Relationship Marketing For Success – Connect With Someone and Their Network

Have you ever heard the phrase, “Your network is your net worth?” Well, that is more true today than ever before. Keep in mind, it wasn’t too long ago when everything was face-to-face. And since the last few years have happened, we’ve gotten more into meeting people online, via Zoom or whatever you use, and a little less face-to-face. Both have advantages because you’re meeting people, but in today’s environment, it’s a little harder to do face-to-face relationship marketing.

Today, I want to talk about relationship marketing. In order to be successful at it, you have to understand the concepts of what it means to your business. When you hire a human, whether you’re doing it as a contractor or a company, you’re not just hiring a human. You’re hiring a human and their network.

An Adventure

Recently I did something I have not done in over five years. I got on an airplane. I have not traveled for quite a few years because a lot of conferences and things that I went to have been canceled. But, I just took a random trip to a location that I had never been to, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Now, why did I pick Raleigh? Well, the first people I got to meet up with face-to-face were a couple of the members who belonged to a group that I belonged to called Pay It Forward Tuesdays.

Pay-It-Forward

One of the writers that I worked with introduced me to a marketing person named Chuck Hester. Chuck invited me to join this group. The six of us who are in this group volunteer to spend an hour with a person trying to run a nonprofit and help them to better use marketing, social media, and public relations.

We all have different skills that we bring to the table and these people can get up to six hours of training or instruction. They get access to our networks, which helps them amplify their messages. It’s not only a great group to be in, but it’s great to be able to help a bunch of people who help others.

It’s About People…

That’s what networking is all about, using the relationships that you have to help other people, whether it’s to achieve better business results or whether it’s to solve a problem. When I went down to Raleigh, I met with Chuck Hester and Lori Bruns, who are both in that group. We sat down and had breakfast. It was awesome. It was the first time I ever got to meet them face-to-face. Some of the other people live in Philadelphia and Florida. If I make it down there, I’ll do the same thing.

I also had an opportunity to sit down with my son, Timmy, and his girlfriend, Ashley. And we went on a tour of the city, downtown Raleigh. We stopped at a few brewpubs where my son got his favorite thing in the world, craft beers. Then we went out to dinner at a few different places. I got to tour the area with them.

Speaking of touring, another person I have never met face-to-face is Emily Smathers. She is a person who I use as a virtual assistant to write about highly technical pharmaceutical topics. She’s really good at it.

So I took an Uber up to their house. We went out and had some lunch, and then we toured the entire area. I got to see what it was like outside of the city.

And speaking of networking, somebody that I network with locally knew a realtor who knew multiple realtors down in Raleigh. So I decided to meet with them and learn more about the area to get a scope of what’s happening in the market down there.

Resourceful

One of them called me on the phone and gave me a bunch of information. The other one said immediately, “Hey, do you want to get together? Let’s do it on Monday at 10:00 AM.” We both showed up at Panera, sat down, and had a great conversation. The biggest difference between the two is the first one talked to me on the phone and then sent me an email with a whole bunch of listings. The second person sat down and not only listened to what I wanted, but also offered me her connections.

She offered to introduce me to people she knows, likes, and trusts, including a mortgage broker, home inspector, contractors, lawyers – whatever I needed. It was awesome. Now, which one of those two people do you think impressed me more? I think you can probably guess.

Your TRIBE

When we’re talking about relationship marketing for success, it’s all based on a formula. Every single one of us has about 150 quality connections. If you think about those 150 connections, these are people that we know, like, and trust. People that we would feel good about recommending, just like my friend recommended a realtor who recommended two realtors down in Raleigh, who she knew, liked, and trusted. The reason she gave me two people is so that I can pick and choose who I felt better suited my needs at this particular time.

When you look at everybody having 150 quality connections of people they know, like, and trust, chances are every single one of them can amplify that by 10. So if you reach those 150, they can amplify your needs and your messages to 1,500 different people. And from there, if you connect with those 1,500 people, there’s a chance they know 10, which means from that core 150, you can have a reach of over 15,000 people.

Amplify Your TRIBE Connections

Some of the advice I want to give you about how to maximize this is to explore others’ connections online. An example of this is going to your clients and exploring their connections on LinkedIn. See who you have in common.

You may find you have common connections you didn’t even know about, or if they want to meet somebody else, you can introduce them to somebody that they don’t know. Secondly, do the same in person. Ask somebody to meet in person and ask them who they would like to meet, and then be sure to reciprocate. But deliver quality people, not quantity. You want to make sure that they meet somebody that can help them.

Finally, if you have a sales team, make sure your sales team is connecting with their current and past customers. Think about that. If they have 150 quality connections with current and past customers, that means they can amplify your message by 1,500. And if they’re encouraged to share, now you’re reaching up to 15,000 people.

I’m going to suggest you go back and listen to Episode 438 of the Bacon Podcast. There, I talk about my 10-10-10 strategy and how you can use that to amplify your relationships and your marketing messages.

Networking is about your closest 150 connections (your TRIBE) and the resources you bring to each other!

Final Thoughts

By hopping on a plane, having meetings with people that I knew but have never met in person, we built know, like, and trust, and I can help to extend their network and they certainly can help to extend mine. Think about how you can use your own network to build an even bigger one where everyone can be successful. Now that’s relationship marketing!

I would love to hear your thoughts on your relationship marketing system. Comment below and share your thoughts, ideas, or questions about connecting with others and their network.

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