How often has a customer bought your product or service without any interaction at all?
For me – NEVER!
There has always been a process involved – the KLT process! Know, Like and Trust.
Think about it. Even when you go into a retail store, you have some knowledge of the product you are after. You may have a liking for a particular brand and you trust that the brand will deliver what you are looking for. If you don’t like the salesperson you may decide that you won’t buy it from them. You are happy to drive 20mins down the road to another shop to buy the product from them – assuming you like the salesperson there!
People do business with people (or brands) they Know, Like and Trust.
Imagine if you had the opportunity to build your network in an environment that promotes the know, like, trust process.
Well, look no further! The environment you are looking for is LinkedInLocal Central Coast.
LinkedinLocal Central Coast exists to create trusted business connections.
If you have built a network of people who know, like and trust you, would that help you and your business? In my experience, YES!
So, you ask, what can I do to build a network of people who know, like and trust me?
Well, I can’t tell you what to do. I can only share with you what I do. It’s up to you whether you do it or not!
1. The ‘Know’ Part
The ‘Know’ part of the KLT process is where I connect with people on LinkedIn that I want to get to know.
Think of this as ‘modern-day door-knocking’. Sending a connection request to someone you would like to get to know is no different from knocking on their door and starting a conversation. Except, most people who ‘door knock’ are ramming something down your throat! This is not my intention when connecting. My intention is to expand my network and develop relationships in order to add value and grow influence.
I send LinkedIn connection requests every day.
I search for people who I would like to get to know and send them a personalized connection request. When I meet a new person or talk to them on the phone, I always look for their LinkedIn profile and send them a connection request.
If you do this consistently, you will be amazed how quickly your online network expands…but, there is no use having an online network if you don’t develop the relationship.
2. The ‘Like’ Part
The ‘Like’ part of the KLT process is where I start developing a ‘real’ relationship with my LinkedIn connections.
Remember, this is a two-way street. You can only control how you feel about a person, not how the other person feels about you. Don’t be put off if not everyone likes you!
I believe the best (and most efficient) way to identify people you ‘Like’ is by inviting your connections to events. I focus on one event which is LinkedInLocal Central Coast. I am a co-host of this event along with Marc Charette and Isaac Feeney. Based on this, I obviously use this event as the main priority, but the key point is that it aligns with my own personal style of network building (I guess it should if I am involved in running it!). There are many networking events out there. Find the one (or more) that aligns best with your values and get good at inviting people along.
When you get people along, you have a greater chance of developing the next part of the KLT process – Trust!
3. The ‘Trust’ Part
The ‘Trust’ part of the KLT process is where I focus on ‘being more interested than interesting’.
This applies whether I am meeting with people I have invited along to the event, or with people I have just met on the night.
So, how do I ‘be more interested than interesting’?
I do this by asking the person conversational questions. Some examples I use are, What do you? How did you get into that industry? What are the biggest challenges you face? Then, the most important part, wait for it, be genuinely interested in their answer. When you are genuinely interested, you are really listening and you will identify opportunities to help (add value) to the person.
It could be they are looking to connect with a certain person, or I may have read an article that could help them with a challenge they are facing, or a book/video I know that may help. Whatever it is, because I am ‘being more interested than interesting’ I will always find a way to add value to them.
When I do this, the other person starts to build trust in me. They know I want to help them. When people know I am genuinely interested in helping them, trust can build very quickly.
It may seem counterintuitive, but the key is to put other people interests before your own.
After the event, I like to follow up with a phone call to the people I have met. It could be just a phone call to see if I can help with anything specific, or it may be a phone call that leads to a one-on-one meeting. Whatever the outcome, as long as you continue to focus on putting other people’s interests first, you will continue to build trust.
There you have it. The KLT (if you didn’t know by now it stands for Know, Like, Trust) process that I like to follow.
As I said earlier, I can’t tell you what to do, I can only share what I do. The KLT process I follow is proving to be a very beneficial one for building an engaged network. This has led to great personal and business opportunities. The outcome has been, my business has grown significantly over the last 7 months since LinkedInLocal Central Coast was established.
If you want the same for your business, take action on the KLT process and make it work for you.
[This post was originally published on BrendanRogers.com.au.]