Thread: Networking to build a brand and receive referrals - Judith Germain

Networking - Discussion between NLP Trainer Michael Beale and Judith Germain, January 2009

Judith Germain FCIPD is Managing Director of Dynamic Transitions Ltd and specialises in developing leadership talent. She has over 10 years experience working with wilfully independent people which she defines as mavericks or Troublesome Talent?.



(You can listen on the following MP3 file, please allow 2 minutes to download)

http://www.nlp-expert.co.uk/networki...networking.mp3

Transcript TBA

Networking podcast transcript


Michael : Good morning Jude. This time I'm delighted that you're joining us to talk about building a brand for yourself and real referrals through networking. So can I ask you to kick off by talking about your experience in networking with particular relationship to getting referrals and brand building?

Judith : Sure. Hi Mike, thanks for asking me to come back again to be interviewed. Just in case people haven't heard the first one is I enable businesses and individuals to achieve maverick mastery. Maverick being a willful independent, and that's kind of important viewpoint in terms of networking, because one of the things that we do when networking is to be different - is to stand out - to be not just annother accountant, or another consultant - you are somebody that is different, special and has expertise.

So in terms of questions - My experience in networking, I guess I've had a number of experiences, I guess. I've been through the traditional type networking event where people swap cards and put cards in your face and other areas where they develop relationships with you. And my preference is networking events where you get to know an individual well enough that you can start to think about referring them and advocate them and you actually build a proper relationship with the individual.

Michael : If you had to break networking down into a number of steps, what would those steps be?

Judith : Design your network strategy. A lot of people go networking with no real understanding of what they want to achieve, how it is that they're going to get there, who they have to meet, or anything like that. So, first of all have a network strategy so that you know that you're time is going to be leveraged. Decide what it is that you would like to be known for.

Build up a reputation and credibility that suits you and your business. Establish yourself as an experts. Participate online, and as well what is really important these days is that you attend offline - and ensure that when you have one to ones with people that they're as productive as they can be.

Michael : So let's move on from that. You talked about various networking meetings, some of them which you prefer. Where and when do you network, both face to face and online?

Judith : I network in - let me rephrase that - I was going to say that I was networking in a lot of networking communities, and that isn't strictly speaking true. I have a presence on a lot of networking communites and I actively participate in a few.

Michael : Can you name names?

Judith : One of the networks that I'm fairly active with is Ecademy an in particular within the Black Star community - Black Star is the premier membership. What I like about that group of individuals is that it is a community based one, which is quite supportive as a group and people help to develop each others businesses. And you're able to know people well enough to be able to advocate them as well as a possible referral.

Other networks that I have a presence on are things like LinkedIn. LinkedIn is a very good network in terms of knowing who you can go and talk to especially in the corporate world.

And offline, again, it's attending meetings that suit your business and what you want to achieve and who you want to be around.

Michael : What do you actually do when you're at a networking meeting?

Judith : What do I do? Well first of all I insure that I'm at the right meeting for what my objectives are. I also believe in random networking in the sense that I don't aim to necessarily find a person when I'm networking, because you never know who the person that you're talking to, who they know. So and to be myself, to have a good chance of understanding what the person needs. I try to build up a rapport and try to understand people when I'm networking.

Michael : If you were going to teach somebody how to do this, if you had somebody who maybe came for first time and didn't know any of this networking stuff - what would you get them to do first? What would you get them to concentrate on?

Judith : First of all building the network strategy that suits them and their business. So what is it that they want to achieve? How do they get there? When do they get to where they need to be? Those kinds of things.

To split networking into three areas, the outer, inner and middle circle of contacts and to treat each one of those groups differently in terms of time and how you spend time on what you do with them.

Michael : Which is most important?

Judith : They have different purposes, rather than which is most important. So for example for your inner circle, which would be much smaller, would be individuals that would be able to advocate you - and I'd say that the difference between advocate and refer is that referral happens when somebody actively asks "Do you know somebody that can do X?" And you say "Yes, there's this person."

When you're advocating somebody you're very Evangelical about it and you're able to sell them into the situation in the most convincing way, so that all the other person has to do really is to show up and to quote a price and it's done. Deal. And that happens from your inner circle, people that you've built up a strong relationship, who understands you and your business very, very well.

Your outer circle are your people, or your contacts, that know something about you. They probably know one thing about you. That one thing would be, say for me, for example, that one thing that people might know about me is that I do mavericks. They might not know exactly what that means, they might assume that that's training and that's it.

People in my middle circle will know two or three of my propositions, so they will know and understand that I deal with mavericks, that I do training and perhaps consultancy.

People in my inner circle know a lot more of my propositions so they know that I have a service background and an operations background. They know a lot more about me. And those in your inner circle are able to advocate you because they are able to sell you in into areas that you're not necessarily selling yourself.

Michael : OK. That's fascinating. How does somebody become a member of your inner circle.

Judith : What a question! For me some of it is behavioural - you've got to be somebody that I like and trust. Somebody that has integrity. And somebody that I know really well. Because obviously if I'm being really evangelical about somebody, I need to know that they can do whatever it is that they're needed to do - that they're going to get on with the potential client - they're going to be able to deliver.

So that's why I say that you're inner circle is a much smaller subset of the other two.

Michael : OK, give me some qualities of the people in your inner circle.

Judith : They all have high integrity and they will deliver what they say they're going to deliver. They're people who are real givers to society. They're not the kind of individuals who would do anything to secure a deal. They'll do the right thing at the right time. They're expects at what they're doing in terms of the business. They're real experts. So you know that by referring them that the client is getting an excellent service.

And they're good people. Easy to get on with. Well-liked. Some that you would trust your house keys to, or you would give them the keys to your car, or say "You need a car? Here you go, use mine."

