Over the years I’ve discovered that success is powered by three things:
The formula for success = your human capital (what you know) multiplied by your social capital (who you know) times your reputation (who trusts you.)
You can take away all my money and even my customer list, but if I can keep my ‘smarts,’ my business relationships and reputation, I’ll get it all back – with interest! Having knowledge, social capital and trust is the ultimate security blanket in both good times and bad.
Today, more than ever it’s an excellent time to increase your market share by reaching new prospective customers and building better relationships with your present customers. Not by simply sitting alone in front of your computer and trying to come up with a winning marketing formula either, this along is simply not smart business. No one I know who has been successful in creating a strong marketing presence does it this way.
Successful people may have started out going it alone but as soon as they possibly could, they began to leverage their contacts, other people’s ideas, their experiences and relationships.
Building a strong network, reaching out and helping others, showing you care by introducing one another via structured meetings should never be dismissed as a one-off opportunity or a quick fix, networking genuinely works when we work toward helping others through strong, developed relationships.
Success = what you know, times who you know, times who trusts you.
That’s it. That’s the secret.
So, how do we build trust?
Blame the Greeks … they taught us that all conversation involved three ingredients:
Ethos, or the character of the speaker,
Pathos, connecting with the emotions and
Logos.
The logos discussed by the Greeks refer to the factual content of a message, the words used.
OK, so, building trust?
To hear your message, people first need to positively connect with you emotionally before they are ready, willing and able to listen to what you have to say.
Never dismiss the opportunity that regular networking brings, never dismiss the value of investing in human capital.
CharlieKenny.me 