Leak-free System for your Contact

We all know how important it is to keep up your relationships in business but how confident are you in your tools?



The importance of a leak-free system for recording the contact details of your colleagues, customers, potential business partners or anyone you know cannot be over emphasised.

The standard response to such a question is they keep it in Outlook, Gmail or some other mail system. Others worship at the alter of Blackberry or have the company CRM forced upon them while others keep it "old school" with a paper address book or organiser. The point they are missing is that these are stores for some of your contact information not a system and certainly not a complete leak-free system.

Ask your self the following questions about your current system, what if:

• You lose your phone/PDA/organiser, could I recover everything in a day
• your employer let you go taking PC, phone, PDA back with no notice
• I need to call an acquaintance that I have never emailed before
• I lost my electronic data, do I have a recent paper copy
  

The details of my own system are for another post but you need to look at how you are recording your contact information and ask the big question, do I have one place (master record) for all my contact details and have I a procedure to ensure it is kept fresh.

Wisdom of a Selling Geek

I’ve come across this useful resource for relationship builders, Selling Geek.  It’s a blog/podcast by a sales professional Timothy Sullivan.  Tim reviews a host of technical innovations, hardware, software, services, phones, the list goes on.

Why I like his site and podcast is that his view on technology is from a salesman's point of view and just as relevant to managers who work with clients on a daily basis.  In each review the over riding question is “how can this help be improve my working relationships and sell more”.

Check out his podcast on iTunes or over at PodcastPickle.

Keeping In Touch - Tricks from CRM

I value the friend who for me finds time on his calendar, but I cherish the friend who for me does not consult his calendar.

- Robert Brault

You will hear busy executives say how much they’d like to spend more time meeting clients or suppliers. This even extends to catching up with old colleagues or school friends. Their calendar is full this week and when they try to book it for the following week the other person can’t make it. This back and forth usually results in the opportunity to connect being lost.

As a Relationship Manager with potentially 20-30 appointments a month not to mention catching up with friends, let me offer a few suggestions to improve your chances to connect

Have a Account Plan

Decide for the year the frequency you wish to contact clients and set a goal to achieve each quarter, month and week. This will be come the framework you will build on over time. An extension of this plan will be your contacts database. For another post by me on this go here.

Here and now

At the end of each meeting schedule your next. You both can check your calendars on the spot and agree a date. A commitment made in person is rarely changed. This time can also be a chance to find out a little more about them or for you to share information with them

Well Ahead of Time

If you don’t meet them frequently set a date 1, 2 or even 3 months into the future. It ensures you get a clear schedule and is rarely refused as people easily commit to something that is far away. This is even more affective if you do a bulk reminder at the start of every month to ensure you are back on their radar.

In One

Always try to complete a booking in one take. Offer a range of dates to pick from (saves the email tennis) and if you’re flexible about location, before/after work, by phone, etc, say so.

Contingency

Have some flexibility in your calendar but the trick, let them know about it! I rarely do an off site meeting on a Monday but I make no secret of it. Clients know that it’s there if they really need to move the schedule but they also know I won’t offer it up unless it’s urgent.

Go with the flow

Learn your clients work patterns and set your requests accordingly. I conference call one client at 5.30pm because he’s in his car on the way home, I get 30 minutes of his undivided attention . The flexibility might mean meeting them early, at their office or lunch. I knew one manager who use to change his flight at the last minute just to get quality time with a client on the flight home

A Challenge!

Take a look at your calendar for the next 3 months and ask yourself is there’s any client, colleague, business partner or supplier you’d like to spend time with? Make the appointment now, you won’t regret it.

Lessons from Network Marketing - Part 1 of 3

"In Network Marketing, the NETWORKING always comes before the MARKETING" - Silke Stahl




I have been exploring the area of Network Marketing recently and in particular the approaches and tools it uses in establishing, maintaining and leveraging relationships to build a sustainable business.

Network Marketing (NM), Multi Level Marketing or Relationship Marketing is essentially the sale of products (or services) directly to customers through a relationship referral . The agents who sell the products make their commission by developing a broad customer base and recruiting other agents (distributors) from whom they get an additional commission from the levels below. Well know examples would be AVON, Amway or EXCEL ( and Euphony in UK and Ireland).

When reading about and talking to successful Network Marketers your are struck by the passion they have for their work and the amazing relationships they have cultivated with both their customers and the people they have recruited (down stream / level below).

Reading Scott Pospichal in Conversations with EXCEL Millionaires he sums it up

Gather a few customers and recruit new representatives and help them gather customers...everyone gets paid.

There is much that other business can learn from Network Marketers about business relationships with customers and especially their partners.

As you'd expect there is a lot of information on this topic out there and separating the "pitch" from genuine information is a challenge. I recommend the book Conversations with EXCEL Millionaires by Litmanand Oman because it is focused on the people not the product. I would also highly recommend Jim Sweeney's blog Network Marketing My Way as he's one of those successful Network Marketers who is willing to share the secrets of his success, he also tells a god story.

As you might have guessed from the title of this post I plan to dig deeper into this topic in the future.

A FREE copy of Conversations with EXCEL Millionaires is available to the first person who comments on this post!

