“Hi David – It’s good to hear from you and of the completion of your latest book.  After checking with my bosses I’m going to have to decline your request.  They don’t want me, or anyone else in the firm, endorsing others products including books. Best wishes on the release.”

That’s an email that you don’t expect to receive.  As many of you know, I’ve been working on the release of my 4th commercial book, Return on Impact – Leadership Strategies for the Age of Connected Relationships (ASAE, 2012).  As it’s customary, I’ve reached out to a dozen or so current and past clients with key insights about the book and have asked them for endorsements / testimonials of our work together.  Here are just two kind ones:

“In Relationship Economics, David Nour articulated the strategic value of business relationships.  In Return on Impact, he forces the reader to question what value they are really adding and how to measure the impact of social as a business enabler on those strategic relationships.”  – Randy Seidl, SVP & GM Americas – Hewlett-Packard Enterprise Servers, Storage, & Networking

“David Nour spoke to our leadership and board and without question, they chose to think and lead differently than our industry counterparts shortly after his session.  If you’re trying to help your organization get beyond reactive social media, Return On Impact is your roadmap to a more strategic approach to social.” – Barbara Springer, General Counsel & Vice President Administration – Delta Dental of Colorado

But the one at the top of this post, really disappointed me because I pride myself in my work and the impact I try to create for my clients.  So I start thinking about how or why had my “equity” declined from being “one of the best speakers we’ve ever had,” and “well done” by a senior executives after a consulting engagement to the comment above?

Here are some predictions that I hope you can apply in your relationships moving forward:

1. Relationship Currency® is like cash – it has immediate value; people will remember your impact from last week; they may or may not remember your efforts from 2 years ago!  In hindsight, my boat to ask for a testimonial or an endorsement from this client, sailed long ago!
2. Reputation Capital® is relative – even a great house on a bad street will have a hard time selling; one strong impact can easily be negated by other misperceptions, competing priorities, or much more visible impact from other individuals or initiatives.  Think of how close you were to your next door neighbors, until they moved!  Because the context of the relationship changed, the fact that they lent you every tool you ever needed, turned off the alarm at your house when you were traveling, or babysat your kids is no longer relevant or a priority.
3. Some lessons are expensive and detrimental to the relationship – with this particular client, I made a comment to one of their partners, which in hindsight, I regret and it created a mountain from a mole hill.  I don’t think I ever recovered from that as evident by the comment above.  We all say and do things that we regret later.  That’s what makes us human.  You have to learn from those lessons and grow through them in your professional relationship development maturity.

Finally, your Professional Net Worth® is developed over the years and through countless relationship currency exchanges and the accumulation of your reputation capital.  If you build an over abundance of relationship assets, they will negate the relationship liabilities we tend to create, regardless of how unintentional they may be.  So although it’s human to want to be liked, I’m learning that it may be more valuable in the long run to be respected.  And nothing creates and protects respect more than performance, execution and results.

As we approach the Thanksgiving Holidays, my goal and prayer for 2012 is that the good Lord keeps me humble, focused, willing and able to make promises I can keep, remain a student of business relationships, and continue to add value to those I’m lucky enough to meet.  The rest, I’m not sure I can control.

How is your reputation capital and how do you know?

Exclusively for RENetworks Members…

Reputation Capital is a measure of how effective you are in promoting and delivering value. As the delivery of that value is recognized, you start to accumulate Reputation Capital. The two fundamental pillars of Reputation Capital are competency and trust. This week’s tip is about some insight into the first pillar, competency.

Strategic business development involves a multitude of constituents and partners, and your success heavily depends on competency. Any alliance partner…

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An Executive Briefing by Ian Savage, Exclusively for RENetworks (http://renetworks.intronetworks.com/) Members

Organizations are increasingly deploying “Account Managers” at the customer/vendor boundary. Research studies have shown that, even with a huge increase in the number of account managers, a majority of companies are still reporting ineffectiveness in building relationships with their strategic customers.

