Tips for building real business networks

Naomi Monobolou, senior budget officer at the African Development Bank. [File, Standard] When you reach out to someone - a customer or a business partner - you want to open them up to you. This makes them more porous and receptive to your ideas. And when you want to make your customers more porous to your business offering, the question is, how do you do it? If you are going to be successful in opening porosity, you need to create trusted relationships. Superior service Many entrepreneurs always mention they want to have trust, but trust is an outcome. The focus should be on what entails porosity. Porosity is a combination of what you do and how you make people feel. You have to ask the right questions for example, what is my objective in building client relationships and how do you as the entrepreneur make them feel, which is your responsibility? You must be intentional about it. Your job is to keep customers and clients focused on you. To do this, you have to be extraordinary. One thing you can do to push the bar high is to focus on generosity. Put in extra effort to delight your customers. Become an authority on information and superior services that your customer requires. This could be an extra hour of really focusing on how to create an impressive brand with customer data, meaning you spend more time understanding what customers and other stakeholders need to create superior brands. Generosity As a business leader, do not expect people to instantly lay out generosity to you, it must start from you, and lead with generosity. The way you open up porosity is through trust, and generosity is critical to building long-lasting relationships. Some of the ways to power up your generosity are to ask questions like how can I help you? Or you can do your research in advance so you know what your clients are struggling with, or you could be creative in cultivating deep conversations with your clients to understand their motivation and the pain they are facing. Your work is to make sure you are solving the pain and the challenges that your clients are struggling with. Explore ways you can apply the generosity pyramid as put by American entrepreneur and author Keith Ferrazzi. Currency At the first level is the universal currency which is at the basic level - how you show up in relationships, you have something to offer, some value which is your currency. Universal currency requires you to be the kind of business person that creates a positive relationship that makes your client want to be with you and your business. For example, in your work style become a master at offering compliments - celebrate people, praise your employees and show admiration for stakeholders' efforts. It's in everyone's power to offer this universal currency. The second level is the professional currency which has to do with what you bring to the table as an entrepreneur, offering extraordinary products or services. The key is being the best at what you do, and getting your A-game to the table. The third and last is personal currency, which is about helping a client personally and understanding them. For example, helping them with their children, health or other challenges they may be facing. Build community Building a strong connection is like building muscle you must work on it. The more you lean on, the more you build a strong relationship. The thing to avoid is being transactional, for example saying because I gave you this piece of an idea, I have to get something out of it. This is like keeping scores which will make you a networking Jerk as Keith puts it in his book Never Eat Alone. And the key to building and turning your customer's focus is being consistent in your attitudes. The key is to remain relevant and see your stakeholders including your customers as a community, invest in giving and make your relationship count. To build your community, put out a calendar of an event of what you can do for them, whether it's regular email communication, or is an outreach event every quarter or a small gathering every Friday. Think of unique ways of connecting with your community for your business to stay relevant. When you work and maintain these robust communities, they create ways for marketing your brand. They become your number one supporter, from an authentic place because you have as an entrepreneur broke the barriers to connecting. Keep engaging and looking for ways to nurture your networks from the point of generosity and not greed. -The writer is a senior budget officer at the African Development Bank and the author of Unlock Your Body Budget.

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