Voices of the Dead and Not So Dead

There was a death in the family last week and I guess that has caused me to think a little more about life and death than I would normally. I got to wondering in particular about what you take from a relationship. Not in the material sense but in the sense of wisdom and knowledge.

You see my stepfather who died last week was a successful business man who had travelled extensively, married, divorced, remarried, survived several recessions and generally someone who had lived a full life. And, being an intelligent and educated man, he learnt from the experiences that he had lived and that made his opinion one that was worth listening to.

And I wonder now whether I fully tapped into that wisdom that he had and that wondering has gotten me thinking about the other people that I know and whether I speak to them enough. It is easy to not ask a question and to have shallow conversations that skirt over complex issues but I am now of the opinion that the real wealth in our relations can come from putting our pride or our expectations aside and asking questions of those we know.

So whilst I didn’t ask enough questions of my stepfather let me share something he did say recently. A piece of business wisdom that is so simple that it often gets overlooked and yet ignoring it has brought down many a company.

“Get the cash.”

There it is. Simple yet fundamentally right. Whether you are a large or small company; whether you are international or local; get the cash. Because if you don’t your business has failed. It doesn’t matter about your sales pipeline, or even the number of sales you’ve made if you aren’t getting paid.

Now my stepfather was an accountant so I guess that was a natural thing to expect him to say but I’d challenge anyone to tell me he was wrong.

So always remember two things from this blog – talk to those who are wiser than you whilst you have the chance – whether a family member or business connection; and get the cash.

Do those two things and I guarantee success.

And Roger; you will be missed and I truly wish I had asked more questions.

Stephen

Sphere of Influence

Before I put my cards on the table and tell you what this blog is about let me ask you a favour…once I’ve told you please keep reading because whilst it’s a topic that’s been done to death in a hundred books and far too many web articles I’ve got a point to make that might just help you…

So cards on the table…this blog is going to be about networking – business networking in particular and about a mistake that I know quite a few people are making…

To illustrate the networking mistake let me describe an old networking game that has been around as long as networking itself…namely the ‘business card collection game’.

In this game when you attend a business exhibition or a networking event the aim is to collect as many business cards as possible. Very simply the person who collects the most cards wins.

The idea behind the game was to prompt people who were nervous about networking and changing cards to do just that; collect them. And it works. It works in so far as as you end up with a collection of cards. But what value do those cards have? How much actual business value did you get from winning the business card collection game?

I’ll answer that question in a minute but first I want to fast forward to the present day and look at the modern version of the business card game.

Today a lot of networking is done online either more casually through sites such as Facebook or Bebo or more formally through Linkedin and it’s ilk. On these sites it is relatively easy to increase your network numbers and this can give the fantastic impression that your influence, and your business, is expanding. It’s also tempting, and I know people who do this, to boast and brag about the number of people in your network. And this is where the mistake lies.

Yes the point of networking is about numbers but not just any numbers. It’s not actually about the  number of people that you have the name of but rather the numbers of people you know. And even that doesn’t take it far enough because effective networking is about how many people you know who you can influence.

When I say influence I mean people who you can call upon to do something for you whether that is give you advice, meet you, purchase from you etc. Now for you to be able to influence someone you have to have some relationship with the person.

I am sure all of you reading this can realise that sending someone an invitation to connect with you via Linkedin doesn’t form a very deep relationship. It actually has to be followed up with real communication.

So don’t be misled by the numbers of names that you have; focus rather on increasing your sphere of influence by communicating with people and helping others.

Good luck increasing your sphere of influence!

Until next time;

Stephen

Stephen Hart

Photograph by Michael Lazich and used by kind permission. His other work can be seen at http://exciter69.deviantart.com/