The rise in focus in the account management discipline is being fueled, in part, by the growth of shared service functions within organizations. Information Technology departments are an excellent example. These functions are deploying account managers to increase levels of customer intimacy, to gain mindshare with their internal business clients and to stave off external competition. But are these professionals being adequately equipped to manage their business client “accounts”?

Traditional sales organizations are also discovering that the path to sustainable growth in their existing accounts cannot be realized easily, in spite of the almost maniacal transactional focus many have exhibited since the turn of the millennium. But are these professionals really behaving differently to any other sales professional the organization may have?

Regardless of which boundary is the focus, a good account manager must manage both internal and external stakeholders with the same level of professionalism. The time to look beyond the latest deal or project has arrived and Account Management initiatives are growing as a consequence.

Ian Savage is a Sales Effectiveness Consultant and Principal of The Nour Group, an Atlanta-based strategic advisory firm focused on developing the “art” and “science” of building long-term, value-based relationships.

For the complete Executive Briefing, sign up on RENetworks (http://renetworks.intronetworks.com/) – our private, intelligent, enterprise social networking platform and join the Profitable Growth Group.  Our next Webinar in the series is on Friday, June 11, 2010 on Strategic Account Planning (http://www.relationshipeconomics.net/profitablegrowth.html)

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As a follow up to my last blog post on be good at what you do and be visible,

…and back up your visibility with consistent performance! Remember, performance trumps all. Expert first – speaker second!

I attended an incredibly sad funeral this morning – of a vibrant life cut way too short.  As I arrived early and watched what seemed to be a very diverse group of attendees – young, old, senior executives to personal friends, I couldn’t help but to wonder about the vast array of lives this person had touched.  Throughout the moving service, I wondered less about what this person accomplished and much more about how others described him – the rich, loving life he lived.  I found myself pondering what seems to be a cliché, yet worth asking:

If this were my funeral, who would show up and what would they say?

I’m convinced more than ever that few will care about the size of my house or bank account; they will be there because of the portfolio of real relationships I invested in – personally and professionally.  You see the person who passed away, wasn’t a whole lot older than I am – another reminder that you can’t take any given day for granted!

Who would you most like to see at your funeral and what would you want them to say?  What will you do to make 2010 count?  What are you doing to invest in those relationships today?  That’s something LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter can’t do for you!

I read with particular interest the following excerpt:

About 15 percent of teens ages 12-17 say they’ve received sexually suggestive photos or videos of someone they know, according to a study by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project.  Four percent admit they’ve sent photos of themselves to others.

Amanda Lenhart, senior research specialist and author of the report, said “sexting,” as it’s called, has become a form of “relationship currency.”

“These images are shared as a part of or instead of sexual activity,” she said, “or as a way of starting or maintaining a relationship with a significant other.”

Here is where the respected Pew Research and Ms. Lenhart are dead wrong! “Relationship Currency” – as a registered trademarked by our firm, is defined as a win-win investment in a valuable and prioritized relationship, one that has an immediate and quantifiable impact to enhance both party’s condition.  Ms. Lenhart’s comment is a gross misuse of the term, particularly given the troubling topic of teen sexting.  We believe Relationship Currency Deposits to be of great value in our society, highly instrumental to one’s personal and professional success in 2010 and beyond heightened by the current environment of low trust.  It is unfortunate that Ms. Lenhart has decided to use an otherwise positive and wholesome phrase, instrumental to the success of many hard-working professionals, and unjustly associate it with inappropriate and juvenile acts.

Another reminder that even the most astute of analysts can get careless and lazy with their word choice!

What does “relationship currency” mean to you?

As a mentor of mine often says, “If you’re not tooting your own horn there is no music!” Those whose livelihoods depend on externally focused relationships such as business development professionals, all understand the power of reference selling.  In any economy there is an enormous level of comfort in a buyer’s journey when they get unsolicited recommendations from other satisfied buyers – it’s simply called “credibility by association.”

