A few creative ways to build relationships within your influenSPHERE:
1. Recommend a good book to them. If you can, send them a copy.
2. Set up a simultaneous coffee date with 2 business people in your sphere of influence to connect them. Introduce them and chat for a few minutes, then leave them to get to know each other.
3. Write an unsolicited recommendation of them on an Internet Social Media Website like LinkedIn or in your blog, and then tag them on FaceBook or Tweet @them for complimentary publicity among their friends and yours.
4. Send “Happy Mail!” That’s mail sent through the Postal Service, postage stamp and all, that doesn’t include business materials. You are developing a “personal” relationship. Ideas: Thinking of You, Thank You Note, Let’s Get Coffee, etc.
5. Send an article of interest to them from a newspaper or magazine. (More Happy Mail!)
6. Remember their birthday! Call them if you can and send a Birthday Card. (See a Happy Mail trend here!)
People do business with people they know and trust, and the best way to be known and trusted is to take the business relationship to a more personal level.
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About the Author: Michele Jennae, owner of influenSPHERE, a Networking & Business Relationship Consulting company, helps new and established business professionals discover and fully utilize their inherent networking strengths to have greater positive impact in their sphere of influence through a mix of old-school networking techniques with a healthy dose of online networking.
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Tags: Happy Mail, influenSPHERE, networking