As stated at the beginning of Part I of this two-part article, the lifeblood of any sales and marketing professional centers referrals, especially by a well-respected person. It’s no surprise the key to gaining referrals rests almost exclusively on being able to create Trusted Relationships with key centers of influence, as well as with their current clients and customers. NetWeaving has proven to be a most effective accelerator for achieving trust.
However, as previously stated, after making literally hundreds of presentations around our country, in Canada, in Europe, Scandinavia and even China (also through numerous connections in South America), plus with NetWeaving having been featured in literally hundreds of publications, newsletters and podcasts, I was still disappointed about one key area: Although many sales professionals recognized the potential for hosting NetWeaving meetings, few had implemented this most powerful form.
A NetWeaving meeting involves facilitating an introduction between two or more individuals. Surprisingly, the higher the level of the two individuals you attempt to connect, the easier it actually becomes. Powerful and influential people want to meet other powerful and influential people. Those who can take the initiative to make that happen will also reap the benefits.
Hosting NetWeaving meetings can be divided into two types: strategic and non-strategic.
Most meetings you set up are strategic in that you already know why the two individuals would benefit meeting and getting to know each other. That was the case in a meeting I set up several years ago between the CEO of a Fortune 20 company with an executive in a $1 billion company. Both came from other countries as children. Neither spoke English initially. Yet over time, they had risen to become some of the highest-level individuals within their different industries.
Nevertheless, I have to admit that some of the most interesting and fun meetings I have ever set up and hosted involved introducing two individuals to each other with almost no idea of what the two had in common or how they might be able to be of service or help each other.
But in these cases, both would have impressed me, as well as having exhibited a “giver” spirit, especially those who always seemed interested in meeting new people, and who were always looking to meet other creative individuals and make new connections.
As I asked people who had embraced NetWeaving, but who had never hosted either type of a NetWeaving meeting or had maybe done one or two, the reason in almost every case involved the time and effort it took to set up the meeting, especially with two high-level individuals whose schedules were constantly packed.
In fact, in the connection I mentioned above, I tried setting that up that introduction on four unsuccessful occasions. We could never get schedules coordinated. Nevertheless, the introduction did take place, and as a result, the door that I opened for the two of them can now be opened by me any time I care to knock.
I wrote this article as a result of a realization that now exists with Zoom, WebEx and other online tools that allow voice and visual connections to be made online. With these tools, the biggest barrier to hosting NetWeaving meetings – the time and effort of setting up a meeting – has been eliminated.
As an example, I’m helping Robert Rivenbark, a friend and the author of an award-winning science fiction novel, “The Cloud” (www.thecloudnovel.com). A Hollywood producer, Ken Atchity, is working with my friend to turn it into a streaming TV series. Ken is also a producer of “The Meg,” and “Meg 2: The Trench,” which together have grossed over $1 billion.
Due to work I’ve done in the past helping internationals who came to Atlanta, the Georgia Council for International Visitors contacted me. The organization was looking for persons willing to host a group of Saudi filmmakers and producers for a dinner at their home. I not only hosted the meeting for four of them and the author, Robert Rivenbark, I also hooked up an hourlong Zoom meeting with Ken Atchity in Hollywood. It was a homerun, and the ripple effects from those connections are continuing to expand.
Setting up a virtual NetWeaving hosting meeting is easy. In the case of a strategic meeting, so long as both parties agree on the value of meeting each other, it’s merely a case of finding a time in everyone’s schedule. It’s simpler because now the time to travel to and from the meeting has been eliminated.
There are a number of ways to host a virtual NetWeaving meeting, but here is the way I have found to be most effective: Thank everyone for having agreed to get together. If it’s only two or three people, I like to start with a question to each of them about their background, but in a more personal sense, such as, “To get where you are today, was there a mentor or someone else who helped you early in your career? What did he or she do that was of so much value?”
If the meeting is a non-strategic one, I have found it effective to start the meeting like this: “I’m glad you allowed me to put this meeting together. As I already told both of you, I don’t really have a specific idea of what the two of you have in common, or how either or both of you might be able to help the other. Nevertheless, from what I know (or heard) about you, and how you have risen to success, I felt the two of you would genuinely enjoy meeting and getting to know each other. Hopefully you might find ways to be of assistance or know someone else who could be of help. Does that make sense?”
At this point, it usually doesn’t take much else on your part as the facilitator, as they will typically carry the conversation forward.
I can almost promise that any NetWeaver who has the courage to put together a virtual NetWeaving meeting will experience an outcome that will rank among some of your best of all time.
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