Thursday 21 March 2013

Transition Man and Friends Success Series Interview of James Malinchak "The Art of Networking" Part 7 of 8

By Stanton Harper


Johnny: How would we stay in touch. Give us some thoughts on what you would say is most likely the best low cost way to just keep in touch with someone.

James: Oh gosh. These days it's so easy with email. You literally could put everyone in an email address book and you can do once a week or once a month or once every two weeks. The XYZ newsletter. If you're a realtor you could have the real estate update and you can type a little paragraph on what interest rates are doing right now. You could send that every week or every month. If you're a plumber you can send one tip every month or every week through email on things you should be aware of or new plumbing problems or how to spot a plumbing problem or stuff like that or how to stop a plumbing problem that's small before it becomes something big. It could be plumbing tip of the month. The great thing about this is you could have 70,000 people, you can have 700 people or 70 people who are all in this e-address book, type up your little tip which takes you ten minutes, hit a button and it goes to all seventy, or seven hundred or seventy thousand instantly.

Johnny: Right

James: It doesn't cost you anything but maybe 10, 15 or 20 minutes of your time. That's one of the easiest ways. Now I'm very big on when you meet somebody you get there card immediately sending them a thank you note and they get it within 48 hours of meeting you because research shows we forget within 48 hours who we spoke with and what we talked about.

You go to some of these sessions Johnny and there might be fifty people you met that night. You can't possibly remember everything about all fifty people. If somebody sends you a little thank you note and references some of the things you talked about instantly you are remembering who that person was. Here is what I always say. People say thank you note, what am I thanking somebody for? You're thanking them for there time. Because we all value our time. Just simply say, "Dear Johnny, Just wanted to say thank you for your time the other night. I really enjoyed meeting you at the XYZ event." It was great to talk to you about point one and then point two.

Johnny: Right

James: Now here is a great line I always use too. If there is anything I could ever do for you please don't hesitant to contact me. Best wishes and your name. Boom. Send it off immediately. I am very big on thank you notes. I meet people because I do a lot of talks now and I meet people traveling through an airport and talk to them for a minute or so. I always have my thank you notes with me and on the plane I am writing a thank you note. When I land at the next airport I drop it in the mailbox so that it is done with on my end and they get it within two days.

Johnny: That keeps that lasting power.

James: Definitely. There's a couple of quick ways for you to keep in touch.

Johnny: Yes, definitely here. We would like to stay in touch with people and like I said before I like the idea about you assess your skills and talents as a networker so that you enter into this networking with a game plan. You've also discussed how you follow-up with these people also. Finally here, if you could sum up in a nutshell the level of importance of networking in the 21st century where do you see this thing. I'm making you into a futurist. Where are you seeing networking going into the future here as far as how much more do you think, it already appears to be a large part of our lives, but if you can give us a percentage of how much you think it is going to play into somebody who maybe is looking for a job in the future or maybe they're trying to explore entrepreneurship. How much more crucial will this thing turn into?

James: It needs to be one of the main focuses of every single individual in this world. I don't care what your function is. Whether you're a stay at home mom, work from home dad, President, manager, sales person, businessman, school teacher, nurse, physician, or plumber I don't care what you do. It's all about relationships. I always ask at the start of my networking seminars how many of you have gotten one single thing in your life just because of somebody you knew. 100 % always put up their hands. I said here's my beef with the educational system in America. Why is it this meaning networking how to create and maintain contacts, why isn't this mandatory that it be taught in every single elementary school, junior high, middle school, high school and college in the world? I usually say if I ran a school students wouldn't like me because I wouldn't let you graduate unless you passed the course on how to network.

My purpose is that it is going to become more and more important for you and for those of you listening who understand how important it is. Here is all you have to do. You go back and sit down with a piece of paper and you list the things that you've been able to acquire in your life accomplished with jobs being one of them. You tell me that nobody helped you do that. I'll tell you that's a bunch of B.S.

Part 8 of 8 can be found online...




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