Clarity | Dr. Ivan Misner®

In my book, “Work Your Network With the 4Cs,” my co-author Dr. Oudi Abouchacra and I share The Four Cs, which are the foundation of all relationships. I believe that understanding each of them is critical to generate referrals for your business.
Competence
Credibility
Clarity
Connectivity

The First “C” is Competence

In terms of business and referral marketing, it is important to remember that no one ever refers their friends and family to people who they don’t believe are competent. When it comes to our own business, competence needs to be established first and foremost. The more we demonstrate competence, the more likely our reputation will help us become credible, so that we ultimately earn the trust of others.

Competence relates to how you conduct yourself professionally, how well you do your job, and whether members of your networking group perceive you as competent. They do business with you when there is certainty that you are good at your job. People won’t refer you to others if they feel that you are going to let them down. After all, their reputation is at stake when they give you a referral.

Competence, or your ability to do something well and effectively, is critical to reaching the confidence point on the Referral Confidence Curve.

You also build competence within your networking group by educating your fellow members about the different aspects of your products or services. Make your weekly presentations interesting. Teach them how they can identify potential clients and customers for you. Tell them how your business and your expertise help solve people’s needs and improve their lives. Your knowledge and eloquence while educating your referral partners (NOT selling to them) will inspire confidence so that your name comes to their mind when a referral opportunity arises.

Remember, people do business with people they know, like, and trust. The 4Cs affect the referral quality, and quantity, within your network.
Competence is crucial to secure strong referrals and achieve business success.

I am excited to tell you about my new book, co-authored with Dr. Oudi Abouchacra, called “Work Your Network with the 4Cs.” Our goal with this book is to empower businesspeople, BNI® members, and other professionals with the fundamentals to create a powerful personal network.

In the book, we refer to our four key fundamentals as The 4Cs. They are:
Credibility – trust or trustworthiness
Competence – knowledge and skill
Clarity – understandable communication
Connectivity – quantity and quality of connections

Consciously or subconsciously, we all assess the people we interact with in terms of their credibility, competence, clarity, and connectivity. And they, too, are evaluating us with respect to the 4Cs. In future blogs and podcasts, I’ll dive into the details for each of these four, exploring how they apply to the business world, and how you can build a greater network and work that network effectively.

Business from Networking and Referrals

For anyone who has been in business, even for a limited time, you recognize that a percentage, and it’s often a large percentage, of business referrals that you receive comes from your professional network. In fact, for small business owners, regardless of the industry or sector, networking referrals are typically a very significant proportion of their business.

A few years ago, we did an online BNI survey, open to the public, that had almost 4000 participants worldwide. We found that 73% of businesses reported getting most of their business from networking and referrals. That is a compelling statistic!
The other ways they got business were advertising – about 12%; P.R. was less than 5%; cold calling was less than 10%. And 73% was from networking and referrals!

The irony in that statistic is that more than 87% of the people in the same survey said they had never taken a college course that covered networking or word-of-mouth marketing. Forget about an actual class on networking; we’re talking about a course that just even discussed the topic of networking. It’s ironic that most people get their business from networking, and most people have never been taught how to network.

This is disturbing on many levels. Business students are almost completely unaware of how crucial networking will be to their future success. Business professionals are not investing in a source of income – networking and referrals – that is potentially responsible for nearly three-quarters of their livelihood. Additionally, they are not investing the necessary time in growing their network.

Many businesses are leaving opportunities on the table and those opportunities could be the ticket to taking their business to the next level. Dr. Oudi and I want this book to do what colleges and universities have failed at doing.

The 4Cs are designed to help you gain more referrals with every handshake and with everyone you meet. Each of our Cs – Competence, Credibility, Clarity, and Connectivity, has the potential to affect the referral quality, quantity, significance, and consistency within your personal network.

Special Offer

Right now, the Kindle version of “Work Your Network with the 4Cs” is on sale for only 99¢ USD. You can download your digital copy at amazon.com (you don’t need a Kindle device; you can get the free Kindle app).
This offer is at amazon.com only and may not be available in all areas.

This special offer ends on Sunday, August 21st, 2022, at 3:00 am EDT USA.