This week we’re looking at sixteen top relationship building activities you can do to cement relationships with the key people in your network.  These activities when done consistently will keep your relationships strong and generate more business for you and your connections. Its a long one this week but I do feel its worth it.

1. Advice Seeking/Advising

People like for others to listen to their opinions and advice. By inviting them to talk, you can get better acquainted with their knowledge, decision-making ability, and attitudes. Receiving someone’s advice gives you a reason to contact them again, thank them, and let them know what you plan to do. This is a great way to keep your resources informed and, of course, to get their opinions about what you are doing.
One of your goals is to get network members to feel that you are a link to privileged information — that you’re an insider. The advice you give may lead your prospective sources to seek you out for answers to their questions or to feel that you’re looking out for their best interests. It’s a great way to remind your prospective sources of what you do.

Cautionary – don’t ask unless you are actually interested in hearing the other person’s opinion and respect them enough to let them know if you will be following through on their advice or not.

2. Purchasing

One of the friendliest and most natural ways to make contact with a source is to buy their products or services, whether in large or small amounts. The purchase doesn’t necessarily have to be from their primary line of business — perhaps a ticket to a fund raiser, a used car, a computer, or even a box of Girl Guide cakes from his daughter.

By purchasing something from your network member, you become one of their customers. As a customer, you are high on their priority list; they will be more inclined to do business with you and give you information, support, and referrals. This approach also increases your source’s interest in getting to know you and staying in touch.

3. Inviting

You can enhance your contact with a prospective source by inviting them to an event you are attending, hosting, or one in which you are participating as a featured guest, exhibitor, panel speaker, or award recipient.

Inviting them to your events keeps your targets informed of activities you are involved in. When the event is one where you have an opportunity to share your expertise or where you are being recognized for an achievement, using this tactic contributes to building your credibility and image as a successful and knowledgeable professional. This tactic also helps acquaint your targets with others in your network and transforms strictly business relationships into friendships.

4. Recognizing

By recognizing your sources for contributing to your business success, you help them both enhance their image and increase their visibility. When others ask your target source about the recognition they have received, it leads to a discussion of their relationship with you or your business and stimulates buzz about your sources. It tells other people and sources that someone trusts you, and it makes it easier for them to trust and support you.

5. Collaborating

The collaborating tactic is used to express interest in establishing an informal partnership with a contact for your mutual benefit. One of the best ways to obtain a commitment from a network member is to make a commitment to share resources and efforts. Collaborating creates a reliable and committed source of information, support, and referrals and helps you achieve your goals more easily and quickly.

6. Sponsoring

The purpose of sponsoring is to help your sources by providing financial and resource backing for projects or programs with which they are involved. Sponsoring a program or event gives you an opportunity to work with sources and prospective customers for a definite period. When you sponsor an event or activity, you usually communicate with many people through correspondence, personal introductions, promotional literature, signs, and banners. By doing so, you gain exposure to potential customers or influential individuals in your target market, people who can provide business support and referrals.

An added bonus here is that your source will likely be impressed and appreciative about you backing their project, fundraiser, or cause of choice. This helps you gain trust, appreciation, likely a feeling of Givers Gain, wanting to give back to you and your cause. It also adds an additional level of exposure for you to your source. There is also the option of sponsoring something in the referral sources name which builds recognition for him and a strong connection between the two of you.

7. Promoting

This tactic is designed to get information, support, and referrals by providing promotional support to your sources; to demonstrate to them how well you know them and trust them; and to help build relationships between them and other members of your network.

TAKE NOTE: Because this is an indirect approach, there’s no guarantee that you’ll receive promotional support and referrals in return.
Helping your sources get business makes them more likely to help you get business. By letting them know exactly what actions you have taken on their behalf, you give them a model for generating business for you.

8. Display/Distribute Information Or Products

Your sources can exhibit your marketing materials and products in their offices or homes. If these items are displayed well, such as on a counter or a bulletin board, visitors will ask questions about them or read the information. This opens the door for your source to ask further questions on your behalf. Some may take your promotional materials and display them in other places, increasing your visibility.

Your sources can also help you distribute your marketing information and materials. Examples:

• They can include a flyer in their mailings or hand out flyers at meetings they attend.
• A dry cleaner attaches a coupon from the hair salon next door to each plastic bag he uses to cover his customers’ clothing;
• A grocery store includes other businesses’ marketing literature in or on its grocery bags or on the back of the printed receipt.

9. Collect and Provide Testimonials

This is a two-tiered tactic. Initially, its purpose is to obtain feedback and suggestions from clients and observers on their experience with your products and services. If the information you receive is positive, contact your sources again to solicit their involvement in some of your promotional activities or to request permission to use their feedback in your promotional campaign.

Using this approach will help you identify your true believers and champions. You’ll generate ideas on how to make things better and you’ll capture clients’ opinions in writing. This approach will help you discover new opportunities and spot problems early. Most important, it will help you generate testimonial statements, endorsements, and referrals. Even better if you can do it for someone else! Remember that technology is a great way to distribute testimonials. Remember you can use videos, written, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and more!

10. Give Referrals/Leads

The kind of support you’d most like to get from your sources is, of course, referrals — names and contact information for specific individuals who need your products and services. Sources can also help by giving prospects your name and number. As the number of referrals you receive increases, so does your potential for increasing the percentage of your business generated through referrals. Remember leads are just low level referrals.

11. Connecting/Introducing

Connecting is a tactic designed to help a network member expand his network of business and personal friends and sources. Any help you can give a network member in achieving success and satisfaction strengthens your bond and enhances your image as a resourceful, well-connected individual. The possibilities here are endless. Think about connecting people that like to ride bikes, enjoy cooking together, or going to sporting events.

12. Publish Articles

Network members may be able to get information about you and your business printed in publications they subscribe to and in which they have some input or influence. For example, a source that belongs to an association that publishes a newsletter might help you get an article published or persuade the editor to run a story about you.

13. Horn Tooting

The idea behind tooting your own horn is to let your sources know about achievements you are particularly proud of. When properly used, this approach will generate interest in you and your business or profession. It should get others to seek you out, ask you questions, and feel that you are knowledgeable and confident. using this approach may help uncover needs, interests, and achievements that you share with your prospective sources. If you avoid looking like you’re just bragging, it will help familiarize others with the services or products you sell.

14. Volunteer

Helping your network member achieve an important goal gives you authority to make contact and spend time with them. Besides your initial meeting, you will need to schedule follow-up meetings, receive guidance, get their approval on actions, and provide status reports. The more opportunities they have to observe your follow-through on your commitment, the more they will trust you.

There are two benefits to using this tactic. When your voluntary contributions don’t relate to your expertise or business, you are at least establishing trust, reliability, and friendship. When your help comes from your expertise or business, you are also building your business credibility and encouraging future business dealings and referrals

15. Nominate

Business professionals and community members often are recognized for outstanding service to their profession or community. If you’ve donated time or materials to a worthy cause, your sources can nominate you for service awards. You increase your visibility both by serving and by receiving the award in a public expression of thanks. Your sources can pass the word of your recognition by word of mouth or in writing.

16. Announcing

Providing information about upcoming events and opportunities helps make and maintain contacts. The events can be of either business or personal interest, as long as the nature of the function appeals to your audience. Using this approach will cause your audience to view you as an information source and to come to you with questions about other events.

If you would like to find out more on how to develop key referral marketing strategies then you can register for our monthly newsletter here.

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To your continued success

Dave