Thursday, June 07, 2007

Casting a wide net.... Strategies for Innovating and MAintaining a Robust Client list

These posts are about THE FUNDAMENTALS...anyone who is accomplished in any field, golf, for example, has mastered the fundamentals and practiced over and over to perfection. The same goes when one works on communication skills... the training course is about fundamentals...then innovations that create the next great TIGER WOODS of Communiation...it could be you.


FIND THE CONNECTORS: PEOPLE WHO REFER TO BUSINESS

The objective is to continually mine resources and referrals who will act as worker bees for you building your network...there's the saying..."Make money while you sleep"...well, this is making contacts while you sleep....An example is when clients, friends or referrals of mine meet, let's say in an oversees airport...they are strangers to each other..and within minutes they connect because they know me...they are talking about me very positively a half of a twist away in an airport...and I am asleep while they are connecting....the result of that is the genuine perception that I know EVERYBODY!...well, that's an exaggeration, but it appears I do...one of my clients has called me..the VIT...Very Important TRISH....for that reason.

The work we are doing is Networking...you may think it's a 4 letter word...you don't like it. It is a four letter word...it translates to SALE. Now if you are uncomfortable with the salesperson image replace it with the sense of yourself as a POWERFUL MEGAWATT CONNECTOR..your image , your largess, your skill set will combine to make you a connected person...and people like that...Not a CELEBRITY...celebrities are only famous for their FAMOUS-NESS. You are not seeking Rock Stardom as a networker...you are a connector...part of a value chain that includes you and any other valuable people you connect with that create positive energy and business.

GET OUT OF THE OFFICE....
GET OFF THE PHONE...
GO FACE TO FACE.

Look for the Town Criers...the people who will talk about you.
Look at your clients...the corporations who you are billing a re full of people who need to be noticed....with the lightest touch, your doing that can get them talking about you...wherever they go.

become a matchmaker as part of your own connecting list grows...
Be selfless
It's about them...not you...yet!( time for that later)

Find the People who need People, and get linked in!


ESTABLISH A NEW SOCIAL BEHAVIOR THAT QUICKLY ADVANCES TRUST IN YOUR EXPERTISE

Think about awareness...train yourself to READ the ATMOSPHERE...this takes work and practice, not putting your headphones on or sticking your head into the WSJ..wherever you are be aware.

Become the CIO of yourself...the Chief Innovation Officer....take control of the perception people have of you...you have 9 sec to make a positive visual impression
The Rocket Science of presenting a look...create a standard...if it's not working, change...if it's dated, update. Look at the image you are conveying...then bring something new and fresh to it.

Look into Social Science...Read Goleman, read Media books about how image is created and take some of the tips on..study yourself as an action research project.

Be a student of Global Pop Culture...use the internet to create as much information about the world in your own mind that knowing even a word...like senpai (mentor) and using it in conversation makes you look aware of diverse topics...connected.

USE TECHNOLOGY TO BUILD RAPPORT with Clients

Technology is great for INFORMING and Confirming....powerful!Use it for factoid...but to develop networking skill use it as a bridge, glue to the face to face and personal touches..

Remember...One email done in haste can ruin an entire relationship...it is like skywriting...you never know who's going to see this.Techno dissonance

Balance the sources of e communication: Phone, texts, email, fax...ipod casting
Build groups as they do online within your own database and get them connected.

All of these can work for you, all of them have pitfalls as well as benefits to Communicating.

Know how to keep connected with brief but original language standards...find the signature communication style...what kills e communication..VAGUE ness It's a cost to productivity.

KEEP YOUR CLIENT BASE CONTENT AND CONNECTED

Use the FAce book model..but you create the group ideas to gather around.

Act as the CIO of your client base, thinking about how to innovate for clients to be reminded of you consistently

Brand yourself as the _____guy or woman...then create it in the image you acquire.

Share as many personal aspects as you are nearly comfortable wit...get a bit uncomfortable so that you push yourself to a new interpersonal level.

KNOW PEOPLE's NAmes....Identity TRIANGLES FOR ALL YOUR CLIENTS.( MAke a visual representation of all of them) Their NAme at Top... thier significant person...a significant business person...then USE it as you engage...NAMES KEEP PEOPLE HAPPY!

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