Open Doors by Building Relationships

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get others interested in you." - Dale Carnegie -

"The same could be said for increasing your professional network." - Heidi Richards

Building your Network is an ongoing process. Increasing your "Circle of Influence" must be constant in order to achieve and maintain success. The relationships we develop become our eyes and ears to what's happening in business, to share new opportunities with us and to increase our visibility. We reach these opportunities both directly and indirectly through those relationships. The indirect approach is often the best way to gain access to others by way of introduction or spreading good news about who we are. It is essential to develop a networking plan both for business and personal contacts. In business, the right networking can be ten times more effecting than advertising. And it costs less!

Your Networking Plan of Action should define your objective

1. Is it to increase business by a certain percent, get more referrals, or help others?

2. What can you offer those you network with in exchange for information and contacts?

3. Which organizations should you consider for the best "bang for your buck," and most importantly, your investment of TIME?

4. What benefits do/can you offer to entice people to do business with you? This is your "30 second commercial."

Build Your Network

1. Ask your current "circle of influence" for opportunities to which they can "turn you on."

2. Determine and develop "key people" who will become your greatest networking champions.

3. Find out who in your network's network seems to know "everyone," and get to know them.

4. Reach out and "touch someone," regularly. When you do, have your lines ready and rehearsed. If you must leave a message, make it short, to the point and leave your contact information.

5. Go where the people are.

6. Be a good talker and a better listener.

7. Get to know your network. Find out their birthdays, anniversaries, kids' names, hobbies.

8. When given referrals, find out who the decision maker is, get to know the gate-keepers.

9. Use your network to gain introductions.

10. Give referrals to those with whom you network. Become a source of reference to build "word-of-mouth" marketing.

11. Be cheerful, confident and straightforward in every interaction.

Be Visible Without Really Trying

1. Ask questions.

2. Participate in discussions.

3. Write letters to your industry magazines and newsletters.

4. Introduce yourself to people during meetings, conferences and social events.

5. Discuss a book with the leaders in your new network.

6. Make people laugh.

7. Create an unusual business card ? Have plenty to hand out.

8. Take up an unusual hobby (but not too weird).

9. Use your wardrobe to help you stand out without being outlandish.

10. Do favors for others and remember to thank those who do favors for you in a timely fashion.

Heidi Richards is the author of The PMS Principles, Powerful Marketing Strategies to Grow Your Business and 7 other books. She is the owner of Eden Florist & Gift Baskets ? http://www.edenflorist.com and the Founder & CEO of the Women's ECommerce Association, International http://www.WECAI.org (pronounced wee-kī) ? an Internet organization that "Helps Women Do Business on the WEB." Basic Membership is FREE. Ms. Richards can be reached at http://www.HeidiRichards.com or heidi@wecai.org

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Researching the client, listening carefully to identify what the client wants, tying up (legal) issues that are of concern to the client, employing project management tools, and communicating in a clear and concise manner all serve to focus that image and polish your translation style.Do Not Make Clients Look For YouGetting referrals, putting out resumes, working the phones, and pressing the flesh are marketing approaches that I am sure you are employing to stay on the client's radar. What more can you do?If you maintain visibility by employing any of these approaches, then like the rest of us, occasionally you drop of the client's radar. How does this happen? Well, physical addresses change, as do phone numbers, when you move. Maybe your e-mail address changed with your new ISP that you got a great deal on. Or, simply, you changed your e-mail provider because you were unhappy with the service. Do you even remember all the places where you have posted your contact details? The point is this: your hard work at staying visible is all for naught because the client will not be able to contact you about a proposal during this transitional phase, if at all. An internet web site offers a permanent solution. Most professionals shy away from a web presence for a number of reasons. They assume that the cost is too prohibitive, that they do not have the technical skill requirements, or that the commitment is too great. This could not be further from the truth. Unfortunately, these misconceptions may be preventing you from harnessing the full potential of the web to grow your freelance business. A web presence is within anybody's reach!What are the possibilities? Your internet address, or domain name, will never change, which means that you will have a permanent sign pointing to your office door. You will always have the latest version of your material in front of the client that can be accessed from anywhere at any time. In effect, you will be open for business 24/7. A web presence will not only stabilize your income, it will provide the opportunity for growth-planning for the future.Stay accessible to clients, stay in the line up.Who Do You Do Business WithLet's revisit that major purchase decision that we happily made a while back. Sure, the product (service) came with a good reputation, the operation was professional, and we did not have to look too hard for it. In other words, even before we made the purchasing decision, we were already quite comfortable with the idea of making a purchasing decision. In effect, we were already "pre-sold." However, pre-sold is not quite the same as "sold." That fleeting interval between pre-sold and actually making the purchasing decision-laying out the green-is where it all happens. Sales people refer to this as "closing the sale." And sales people know that in order to close the sale, the client must not only feel comfortable with the deal, but must also like the person making the sale. Surprised? Do not be, you do it all the time, and so do your clients!All things being equal, we buy from those we like. That bears repeating: 10 candidates offering the exact same qualifications and benefits, and clients will always go with the professional they feel most comfortable with and like.I am afraid that there is not much that can be done about character-we are who we are. But, there definitely are some things that you can do to improve your "likeability" ranking.A good, positive attitude attracts clients. Clients do not want to work with professionals; they want to work with professionals that project a positive attitude. Just as we avoid colleagues that are unpleasant to be around, so do clients avoid contracting professionals that do not project the right attitude. Show appreciation for having the opportunity to work with a client. Send a card, nothing fancy or expensive, with a personal and original thank you message. You should try it-it works wonders.Have a genuine interest in your client's best interest. Share you insider knowledge of the industry with your client. When you can not take on a job (maybe you have enough work, or are not qualified for that particular subject matter), reach out to your network and forward the job to a colleague. You can also point clients to web sites that can handle their translation project. Clients appreciate these small acts of kindness, and they certainly do not forget about them!After completing under graduate school in Japan, I returned to Zambia briefly to help in the family business. We made it a policy to recommend customers to establishments-even if they were competitors-that most likely carried the product that we could not provide. Did customers ever appreciate it! They ended up coming around more regularly and making more purchases. Not only that, but even our competitors started referring their customers to us during stock outs. Of course, we made sure not to run out of stock too often-clients also have businesses to run?The customary caution is not to introduce the client to a nightmare. A good rule of thumb to follow is to never introduce the client to a product (service) that you yourself would not layout money for. When clients like you, you are the line up. ConclusionUltimately, the success of your translation style can only be measured by the number of your clients, and the number of projects that those client entrust you with. That is very much a function of how successful you are in making your clients feel comfortable with your deal-as defined by reputation, professionalism and visibility-and by climbing in the "likeability" rankings.

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