Liz Strauss.com

PERFECT VIRTUAL MANAGER

It’s simple. In any relationship, I want to trust you, before I need you.

To need you and to have to trust you without history is outright dangerous. I can gather information, but the best information is my own experience.

If I have a need and have to find someone to solve my problem, the trust I give can come bundled in defenses and boxed in watchfulness. That makes forming a relationship doubly difficult because you’re meeting me in extenuating circumstances, and I’m looking at you under the lens of a microscope.

Michael Port, in his book called Book Yourself Solid: The Fastest, Easiest, and Most Reliable System for Getting More Clients Than You Can Handle Even if You Hate Marketing and Selling explains many ways to avoid this that are all founded in having a relationship first. He offers this advice on how to let people know about the services you offer.

In order to familiarize your prospective clients with your service, you need to offer them solutions, opportunities, and relevant information in exchange for their contact information and permission to continue contacting them over time. What does that communication look like? You may provide a special report or white paper that addresses their urgent needs and compelling desires. You might give a discount coupon for your initial session. It could be your always-have-something-to-invite-people-to offer, like my Think Big Revolution. No matter what you select it should be something that speaks not only to their needs but also to how you want to be known.

Michael Port says a lot in that one paragraph.

It’s an outline for a relationship. Meet a prospective client. Give before you get. Ask permission to meet again.

That invite-people-to-offer could be a weekly lunch, a teleconference, or a free webinar. It could be a free phone consultation or a “Baskin Robbins’ taste” of a service you offer. Naturally it’s free without expectations. So you’re not selling, you’re extending a free invitation.

Who doesn’t like to be invited, if there really is no expectation?

If you keep your promise when I accept your invitation, you have started to build a relationship of trust, while you introduced me to your services.

Liz Strauss

Behind every Successful business is an Outstanding Manager. — PVM

See also Work with Liz! at Successful Blog

PERFECT VIRTUAL MANAGER

Why do I tell everyone I meet that I am a relationship blogger? Why do I ask those who ask a favor, if they mind if I get to know them first?

I want them to get to know me. I want us to get to know each other. Business — life — is about relationships.

“The lesson is: like it or not, life is a popularity contest and what makes people popular is being likeable” says Tim Sanders in his book The Likeability Factor: How to Boost Your L-Factor and Achieve Your Life’s Dreams

Karen Ruby explains how to start out in a likeable fashion in her post from last June by outlining and explaining these five points.

• Be aware
• Express friendliness
• Be relevant
• Be empathetic
• Be real

Someone wrote to me once wondering why I had not asked for his wisdom on networking. Then he explained that, through some fluke, I was not in his thousands of contacts. In that message left only his dot com address. I had to go to his blog to find a way to answer him back.

Relationships — not contacts — are the currency of networking and business. His relationship with me was dependent upon my response to what he had said. The opposite was also true. Relationships grow or diminish in value.

Do I risk on intelligence and redemption, or do I invest on a safer bet?

Liz Strauss

Behind every Successful business is an Outstanding Manager. — PVM

See also Work with Liz! at Successful Blog

PERFECT VIRTUAL MANAGER

We cannot talk or write without revealing something about ourselves.

Every relationship starts with a conversation. Every interaction with people involves a relationship, no matter how small or short-lived.

Inside the conversation that takes place during any relationship, the people involved reveal their needs, desires, objectives, and values. If we listen, to what a person is saying and how they are saying it — we will hear

• the unconscious word choices — target audience, kill fee,
• the power of each word,
• the voice and intonation,
• the sense of action or reaction,
• the order in which the points are delivered,
• the points which are elaborated,
• the overall organization of thoughts,
• the hesitation or lack of it,
• the imagery and figurative language chosen,

and so many other nuances that we might sensitize ourselves to be aware of.

Listening actively we will hear a pattern that will reveal a picture of the person talking and what that person has on his or her mind. It’s not hard then to clarify by asking, “What I hear you saying is that . . . Am I right about that?”

If we can get to that one point of discussing whether we are hearing what the other guy is saying, we have formed a partnership. We are automatically on the same team working toward the same goal — clear communication between us.

If we enter every meeting with this sort of beginner’s mind, we all but guarantee that our relationships will be based on high trust and communication. Isn’t it amazing what can be achieved by a little conversation?

Liz Strauss

Behind every Successful business is an Outstanding Manager. — PVM

See also Work with Liz! at Successful Blog

PERFECT VIRTUAL MANAGER

So you’ve settled with the client on the fact that you’ll be doing the work. You’re about to meet to go over what the project is about. Communication now is critical — to the project and your relatioship. Listen actively to what the client is and is not saying. Use questions to draw a line that defines the project in details that you agree upon.

Using unexpected questions will often lead clients to consider parts of the project that they haven’t talked about. Use questions such as these.to get a deeper understanding of your new client and what your new client expects.

• How do you define failure and success?
• What do your vendors do that drives you bonkers?
• What are the most difficult parts of this job?
• What worries you most that I might get wrong?
• What kind of miscommunications might happen?
• What sort of sample might I do to make sure we’re shooting at the same target?

Liz Strauss

Be sure to take notes where your client can see you doing so, and before you go, read them back to review. That will get you and your client even closer to the same ideal. Agree upon a short sample so that you can look at something together before you’ve invested too much time. The sample will flush still other fine points that you still haven’t agree upon.

Once you’ve reviewed the sample you and your client have a solid plan. Both of you can move forward with confidence that the work will be what is expected. A great relationship has started. Congratulations!

Liz Strauss

Behind every Successful business is an Outstanding Manager. — PVM

See also Work with Liz! at Successful Blog