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Traditional networking doesn’t work anymore. These days it’s all about meaningful relationships. I discuss how to build them in this episode with my guest, Daniel Andrews.
Daniel is a native of Columbia, South Carolina where he currently resides after an absence of 13 years. He owns a business that shows businesspeople how to identify, find, meet, and nurture professional relationships with Key Referral Partners. Fundamentally, he shows businesspeople how to STOP “networking,” and START building true networks. This is his fourth career; he’s been successfully self-employed for 36 years (50 if you start with the lemonade stand in first grade).
Networking Origins
Originally, Daniel wasn’t good at networking. He decided to work at being good. Some painful lessons, mentoring, reading, doing things right and taking notes and doing things wrong and taking notes eventually led to networking success. He believes that the way we set expectations for other people and confirm our expectations of them is very important.
Initially Daniel believed that sales were referral based, but in a very casual way. He thought that getting referrals was networking, and later he discovered that that isn’t the case. The moment that it became clear to him he was in the insurance business doing employee benefit work and got a “referral” that was much more. It was an endorsement.
His experience up until then was an introduction was just a hand-off to hopefully get a sale. In direct sales that was enough because he could demonstrate the product that he was selling. Then someone personally vouched for Daniel’s integrity. In that moment he realized that an introduction is not a high-quality referral; an endorsement is a high-quality referral.
We build networks because people have credibility with people that we have credibility with. Daniel didn’t need to get introduced to his next client, he had to borrow the credibility he had with a friend. The credibility that his friend had with another person got him where Daniel needed to go. That was the big light bulb moment. His wingman wasn’t there to introduce Daniel, he was there to endorse Daniel.
How to Start a Relationship the Right Way
Your attitude must be one of mutuality; you need to see who you can serve and who you can be served by. Daniel says this isn’t reciprocity, he doesn’t like that word at all. Reciprocity usually means that people are keeping score. When he meets somebody in a networking situation, Daniel will give what he can to the other person during their interaction, regardless of the time frame. At the same time, he’s evaluating if there’s a reason to have another, longer meeting. As far as what it looks like stylistically and what the actual actions are, Daniel’s always probing for higher value between the two of them.
Traditional networking is “speed prospecting”; people take a one-dimensional model: They meet someone, try to figure out if the other person is a prospect, yes/no/maybe, get a business card and move on. Nobody likes being treated like a prospect until they’ve identified themselves as a prospect and want to buy.
There’s a better way to build business relationships and we’ll look at that.
In this episode we also discuss:
- How to get out of “speed prospecting” mode.
- The best thing you can talk about when you’re meeting someone for the first time.
- How to gain trust with potential prospects.
- How to know which relationships to build and maintain, and which ones to let go.
- How to bridge that gap between serving and traditional selling.
- How to foster a referral relationship when there’s not an immediate referral to be given.
- Why not keeping score in business relationships is a good thing.
…and more golden nuggets of advice!
You can get my book here: “Idea Climbing: How to Create a Support System for Your Next Big Idea”
About the Guest
Daniel Andrews is a native of Columbia, South Carolina where he currently resides after an absence of 13 years. He owns a business that shows businesspeople how to identify, find, meet, and nurture professional relationships with Key Referral Partners. Fundamentally, he shows businesspeople how to STOP “networking,” and START building true networks. This is his fourth career; he’s been successfully self-employed for 36 years (50 if you start with the lemonade stand in first grade).
He can easily be found at www.DanielPatrickAndrews.com
Daniel Andrews LinkedIn URL:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/niasoutheast/
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