to really help entrepreneurs. I surprised him when I said that it works both ways. In Canada (and Cape Town) there is much more of a reciprocal relationship between advisers and companies. If I do a good job with a company there, I am often given an options package, asked to join the board and nine out of ten times at least paid something. In my experience, in the UK, despite helping lots of companies, no one has offered anything in return. Only one company has ever sent me something unprompted. I guess this is a cultural difference rather than a statement about the spirit of people.
And yet this still comes down to relationship management. It should never feel like a one sided relationship.
And if you are thinking of how to say thank you – its my Birthday on Thursday!
