Chad Maxwell | Lesson Five: Networking is working!
The final masterclass from Chad to Clive (2009)
Clive. Your gold leafed portfolio is ready. That means this is the last lesson in this introductory course. Now, you and I have gotten pretty close over these past months. You like straight talk, I talk straight and we are both straight, so I am just going to shoot the window: you might need some more lessons. I suggest you talk to Candine and set something up. Maybe we should have some face time mano-a-mano? Either way we can pow-wow by twitter (your package covers three weeks of web 2.0 support).
This final lesson is about networking and client interactionships. The key to modern business success is being able to find the right person at the right time and ensure they are ready to do exactly what you want with the minimum of effort and retain the maximum of praise. Here are three of my best tips.
1. Remind people when they agreed to help
I attend many high powered board meetings, as you can imagine. I ask a lot of questions, I get a lot of answers, but I also get a lot of, “Sure Chad, I’ll help you out with that”. When you are literally blowing people out of the water with the vision thing, you need a lot of wing men to follow up. The best method I have is the reminder card, simply fill the back out whenever someone agrees something and hand over the card (make a note for yourself). This way they will be reminded whenever they see it, but even better, the rest of the decision team will have seen him receive it: now he will act.
2. Grow your network big going forwards and backwards
Cliff, when you are canvassing ideas for your future burning platforms, you need to have access to the right key people, and that’s way beyond locksmiths! People like to be liked and people like to think people like them even when they know, and you know they know, you are using them for your profit advantage, but humans are weak animals and we must exploit that. You need to grow your fan base and you need to make people want to jump when you say so.
Growing your network can be as simple as punting your resume around to anyone you ever meet — intimidate them with your success venture history, but also make them think you are in some small way impressed with them, too. Use your downtime to work out who you have met recently who is waiting in the wings, literally, to step up to the mark and deliver big. You can use power lunches (always set an agenda), weekend retreats or just a simple round of golf on Friday between meetings.
Once you have met someone who you have not seen in a while, you must follow up and stoke their ego, literally. Use my tried and tested post-encounter action tracker toolkit (only $49.99!) to drill-down into their psyche and follow the golden rule that you must ALWAYS find something useful (at least make them think so) to email them within 24 hours of the meet time. This will make them feel in debt to you. A debt they will repay!
3. Always sound like you know everyone
Your network should be at least 500 people strong. Never waste time with junior staff. Go to the top, always get their business card; you should aim to give away at least 2,000 cards a year yourself. Business is like porn: spread yourself wide but charge high.
Whenever you are in a multi-voice-context and someone mentions someone else, you must interrupt and state something you did, are doing or will do with that person to gain conversation momentum and speech control. You must make your opponent feel you own the person to whom they referred. Here is a recent example. Me: “Jake, we need to go for the low hanging fruit, let’s touch base and find a win-win engagement direction of travel with loud synchronicity”; Jake: “Great plan Chad, I reckon Greg Speed could have a view on this, he…” Me: “The Gregster, of course, I was with him on Thursday night, just shooting the breeze over a couple of cocktails — did you know he has regular face time with Harvey? I can bolt this on to my next radar flag session we have planned next week”; Jake: “OK, it sounds like you really know him, I better leave this encounter-plan to you”. See Clive, see how I OWNED that potentially loss-making action debate? You must do this Clive, you just MUST.
Now Cliff, I know this might be hard for you, for someone who I guess has very few stakeholder groups or even respected colleagues. But don’t worry, don’t give up yet. Start small and build up. Don’t deep dive this straight away or you might drown. Start with the weak people that someone like me would never bother with. Train on these hapless souls and then start climbing the ladder towards real (Successtivating) people.
That’s the end of your first five email based learning chunks. Do keep in touch, hey, join my network! (Facebook Friend is $125 per annum; Linkedin $250 per annum and if you want to be entered in my Beebo that’s only $75 for every two years).
CHAD