Relationships are important in business and you work hard to create them, are you keeping them too?
Cys Bronner, BNI Executive Director, CRO and THE Constant Social Media Networker wants to share networking with a mindset of Givers Gain and positive steps to make sure that you are not unintentionally letting your business relationships “fall through the cracks”.
Transcript:
Hullo, I’m Cys Bronner, BNI Executive Director and THE Constant Social Media Networker and it’s important to me to introduce myself to you that way since our topic deals with a little bit of the old, and the new.
Sometimes our new way of doing things make way for ignoring our older and more traditional ways, and it’s not always by choice. On many occasions, it’s as simple as allowing things to “fall through the cracks”.
There’s been a lot of talk on the internet and in our organization about “Benign Neglect” let’s look at that.
Dr. Ivan Misner describes Benign Neglect as “taking many forms. It’s any decision you deliberately or unconsciously make that allows a person in your sphere (or an activity associated with that person) to move towards the back, which in turn allows someone else to step a little bit closer to you.”
I’ve been talking to a lot of people in the last 2 weeks about how to avoid this and really build our relationships. I’ve been asking them what it is they do to build their business relationships particularly during a busy, busy, time of year and the response I get predominantly is my CRM does it, my social media posts are automated, I send out birthday cards through my CRM
I think we’ve lost some old marketing mechanisms or terms as well as what relationship really means in CRM so 1st let’s define CRM
Customer relationship management (CRM) is a technology for managing all your company’s relationships and interactions with customers and potential customers
So, it’s a software, or tool.
If you are using your CRM merely to send out automated items like cards or posts on your social media what you’re doing is institutional advertising – and that’s great, institutional advertising certainly has its place, and I would keep doing it.
You’re not – you’re NOT, building a relationship. I know you’re saying oh that’s very old school you don’t know what you’re talking about everybody’s doing social media and I’m going to say you’re right everyone is I do it but what makes you stand out? What creates that business relationship?
It’s what you do between and around the items that promote you and your brand. There are so many different mechanisms to make your business strong and if you just focus on one, you’re most likely missing relationship opportunities.
I’m going to suggest just one way to use your CRM to really make it a Customer RELATIONSHIP Manager, to get the most out of what you are already using it for and create the deeper business you want.
- Take a good look at everyone in your contact list.
- Select the people you know or wish you knew better
- Use to CRM to create a “tickler” 4 months prior to the annual birthday or other outreach to the individual, then block out 30 minutes on your calendar weekly for each of these.
- During your scheduled 30 minutes each week, reach out to the contact by phone, postcard, email, or any method that requires your personal touch to let them know they are on your mind.
After a while those 30 minutes will move from one person a week to 2 in that same time frame, because you are more comfortable with it.
Thank you for listening, I’d love to hear more about your business relationship activities in the comments.
In networking: The more memorable (positive and helpful) you are, the better the results.
Questions? Feel free to call Actionsteps4Success Founder and BNI Executive Director Cys Bronner 866-889-3466 or email her at Cys.Bronner@BNI4success.com
Her motto: BNI, making word of mouth marketing work for you
Click for more information or to join a BNI chapter in the Los Angeles area
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