Networking isn’t a short-term strategy. It’s not about power selling and moving onto the next lead. Smart networkers understand this concept. They know that their networking success is largely dependent on nurturing relationships and helping others. Through their generosity and efforts, they are confident that they will reap the benefits of networking over the long-term.

Unfortunately, there are many misguided networkers out there that thoroughly don’t “get” the give and take of networking. They only consider introductions as opportunities to sell and irritate fellow business professionals with their short-sighted, myopic view of networking. They don’t take the time to explore all of the potential opportunities and feel that is more important to lunge ahead and aggressively sell to anyone who is put in contact with them.

Not only is this overt approach to networking obnoxious and irritating to everyone else. It’s simply not effective. Networkers who, for whatever reason, have adopted this strategy are often the same individuals who claim that networking events and groups are wastes of time. What they’re not seeing is that their approach is turning everyone off to the point where no one wants to help them.

Indifference is a fantastic personal characteristic to have if you’re the roguish leading man in a sweeping Civil War tale, but it’s not quite as charming if you’re a career salesperson trying your best to generate business in a slow economy. The funny thing is that many of us have adopted a Rhett Butler style of prospecting that is highly ineffective - particularly in these challenging times.

If you are not focusing your energies on asking your prospects questions, you might as well be telling them that you don’t give a damn! It’s certainly easy to get into the mindset that all you need to do is sell, sell, sell. This can lead to you prematurely rattling off features and benefits before you even know your prospect’s particular situation.

The sales process begins with a dialog, not a lecture and continues with your ability to be a good listener. Here are just a few other reminders on how to connect with those you’re selling to and actually give a damn.

Be Personable
No one likes a know-it-all or a high pressure salesperson. Your job is to initially gather information and put your prospect at ease. If you can develop a strong comfort level, you’ll eliminate any chance of buyers’ remorse down the road.

In this less than ideal economic climate, many salespeople are having a tough time earning business. You can be extremely diligent and think that you’re doing everything correctly and still be finding it difficult to make a sale. No doubt, it’s frustrating!

The unfortunate reality is that the power to say yes or no completely rests in the hands of your prospects. Your job is simply to present value and benefits, overcome hesitancies, and guide them to want your solution to improve their situation. So, what if you’re doing all of these important things, and your prospects are still not budging?

Before you simply blame your bad luck on the economy, you need to ask yourself the following:

Are you 100 percent certain that you have addressed all of your prospect’s hesitancies and concerns?

You won’t be able to overcome a hesitancy that is unspoken or hidden. Take the time to probe thoroughly for what’s on their mind and help them reveal the true situation.

Have you made certain that the competition hasn’t wormed into the deal and caused your prospect to have second thoughts?

In many industries, competition is fiercer than ever before. It’s very likely that prospects are also talking to your competition. Be prepared for this, and take the necessary steps to shine above others trying to hone in on your prospects.

Have you ever considered the fitness level of your customer service department? No, I’m not talking about an employee exercise program. Rather, I’m asking if your team that provides service to your clients is functioning at peak performance.

If you haven’t given this much thought, you might not be seeing the big picture issues that could be hurting your business. Just like with personal fitness, there are many components to managing the well-being of a customer service department. It’s not about excelling in one particular skill. It’s about defining all of the components necessary for providing quality customer service and establishing the strategies to achieve specific results.

In order to reach an optimal level of customer service fitness, there are certain questions that you need to ask. The answers will give you a clear cut overview of where you are succeeding and where improvements need to be made. Here’s what you should be asking:

For most women, becoming a mother is a turning point in their career. It’s a time in one’s life that’s rife with challenges, frustrations, and uncertainties, but it’s also when many of life’s most rewarding achievements and miraculous moments occur. What many new moms figure out rather quickly is that the skills that they use every day while taking care of children are also very applicable in succeeding in business. Nurturing a needy newborn isn’t all that different from managing a high-maintenance client, and trying to juggle chores and kids can be strikingly similar to the multi-tasking required to manage a large list of prospects. Here are just a few of the skills that are fine-tuned and mastered the minute you take that leap into motherhood.

Patience
Colicky infants, whiny toddlers, defiant teenagers – If you didn’t have patience before you had children, you quickly developed this virtue as a parent. And, the patience required for childcare definitely helps you increase your tolerance threshold in business. Difficult clients and prospects are plentiful, and patience is the key to unlocking their buying potential.

