David St. Lawrence at "Ripples... Blog" (not to be confused with Steve Harper at "The Ripple Effect Blog") has a great observation on his blog about the importance of showing up. We have all heard the famous Woody Allen quote about "80 percent of success is just showing up", and St. Lawerence eloquently tells the story his showing up to market his wares at a farmer's market in the rain. He could have packed up and gone home, but to do so would have meant leaving future opportunities behind.
In anything you do, people want to know they can count on you. They want to know that those whom they buy from, and associate with, will be there for the long haul. When I write and teach the skills that are involved in building a professional network of contacts that will lead to more business, one of the key points is that you must make a commitment to always show up and participate in your business community. Even when you don't feel like it.
One of the best ways to prove you are the real deal is to always be present. Out of sight is out of mind. If you are not actively cultivating your relationships with other business people, you can be sure that one of your competitors is out there trying to win their friendship. Too often people think that they do not need to go out and particiapte in networking events because they already know the "key people". Well don't kid yourself. Unless you are visible, you are forgotten.
I recommend that you make other people a priority and find ways to reach out to those in your database seven to ten times a year. If you are not having some kind of contact at least that many times, then those people are just names in your roledex....NOT MEMBERS OF YOUR NETWORK.
Have A Great Day.
Thom Singer
www.thomsinger.com
thom@thomsinger.com
People need to know they can count on you. That is increasingly important in a widely connected, but increasingly impersonal world.
ReplyDeleteThat's why bloggers need to persist, even when they don't seem to get instant responses to their posts.
I just discovered this post, which is a shame, because it deals with an important issue. If you had left a trackback on my original post, I and my readers would have discovered it immediately.
Keep up the good work!