Technology cannot replace the human touch

Technology cannot replace the human touch when it comes to building a relationship with your customers



While reading an article by Nick Rowley titled "Is Technology really being used to improve customer service" I was reminded how we have become so reliant on CRM tools, web sites, IVR and a variety of other tools to assist us in delivering a better service without taking our time to add the personal touch. Are we loosing touch and more importantly are we being left out of the customer conversation?

As any sales man will tell you that "you sell to people not companies". So is it not the case that relationships are built between people not systems? Rather that avoiding the customer surely we should be taking every opportunity to engage with them.

Research has proven that the customers who complain the most and have their complaints addressed (not necessarily resolved) are less likely to change providers. A phenomenon that psychologists call Reciprocity.

Technology and tools are aids but should constantly be helping us build our relationship with customers not used to avoid them. If the customer is not talking to you they'll find someone else to talk to and you may not be happy about what they're saying.


PS:
Chris Bucholtz over at InsideCRM had an amusing take on this in his post The call centre conspiracy

Should I LinkedIn?

I have recently been considering the value of the networking phenomena that is LinkedIn. So what is it and can it really help build stronger business relationships.




Wikipedia describes it as "a business-oriented networking site ..., mainly used for professional networking". If you haven't already done so check it out.

Once you have explored it a little you will no doubt be asking yourself how relevant it is to you and is it worth the effort?

Here are 5 good reasons LinkedIn will help you build and maintain better business relationships:

1. You'll Be Found
Your proper name, once registered with LinkedIn will appear at the top of most on-line searches. This is due to the fact that LinkedIn is a trusted source by all the major search engines and the sites content, including your name, has been optimised for searching. You will also be found by other users because LinkedIn suggests members based on shared college or company histories.

2. You'll be seen
Once someone has found your name they will want to look at your profile, this includes a photo, as much history as you want to include and your websites (blogs, flicker, YouTube posts, etc).

3. You'll be heard
With an easy to find profile, on a respected forum you are no longer an anonymous voice in cyberspace. Now when you post a comment on a forum, blog or other site other users will now be able to associate a

4. You be contactable
Over the years we have all had various email addresses from work, college or other. With InMail you no longer have to rely on a friend or associate knowing your active email address.

5. You can give and receive recognition
Recommendations can be posted by colleagues or associates to your profile. You can also post answers on various topics, again building you credibility.

Resources worth checking out to get a better understanding of this networking tool are:
Blog: Linked Intelligence
Book & Blog: I'm On LinkedIn Now What

Power of the Meeting Note

I have a habit I developed some years ago of sending a short note, usually email, after every meeting with a client (and many phone calls). It developed out of my time as a project manager when you needed to keep a history of decisions and to remove any ambiguity over actions agreed. As a relationship manager they serve a similar purpose put from a different perspective, here are some reasons to consider sending a note:

• Looks professional and that you take such meetings seriously, even when the tone is light hearted
• You have a record of what was discussed and any actions agreed.
• You can circulate your note to other interested parties e.g. Project Managers, Sales & Marketing, your boss, the rest of the team.
• Audit purposes (for all the ITIL Service Level Managers in the audience)
• Your own records especially when you are managing a large number of clients
• Personal marketing, so all concerned know the great job you are doing.

I would suggest you have a template ready as speed is import in writing up these notes. If it takes more than 10 minutes you simply won't do it. A text based template (e.g. Outlook Forms) or a draft email saved works very well. Avoid MS Word/PDF documents unless you have to be formal (e.g. Proposal or anything with a price in it). Typical headings would be:

• Subject,
  
• Date/Time and Place,
  
• Attendees, Agenda,
  
• Main Points (short, highlights only)
  
• Actions (who, what and for when).

An optional and very useful heading to have is Internal Only. This is usually at the top and contains information that you want the internal team to know but which you might not be of interest to the client and would not be sent on their copy.

Issue it as soon after the meeting/call as possible as it looks professional and they will very often be filed as meeting minutes by the client who hasn't the time (or interest) to write up their own.

The One Minute Relationship Manager

I just finished reading the management classic "The One Minute Manager "(Blanchard & Lorber) this week. It's a short book, 100 pages in a very light style, ideal for a day hop on the plane. It boils down to 3 tools of management

1. One Minuet Goal Setting
2. One Minute Praise
3. One Minute Reprimand

I recommend you pick up a copy for yourself. Like all tools the challenge is in using them correctly and consistently to achieve your goals.

After reading it I was left wondering is there such a thing as the "One Minute Relationship Manager"? What would the 4-5 things if done correctly and consistently would help them build and maintain excellent relationships and hence achieve their goals. Some suggestions:

Be of value
Figure out how you can be of service in each of the business relationship you have. It will be different for each and with every contact made you need to be checking that you have been of service and that they know it.

Keep Excellent Records
Establish a system of keeping excellent records on all your clients and use it. You may have a CRM package, a paper filing system or a well organised email system. The structure is your own choice but it must be well maintained and easily accessible.

Frequent Connect
Business Relationship are build on frequency of contact not necessarily duration, context or even quality. This is a fundamental difference between business and personal relationships. A quick call every few weeks can be as affective as a site visit once a quarter.

These are just a couple of suggestions. I will consider this idea further and see if I can come up with a better "One Minute Relationship Manager". If you have any suggestions please let me know