Do your clients consider you easy? No, not the type of “easy” that wasn’t such a good thing to be in high school, I’m asking if you are easy to work with. The key components to having a good long-term relationship with those you sell to are being someone who is flexible, responsive, and available. Let’s take a closer look at the concept of being easy.

Flexibility
Do you take a one size fits all approach with clients or do you design your product offerings and services to benefit their specific needs? Flexibility is a must if you have competition. When you are rigid with what you offer, you are giving your competition an edge, and they will most certainly accommodate your clients’ needs. Don’t give your competition the opportunity. Keep in mind that flexibility doesn’t just stop with what you are offering; it also applies to how you conduct business. Find out what your clients’ preferred method of communication is and use it. While you may like email, Joe Customer might prefer a phone call. It’s your job to find out preferences to keep your clients happy and to maintain an ongoing image of being flexible and “easy.”

In an increasingly competitive market, the difference between you and your competitors often boils down to one crucial factor - customer service. The reality is that it has been proven time and time again that a company’s success often hinges on how customers view the service provided. While it’s certainly helpful to utilize technology to increase customer loyalty, oftentimes it’s the basic customer service 101 that makes all the difference in the world when it comes to turning a one-time customer into a long-term client.

You Are How You Sound
It’s a given that using a negative voice and tone with a customer is an absolute no-no. However, there is frequently an overall acceptance for an unenthused, neutral voice. Call it what you like – blah, bored, tired, or detached. Customers will perceive a monotone voice as negative and unhelpful. Paying attention to voice, tone, sounding positive, energetic, and consistently upbeat should be right at the top of the list of ways to improve your customer service.

No, that's not an error. I didn't mean to ask you "why" you are in business. My question isn't about your goals, your aims, your vision, your mission, your business plan, your targets, or any of the other stuff that come together and answer the "why you are in business" question.

I'm here to ask you, specifically and simply: HOW are you in business?

What are you like? Are you pleasant? Are you responsive? Are you fair? Do you demonstrate in HOW you are in business, that you care about helping people with whatever solution you provide? Do you give your customers a reason to be glad that they do business with you? Would YOU buy from you?

Here's the thing: business culture today is so focused on the target/goal/objective, that the means of achieving those ends -- the HOW of business -- is often an afterthought. In fact, sometimes, the HOW is not thought of at all, and so becomes utterly subjugated, sacrificed and snuffed out in relentless -- arguably obsessive -- pursuit of the bottom line and exclusively measurable outcomes. The HOW becomes nothing but a necessary evil between you and the WHY. And like all necessary evils, you treat it with resistance, contempt and disdain (experienced life at the DMV lately?).

Too often, “customer service” is incorrectly viewed as two things:

1. a necessary evil
2. remedial

As a ‘necessary evil’, customer service is often viewed as that annoying relative that you HAVE to invite over, just because…well, like Mount Everest: that relative is THERE. That’s why — even today — customer service can be relegated very low on the priority scale, barely getting the attention, budgets, training and support that it deserves. Viewing something as a necessary evil will do this.

As a ‘remedial’ thing, customer service is often viewed as corrective mechanism: something to do in order to get back to the beginning. This is tricky to describe in a blog, but easy to understand from your own personal experience. Ever bought a TV, a vacuum cleaner, a blender, a car, or anything else that didn’t work the way you expected it to? What do you do? If possible, you take it back to the seller and get it fixed (or you get another one). Technically, your problem is solved: your thing (blender/car/whatever) is working. But what about all the crap in between!? What about your stress, your hassle, your inconvenience, and possibly, your expense? All of this is utterly ignored when customer service policies are remedial.

The other day, a human being pretending to be “working” in a customer service capacity told me to have a nice day. Well, actually, it was more of a grunt. And because he didn’t bother looking at me when he grunted it, and was in fact walking away as he finished the grunt, I’m kind of connecting the dots here. But I am pretty confident that on some guttural, primordial level, I was told by this individual to have a nice day.

So. Do you think he really meant it?!

Let’s understand each other. It’s not that I really need customer service people to tell me to “have a nice day.” I’m as aware as anyone else that this is a cliché and, just like the “how are you,” is not really full of deep, rich, interpersonal meaning anymore.

BUT.

When even the basic *building blocks* of communication aren’t in place, I get irritated. And then I think: this company sucks.

Is that harsh? I don’t think so. This particular company actually has many layers of customer service; they even have a dedicated toll-free customer service line that, to my knowledge, is staffed by people and not voicemail. And this company also spends a great deal of money and time to promote its customer service systems and policies. I even think they have one of those c-level “Customer Experience Officer” positions.