Business Networking and Sex - Ivan Misner [35]
Credibility
Establishing credibility requires an initiation period that proves your professional credo is reliable and worthy of confidence. Once you and your new acquaintance begin to form expectations of each other that are fulfilled a few times, your relationship can enter the credibility stage. If both parties are gaining satisfaction from the relationship in a continual flow, then it appears that satisfaction will continue, and the relationship begins to strengthen with its new determined value.
Credibility grows when appointments and promises are kept, facts are verified, and services are rendered in full or beyond. The phrase “going the distance” comes to mind as an illustration of proving all of the elements required within the definition of a top-quality service provider. The old saying that actions speak louder than words is true. What you do is more important than what you say you will do, and you can’t go wrong if you set the bar at 110 percent instead of just meeting your quota. Failure to live up to expectations or keep explicit and implicit promises can kill a budding relationship before it has a chance to bloom; this kind of negative visibility has the potential to follow you around for a long time.
To determine your credibility, people often turn to a third party who’s either known you longer or done business with you. They may ask whether or not that person would recommend you, if you’re honest, if your product is of quality, and if you come through on deadlines.
A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. When evaluating and taking inventory of your VCP relationships, remember that they are two-sided and only as strong as both of you agree. The combination of your perception with theirs doesn’t average out any difference in feelings. For example, if you’ve moved your relationship with Bill into the credibility stage, but Bill feels you are still in the visibility stage, then that’s where you’ll stay until both parties feel the love. You’d need to classify this relationship at visibility-level status until things improve in the eyes of both parties and take you to the next level.
Profitability
The mature relationship, whether business or personal, can be defined in terms of its profitability. Is it mutually rewarding? Do both partners gain satisfaction from it? Does it maintain its status and value by providing benefits to both? If it doesn’t profit both partners, it probably will disintegrate.
The time it takes a relationship to pass through these development phases is highly variable. In some relationships profitability will be achieved in a week, others in a month or even a year, and it’s not always easy to predict. In a time of urgency, there may be the opportunity for both parties to quickly rise to the occasion and complete daunting deadlines. After such a dramatic, challenging project, you both may proceed from visibility to credibility overnight, having shown one another quickly what may normally take years to reveal. The same is true of profitability; it may happen quickly, or take years, depending on the circumstances and opportunities available to show your colors. Most relationships fall somewhere in between, toting the gradual, bit-by-bit, accumulative process of working together on many smaller jobs until confidence is earned and realized. The either rapid or slow forward development is most affected by the motivation and desire of both parties to please one another, as well as the frequency and quality of the referrals they contribute.
Shortsightedness can impede full development of the relationship. Perhaps you’re a customer who has done business with a certain vendor intermittently for several months, but to save pennies you keep hunting around for the lowest price, ignoring the vendor’s true value of top-notch service, generous goodwill, and unwavering reliability and availability. In continuing to focus on lowering your cost, are you really profiting from the relationship, or stunting its growth? Perhaps if you