When I work with professional service providers, I often ask about their current or perspective client reference selling efforts. Recently, a consultant at a client complained that although she had extensive industry experience and subject matter expertise, she was seldom tapped into for possible client engagements. So naturally, I asked her “what are you doing to package, market, sale, and proactively reference her value add, within the firm?”  When she gave me a blank stare, I offered what I consider five best practices to reference selling and a way to effectively “toot your own horn.”

The Five Best Practices of How to Most Effectively Reference Sell Within Your Organization:

1. Document your STAR success:  What was the Scenario you found yourself in that was challenging, what Tactics did you apply, what Actions did you take, and what Results did you create? Keep it poignant and capture this information from the “buyer’s” perspective.
2. Make it visually appealing: Although the content is critical, turn raw text into an elegantly designed and visually appealing one-sheet presentation that connects your actions with your audience.
3. Target your distribution: Email the electronic version and physically mail professionally printed hard-copies to your most valuable relationships within the firm as well as external to the organization.
4. Mass appeal: After you discretely target, send your document out to a broader base for more widespread visibility. Be sure to use discretion with this dissemination, take caution with ensuring you have appropriate permissions. Everyone likes to hear success stories; send it to industry publications, and place in the organizational blog, speak at the local university, present a paper of your findings at a conference. Simply put, repurpose this success into multiple visibility avenues.
5. Specificity drives credibility: To the extent possible share how you accomplished the desired results, provide uncommon wisdom, and follow on access to resources. Give them web sites that support your findings or your contact information for them to learn more. Ideally, include a supporting quote from the customers which specifically addresses their experience and recognized results or outcomes from your efforts.

Nour Bonus Tip: Very few people will read reference letters; almost everyone will read reference snippets – short one or two sentences which extract the essence or the highlights of the reference letter. “Sam made the impossible possible.”

When done well, internal reference selling will create a stronger personal brand and also appropriately deserved recognition for meritocracy.  Most importantly, it will give others the ammunition to engage and invite you to other similar opportunities to deliver exceptional experiences and results for others.

How are you reference selling your core strengths?

When you’re a candidate for a promotion that ends up going to a peer, are you left wondering “why them and not me?”  Why were they promoted to manage or lead a broader realm of responsibilities, but not me? Why when I am the one who is more consistently and more recently invited to spend time with the boss, are they the one receiving the promotion?

If this has happened to you, I recommend you take some time for careful introspection regarding why you didn’t receive this growth opportunity. To do this effectively, I offer you 10 points to consider. 

10 Point Litmus Test: Be candid when considering these points and take some time for introspection.

1. Have I demonstrated performance under pressure?
2. Have I completed an initiative which clearly demonstrates my core strengths and capabilities? 
3. Have I consistently supported my colleagues by taking a genuine interest in their key initiatives, and by helping them to achieve quantifiable results?
4. Are my communications skills; written and oral, as proficient as they could be?
5. Have I consistently demonstrated the ability to confront others or issues with respect, and problem solve with decisiveness?
6. Have I achieved a high degree of influence to reinforce the ability of proactively engaging others and getting things done?
7. Have I supported my superiors by taking on difficult projects and offering value-based council?
8. Have I succinctly defined my long-term goals and objectives and do I have a road map of how my current and future activities will help me obtain my goals?
9. Have I consistently completed prioritized assignments for others before completing my own? In other words, have I put other people’s projects ahead of my own?
10. Have I established a strong personal brand of presence and upmost competence? 

Nour Call to Action

If you answered no to any of these questions, you may be prohibiting a potential promotion at your current organization. Sharp “A-Players” realize sooner or later you either move up or move out, so take steps to move up whether within your current position or into another organization.

