Kevin Willett reminds you not to skip the initial phases of building your business relationships.
If a stranger walked up to you and asked you to marry them, I am guessing that you would say no, simply because you do not know anything about them, they are a stranger. Most people would not walk up to a stranger and ask them to get married.
However, many of us do this in business all the time. We connect with someone on social media and then immediately ask them to do business with us, skipping the whole building a relationship part and the getting them to know, like and trust us.
Last week I had a person connect with me on social media. I asked them if they would like to attend networking events and they said they were not interested. I asked them why they chose to connect with me and they laughed and said ‘you know it’s a numbers game, you need to connect with everyone hoping that they will need your goods or services’. I emailed them back and asked how this approach was working for them and of course they said badly. Please remember for the most part you cannot skip the whole know like and trust part of the relationship. This is extremely important!
Social media has been awesome for me. It has allowed me to grow the attendance at my networking events and make great connections. I have noticed that my relationships grow stronger after I have met people a few times and worked on building a rapport with them.
So please remember that it takes time to build relationships. Try to do your best to strengthen your online relationships by actually meeting the person in real life. Let them get to know, like and trust you and you might be surprised by how it changes your business.
Watch my YouTube Channel for more on this and other Business Networking Tips
Kevin Willett is the Author of One Connection How you can grow your business (and change the world) one connection at a time. The business networking book is available on Amazon. Purchase One Connection on Amazon
Kevin is also the CEO of the Friends of Kevin Networking Group and the New England B2B Networking Group. Please connect with him on social media to hear about his upcoming business networking events.