Did you ever really stop to think about your network? I don’t mean the computer network in your office but rather your network of business contacts including clients, associates, vendors, and day-to-day contacts. If you really sit back and think about this, the size of your network is probably pretty large, especially if you are a member of one or more active networking groups.
Now, envision all of these people as unpaid ambassadors and deputy salespersons for you and your business. In essence, your network helps you to multiply your reach into the community and prospective clients. I call them “multipliers”. These multipliers help you to significantly increase the reach of your business.
It is important that we use these multipliers to our advantage. I don’t mean that we should take advantage of them in a negative sense, but we should nurture our relationships with everyone in our network so that their impression of us is as favorable as possible. After all, they won’t recommend us to the people in their network if they don’t have a positive relationship with us in the first place.
How do we best cultivate this favorable impression? This is pretty easy:
- Always follow the Golden Rule – treat others with respect, no matter their position
- Always carry yourself with honesty and integrity
- Always handle service issues quickly and decisively and always put yourself “in the client’s shoes” when deciding how to resolve something – don’t be penny wise and pound foolish
- Always arrive on time
- Always do what you say you’re going to do
- Always meet or exceed your deadlines
- Always pay your bills on time
- Always assist others in any way that you can – look to be a resource
- Always look to connect members of your network with one another
If you do all of these things, peoples’ impressions of you can’t help but be positive. This will make them great ambassadors and great ambassadors make for great multipliers.
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