Steps to Getting Off the Menu and invited to the Table

1. Get an independent assessment of where you are today by taking a behavioral or emotional survey such as Myers-Briggs®, DiSC, Hogan, Birkman, or HBDI™.
2. Engage Three Mentors: One within your organization, one within your industry and one completely outside of both. All with unique and candid insights on your core strengths and weaknesses.
3. Study or profile the leaders or the executives you wish to model yourself, and identify the gaps of your current abilities and where you would like to be in the future.
4. Invest time and resources with a career coach to help you identify strengths and weaknesses. 
5. Read Relationship Economics and apply the Relationship Currency® Roadmap

How are you staying off of the menu?

The prevalence of LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and a host of other social networking tools has certainly raised awareness for personal relationship development and social networking best practices. When the use of the same social interaction functionality is brought into an organization to manage client or customer interactions and partner or supplier engagement in order to enable and manage collaboration within your organization, the mindset becomes one of Enterprise 2.0.

It’s a fundamentally new way of identifying and proactively managing opportunities for any sized organization. It connects you with your clients, prospects, partners, the media, and the business community at large, and it is as critical as the organization’s intracompany relationships.

Although technology is a fundamental cornerstone of the success of social networking, a social networking success story begins with the appropriate strategy. The fact that desired behaviors require support key initiatives will help you understand the necessary tools to enable and enhance such interactions. We believe people will soon give way to blogs, wikis, existing platforms such as SharePoint, and social networking platforms that are much more congruent with the business goals and unique nuances of the teams they support.

What Is Your Enterprise 2.0 Strategy?

It’s critical that you outline a succinct set of objectives, measures, and values before embarking on the technology deployment.  Here are 3 critical points to consider:

1. Don’t confuse vibration with forward motion: ultimately, any social network over time must aim to drive operational efficiency and effectiveness and as such save time and money. Some of the current outdated business processes could be made obsolete with a more real-time collaborative environment. But can you lower client acquisition costs? Can you attract different clients in different markets? How can you continue to push to do even more with less in the current economic climate?
2. Invented everywhere: Although there’s often a great deal of expertise and thought leadership within the organization, Enterprise 2.0 can help extend additional mindset of “not invented here” to “invented everywhere.” By simply extending your pursuit of innovation beyond the traditional walls of your organization, you exponentially extend the reach of the organization to create access to untapped content, thought leadership, and often unique perspective in areas previously unimagined.
3. Relationships first, desired outcomes second: As I wrote in Relationship Economics (Wiley, 2008) “influence the conversation, and you will influence the relationship. Influence the relationship, and you will influence the outcome you desire.” Enterprise 2.0 can deliver both the promise and the potential of the next generation of social networking by raising the profile of key concepts such as customer lifetime value, cost of a bad hire, and supplier relationship management.

The Real Value of Enterprise 2.0

With a succinct strategy and an execution plan, valuation of the success of an Enterprise 2.0 initiative must include a fundamental business relationship metrics such as:

• The initial adoption rate: what is the percentage of your user base that openly accepts a different mindset and the ultimate roadmap?
• Enterprise-wide interaction breadth, depth, and frequency: which parts of the organization are most effectively utilizing not just a current functionality but pushing the collaborative platform to engage and influence others?
• The quality and diversity: not of simply the users but also of the content exchanged within the extent of the organization.
• ROI reinvented: closer look at return on integration, return on involvement, and return on impact – soft assets the organization must find a way to capture and optimize.
• User Retention: to what extent have the original users embraced this new platform? Have you been able to retain them over some period of time? Also as critical is understand that which will keep them coming back?
• Influence and equity goals: non-tangible success awareness and general buzz attained by the users within the extent of the organization.

Beyond the external social networking hubs, such as LinkedIn, Facebook, and others, the real promise and potential of the next generation of social networking is to accelerate enterprise profitable growth, attract and retain world-class talent, and execute great organizational strategies.  In a turbulent economy reaching that promise and potential will heavily depend on one’s ability to successfully launch an Enterprise 2.0 initiative.

Stay tuned – we certainly are living in interesting times…