Michael : Moving on to capabilities, but before I ask you generally what capabilities you think you need to be a good net-worker - I was curious to something that you said right at the beginning in terms of networking strategy, that in coming up with your networking strategy that you almost needed to have a unique proposition - you needed to actually stand out from people that are doing the some thing as you - can you just put some more words around that?

Judith : People only buy from experts, they don't buy from generalist. So for example if you needed to have brain surgery, you wouldn't go to the GP that you like really well. You'd want to go to the person who's only done brain surgery. And it's the same sort of thing that you buy in a service. The more costly the service is, the higher the investment, the higher the risk, the more you have to be credible and have a good reputation, and it needs to be different.

So if you think about it, you have, lets say IFA's. Now, people will assume that they understand what an IFA does. When networking people will say "I'm an IFA!" and people will go "OK, whatever.". However if you say that you're an IFA that helps businesses achieve funding in the economic downturn, then something that you do is different, you stand out.

And because you're niching quite hard into a smaller area doesn't mean that you wont get work in a larger area, it just means that you're remembered. So, if you're doing something difficult, like say, finding funding, people will say "Oh that's what you do." but then they might say "Oh, but don't you also deal with mortgages?"

And the individual will probably say "Yeah, I deal with that as well." But by standing out and being known for one thing means that you can drive all sorts of traffic towards you.

Michael : What sort of capabilities do you think that you have in being a good networker? How did you learn to network. What actually happened to give you the opportunity to talk to me about the things you've done in networking?

Judith : (Laughter.) You're asking the tough questions today!

I think I was a good networker in corporate land in the beginning, without realising that it had a name.

I was always able to get things done when other people wouldn't get things done, and that's because I knew a lot of people in the areas of the company. So if the normal procedure would be to fill out a form and X happens, I would pick up the phone and go and see somebody in that apartment and get that done, because I knew them quite well, and I knew about them and I got on with people.

When you're in a business its all about taking that corporate expertise outside and actually - I guess if you're networking and thinking about how you can - I suppose its like being a consultant in the sense that you're seeing the best way that you can solve the clients needs. So if you're networking with somebody you're working hard to find out what that person needs, thinking about what you could do to help or support them and what you could do to achieve it, rather than thinking about what you would gain and what you could get from somebody else.

Michael : OK, that's interesting. Moving on from that, what do you believe about yourself as a networker?

Judith : That I can connect someone to the right person. If I don't know the right person as somebody in my network - which is a reasonably large network - that will be the right person with the right solution - and quite often when I'm networking with people, there's lots of people that struggle to articulate what it is that they do. And I'm able to help them articulate what they do so that I can actually help them achieve that.

Michael : Excellent. And what do you believe about the people that you network with?

Judith : That they're trying to be their best selves.

Michael : OK. Would you network with anybody?

Judith : Yes, I would network with anybody. I wouldn't advocate everybody.

Michael : Ah, OK. Back to your three levels. Do you have a mission when you network? Who is Jude when shes out there being a great networker,

Judith : Well that's a great question. I think it's important when you're networking to be yourself, and to be otherwise is foolhardy. So often people are networking in a variety of places, whether its online areas or offline areas, and what they're trying to do is have a different persona each area - and that doesn't really work. I think that trying to be yourself everywhere is better than trying to be somebody different.

Not too sure about a mission other than the fact that I want to help other people and by helping other people I build advocacy for myself.

Michael : OK. Can you give another couple of example of where networking has specifically worked for you?

Judith : I once had a client who came to me because five people had told him that I was the right person to help him. And that was a great thing to find out. That was a fantastic phone call.

Michael : I like that. Anything else? Just a bit of evidence for people so they can say 'this networking stuff is worth doing.'

Judith : OK. I think earlier we talked about the power of the inner circle. About a year ago I was on holiday and two people who were in my inner circle came up and approached the other with some work which is not something that I would advertise, it was some HR work. But he approached the other one and said that he had a client that needed some help in some particular area and -because I wasn't around - did he think that I could do it? And he said "Yeah, blah blah blah."

So between the two of them they kind of sorted out what it was that I could do and that I was the person to talk to. And after that I got an email saying "Contact this person." And it was all arranged. And I think that's the thing about networking and having a good inner circle is that they can sell you in to other areas that you wouldn't necessarily sell yourself.

And I think probably my third example was when I got a referral from an advocate and when I phoned the company up they basically said "So and so told me that you're an expert in this field - How much do you charge?" That's the kind of work that you want really.

Michael : If you had to describe, or if I asked you to describe networking as a metaphor or a story - how would you describe the relationships within networking?

Judith : I think good networking is a bit like being a bumble bee. You're meeting others to help them with no thought of yourself. And that shouldn't really work but it does in the way that a bumble bee shouldn't be able to fly.

Michael : OK. Excellent. To finish this off, is there anything that you'd like to emphasise about networking, or is there anything that is really important that we haven't covered up until now?

Judith : Have a strategy of what you're doing so you're not wasting time having pointless meetings or getting over-excited online, spending a lot of time online. Having clear goals when you're networking, and understanding that helping others is the key to having a strong sense of your own business and how you can articulate it.

Michael : Excellent. And what would you like to plug? What are you doing now that you'd like to bring to our listeners attention and that they might be interested in contacting you about?

Judith : What Ive been doing is making sure that a lot of the programmes that I'll be running in 2009 will be as pertinent as they can be, so Ive revised my networking strategy and assessment program for 2009 to pick up some of the key learning's that Ive gained this year.

Michael : Excellent. And your contact details?

Judith : I can be reached by phone on 02082880512 or by email at Jude@dynamic-transitions.co.uk

Michael : Absolutely brilliant, I really appreciate your time this afternoon

Judith : Thank you Mike.