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Building a Brand through Shameless Self-Promotion 127

Marketing through Professional and Personal Networks

One of the oldest and most powerful marketing tools is networking:
rubbing elbows with people who are likely to buy your products
and services or can generate business for you. My colleague, busi-
ness consultant and visionary Terry Brock, calls this R-commerce
(relationship commerce). According to Brock, R-commerce drives
all other commerce, including e-commerce, and when you give it a
little thought, you quickly realize that he's right.

Effective networking is key to your success in sales. It enables
you to establish connections and discover a never-ending supply
of leads simply by talking to people, letting them know what you
do, and then kicking back and letting your network work for you.

Where do you start? A better question would be "Where don't
you start?" I network constantly everywhere I go. Whether I'm
rubbing elbows with colleagues at a convention, eating out with
my family, buying a car, or attending a ball game, I'm meeting
people and building relationships. As a salesperson, you should be
doing the same.

~arket through Professional Networks

A healthy industry generates business for everyone, so team up
with other professionals in your area to create healthy markets, and
then work together to generate business for everyone. If you sell
real estate, you can refer your clients to loan officers, real estate
attorneys, title companies, appraisers, and other businesses in your
area, and they can refer their clients to you when their clients need
a great real estate agent. If you sell cars, you can team up with
banks to provide financing, refer clients to agents who sell auto
insurance, and establish mutually beneficial relationships with auto
repair shops in the area.

Nearly every business has at least a small collection of re-
lated businesses that can support one another. You simply need to
identify those businesses and then work toward establishing mutu-
ally beneficial relationships.