Work Your Network With the 4Cs – Credibilitystring(46) "Work Your Network With the 4Cs – Credibility"

In the book I co-authored with Dr. Oudi Abouchacra, “Work Your Network With the 4Cs,” we share that The Four Cs are the foundation for all relationships.
Competence
Credibility
Clarity
Connectivity

For successful business networking, I believe it is critical to understand each of them. As I shared in BNI Podcast episode 772, the first “C” – Competence, is the primary driver of referrals in a business practice. However, competence alone will not unlock referrals.

The Second “C” is Credibility

People do not refer business to another person unless they feel confident that they are trustworthy. The importance of trustworthiness is closely aligned with our second “C” – Credibility. It is the quality of being believable or worthy of trust. Trust and credibility are so closely related that some people use them synonymously.

Credibility, when combined with Competence, will decrease the time it takes for you to reach the confidence point in the Referral Confidence Curve. The work of social psychologists helps illustrate the interrelated nature of credibility and competence. In studies, they have found that people evaluate each other by asking themselves two questions when they meet someone new, “Can I trust this person?” and “Can I respect this person?” Ideally, you want to be perceived as having both qualities.

For years I’ve said, when you give a referral away, you give away a little bit of your reputation. When you give a good referral, it enhances your reputation. When you give a bad referral, it hurts your reputation. I think trust is incredibly important – you must be able to trust your referral partners and be trusted in return.

Sometimes businesspeople assume they must prove that they’re smart enough to handle new business before potential customers will be willing to part with their hard-earned cash. And while this is true, people are misguided if they don’t also focus on making sure that they demonstrate they are worthy of trust.

In the 4Cs book, we speak about gaining the confidence of members within your network, and we believe that means they trust you as a person and that they know you’re good at your job. The faster you can showcase your competence and establish credibility with a fellow member, the faster they will have confidence in you and the quicker they’ll give you referrals. Building strong business relationships with potential referral partners means that you need to take time to really get to know one another at an individual level.

Confidence Leads to Credibility

Remember that it’s not your confidence that counts. It is their confidence in your ability to provide a quality product or service. When someone has confidence in you, then you become credible. Your credibility is based on their confidence in you. When your networking partners have high confidence in your ability to provide a quality service and products, then you have high credibility with them. Their confidence determines your credibility.

If you feel that you aren’t getting referrals from somebody that you have a really strong relationship with, I suggest that you sit down and talk to them. Find out if they have any concerns about your ability to do a particular job with their clients or patients or customers. If they do have concerns, then you need to work on those items to be able to develop the necessary credibility.

A final thought: When you are networking, speaking from the stage, on a webinar, or during a one-to-one business meeting, make sure that you are showing both your Competence and your Credibility.

 

 

 

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How social is your social network?string(34) "How social is your social network?"

relationshipsIn my video blog two weeks ago, The Six Degree Myth and the 29 Percent Solution, I discussed the inspiration for the book that I co-wrote with Michelle Donovan, The 29% Solution. After watching the vlog, one reader brought up an interesting point, and I would love to discuss it further.

Social media changes the game of networking, but not really how you might think. A common social networking misconception is that the number of people that you are connected with online is directly related to the number of people that you truly have a connection with in your day to day life. When widely known networking theories are applied to social media, results can vary.

This is because studies relating to social media connectivity, in this case referring to a study done by Facebook in 2011 which attempts to recreate Stanley Milgram’s Six Degrees of Separation experiment via Facebook, have one fundamental flaw.

These studies assume, and rely on the possibility, that a connection on Facebook is the same to an actual, real life relationship. I have 5,000 connections on my Facebook page. This doesn’t mean that I have 5,000 people that I know well enough to ask for a favor, or that they would actually do it for me if I asked. Facebook has essentially redefined what a “friend” is so that any contact on a profile is considered a legitimate, personal relationships. According to the Dunbar Study, the true number of contacts that one person can have meaningful relationships with is around 150, and naturally this varies from person to person.

That being said, with social media, and in our day-to-day lives as well, it is not the number of links, but the quality of links that makes a difference in our networking attempts. The purpose of The 29% Solution was to explain what things I thought anyone could do to be part of the percentage of people with close, meaningful connections.

What do you think? How has social media changed how you connect with others? Share with me in the comments section below.