Keith Ferrazzi talks about the need and importance of developing strong and deep relationships in your network – not just accumulating names.
One of the frustrations most people experience in networking is that their network doesn’t provide leads back to them. Unfortunately, folks in your network will not provide good leads to you on a consistent basis unless there is a deep relationship. Trust is an important component of providing referrals and leads. Trust takes time to build, develop, and nurture.
What are you doing to nurture deep relationships with people in your network?
Are you buying them a cup of coffee? Spending a few minutes on the phone checking in with them periodically? Sending them white papers, summaries, or other content from the Vistage Library? Are you employing classic techniques of drip-nurturing with your network? When was the last time you approached someone in your network and began the process of building a deep relationship?
Have you gone through the exercise of listing out where your referrals and leads come from? If you have, I’ll bet you’re getting most of them from the deeper relationships you have with folks in your network.
Do you have a plan with specific tactics, to-dos, calendaring of when and how you’re going to build a deeper relationship with specific people in your network. If you don’t have such a plan, it’s obviously more of a random effort – can consequently your results around obtaining leads and referrals will be random.
To read more about Keith Ferrazzi’s blog post on building deep relationships, click the following link:
Four Reasons You NEED Relationships to Thrive, Today and Every Day « Keith Ferrazzi
Barry Deutsch
