7: Map Your Relationships
In private life, most individuals manage relationships haphazardly. We bump into people, and things just seem to happen on their own, for better or for worse. In a professional context, relationships must be managed more actively: we must determine whom we wish to pursue, build the relationship strategically, and be conscious of where we stand and how we are progressing.
Professional networks are also important to success: your plans, ideas, and products will be more widely known and supported if you can communicate information through a network of people with whom you have established connections. And in that way, it's all the more important to be attentive to relationships.
Map Relationships With Four Groups
The author defines four groups within which it is critical to network.
First, there are people within your own organization who are important to your success. You will need to count on the assistance and support of a wide array of people, who may occupy low places in the totem pole, to do hands-on tasks or provide their support for your ideas.
Second, there are people outside the organization who are important to getting your job done. They may be customers, vendors, or regulators with whom you must directly interact to accomplish specific goals.
Next, there are people who are important to your career. Generally, these are individuals within your organization who outrank you: your boss, the human resources director, executives in other departments, who have the ability to provide guidance, identify opportunities, and help you overcome obstacles.
Finally, there are the people who can impede you. Typically, these are individuals whom you may have alienated, and who will attempt to block you out of spite, or people who may support your rivals within an organization. Whatever the case, you need to establish or repair a relationship with them - not because they can be helpful, but to discourage them from being obstructive.
People Inside the Organization
Within any company, an individual must count upon the support of others to get things done. These people have roles, responsibilities, and duties that they are expected to do - and most people take them for granted and pay little attention to them. In return, these individuals tend to do exactly as they are required, nothing more. But show them a little attention and appreciation, and they will go above and beyond.
The author relates a story of a salesman, who realized that he needed help from others within his own organization to "watch his back" and help him service his accounts. Having a good relationship with people in various roles within the organization (customer service, billing, technical support, shipping, etc.) enabled him to call on favors to provide a higher level of service to the customers.
Within any organization, you can categories people as being those you work for, those you work with, and those who work for you (whether as a direct report or in a role that supports your own). The latter two groups are fairly easy to identify, as you often encounter them in your daily routine. Your task is to network within the organization to meet these people, learn their names, call on them for help, and show gratitude for their support.
In some instances, relationships may be built from afar. This is particularly true when working in a field office. The people at headquarters and the people in a service bureau are in different locations, perhaps even in different countries. The author suggests that you need to make an effort to make direct, simultaneous contact. An in-person encounter is best, followed by teleconferencing, followed by telephone. Paper or electronic communication is virtually worthless in establishing a connection with another human being.
People Outside the Organization
From a sales perspective, a great deal of attention is focused on the customer - and ti shouldn't need to be explained why they are important. However, there are numerous others who may not be immediately apparent.
Especially in businesses, people on the other side work together. The person in the role of buyer may not be a decision-maker, and may have little to no influence over the choice of goods to make. In his pharmaceutical sales, he often had to figure out which people in the bureaucracy - doctors, pharmacists, administrators, etc. - would have authority or influence over a decision.
There's an extended anecdote about an account manager who was involved in a major, complex deal that took 18 months to close, and which took a significant effort to determine which individuals had "signing authority' on a deal as well as the individuals who have significant influence (but lacked signing authority), and came up with a list of 30 to 40 people who would be influential in making the buying decision.
There are also instances in which your service to your own customer depends on another company that provides service to you. A company that prints business cards and brochures, a shipping company that moves product from your facility to the customer, etc. These people are often as critical as those within your own company.
And finally, there are firms with whom you can team up to provide a higher level of service. This is common in the software industry, where one firm provides the equipment, another firm provides a database solution, another firm provides content development, and another firm builds an e-commerce site. Developing a positive relationship with these other firms helps facilitate serving the customer.
People Important to Your Career
The author acknowledges that some people do not pursue a career - they're happy with where they are. But given the instability in the job market these days, making connections should not be neglected: even if you're not looking to climb the career ladder, you could fall off it at any time, and these same people can be instrumental in helping you find another job.
The connections you make through work, especially with those outside the workplace, provide resources you can call upon when you need to make a change. The author tells an anecdote of a salesman who was laid off, and decided it was a good time to move to a different area of the country, and through connections was able to get help from a recruiter in the local market who was "the friend of a friend."
(EN: The author doesn't wrap back around to pick up those who are interested in advancing in their careers, which seems an important omission.)
People Who May Obstruct You
It's inevitable that, no matter how cautiously you proceed, you will offend or upset someone. In the worst instances, you will have made an enemy who will actively try to obstruct you. But even in the best (or least bad) of instances, they will have a negative impression of you that will affect your reputation. Especially in sales, a disgruntled customer can do serious damage without much effort. As such, a key to success is being able to recognize offense and seek to repair the relationship so you can continue to do business with someone and decrease the ripple effect with others.
Giving offense may be a direct result of our own conduct, or it may arise from other sources: your relationship may be damaged if there is some shortcoming in other factors (such as delivery or service), you have been too aggressive, or your competitors may have sought to attack your reputation with someone.
A few anecdotes. One is a salesman who simply failed to recognize the importance of an administrator to the purchasing process and failed to give him enough attention. (HE got back in the man's good graces by working through connections to get back in touch) The second is a salesman whose company was niggling over service, sticking to "the letter of the contract" rather than considering the needs the customer expressed in the negotiation process. (He got the buy-in of his superiors to go above and beyond if necessary to salvage the relationship and, to the client, he acknowledged the difference of opinion on what was agreed upon and stressed his interest in ensuring their needs were met.)
Build Relationships Strategically
A somewhat random wrap-up:
By way of an example, the author discloses he has a list of 52 people he seeks to build or maintain relationships with: people in his company, others in his industry, others who are related to his private life. It's a fairly long list, and it requires a systematic approach to gathering the information.
It also requires being observant - when you meet a new person, you must ask yourself whether they should be added to your list.
He also notes that relationships require "touches" - positive contact, but suggests "nobody can tell you how to relate to a contact or with what frequency"