As a commercial real estate agent, Lorrie developed a passionate interest in the technology used to boost the energy efficiency of the buildings whose sales she had brokered for many years. She wanted to get out of large commercial real estate asset management and brokerage and become an independent consultant, providing advisory services on green energy solutions for commercial real estate tenants and property owners.
To assemble the knowledge base such a consultancy would need, Lorrie knew she had to get in front of—and up to speed on—as many new technology companies as possible. Unfortunately, the industry was developing so rapidly and was so decentralized that it was tough to track down the requisite intelligence.
Lorrie had identified a prospective critical enabler, the founder of a progressive general contracting firm that helped companies retrofit their buildings with energy-saving technologies such as solar energy panels and geothermal heat pumps—exactly the kinds of companies Lorrie would be targeting as she built her consulting business. However, Lorrie told me she couldn't see why on earth this critical enabler would want to share the enormous amount of green industry intelligence he possessed. All I could say was, be patient, or have faith, or just trust me on this one—we'll figure out a way to have this guy eating out of your hand.
In brainstorming her gesture of progressive reciprocity, we asked, "What is the overlap between the industries this prospect targets and the ones you have relationships with as a result of your work as a commercial real estate agent?" We searched the company's client list on its Web site and discovered that it was targeting many industries, from health care to manufacturing, but had only one academic institution as a client. Lorrie had done a great deal of development work with academic institutions in the area, so it looked like this was an area where she could help this prospect.
Lorrie identified one college in particular that she knew was in the midst of a major capital campaign for the "greenovation" of several buildings on campus, which it hoped to get certified as energy-efficient by the leading standards organization in the industry. Lorrie called her contact at the college to talk about the renovation plans and find out whether a contractor had been chosen for that aspect of the work. Not only had the college not selected a contractor, Lorrie learned, but its understanding of what needed to be done in this area also needed a major upgrade.
Lorrie got a referral to her prospect, and in her initial e-mail, along with her request for help evaluating cutting-edge energy efficiency technologies, she mentioned that she could likely help them get more business in the academic market. Lorrie explained that she was doing green energy consulting, advising clients about the technologies that were becoming available, and that she'd identified a potential client for her prospect's company at a local university. Her prospect was very interested and scheduled the meeting at once. Lorrie's ability to help her prospect expand his market led to a fruitful partnership in which she was able to expand the clientele for her consulting business in exchange for helping her critical enabler expand his clientele. It turned into, as Lorrie phrased it, a "mutual critical enabler relationship."
Once you've identified a prospective critical enabler and generated a referral to that person, the next step is to select the most effective approach—what you can say that will truly motivate the person to want to help you. If you want people to want to help you, it's not enough to simply call or send e-mail and expect the recipients to jump at the chance, even if they are obligated to take your call based on some previous connection or relationship. And simply mentioning the name of your referring party is likely not enough at this stage, either. To make it likely that your prospective critical enabler really will be eager to help you, you need to deploy one of the most powerful weapons in your arsenal: the gesture of progressive reciprocity.
Of course, the concept of reciprocity has been fundamental to getting business done since business began getting done. Gestures of reciprocity'thanks, tips in money or information, offers of assistance—acknowledge indebtedness and offer payback. And although modern customs (and laws) frown on demands for such gestures and on exchanges of too concrete a value, when properly framed they remain a legitimate and powerful lubricant for keeping the wheels of society moving.
The Right Person–Right Approach method puts a new twist on the concept by turning it into progressive reciprocity. That is, rather than offering something out of a sense of obligation after you've made a request or accepted an offer, you do so in your introductory communication, before you ask your prospective critical enabler for what you need. And if done in a genuine, well-researched manner, this step identifies you as a giver rather than a taker, the real key to making people willing to help you rather than to just throw you a bone.
The first thing you must do is some general research to discover the intersection between your prospective critical enabler's possible needs and what you could possibly offer. Learn enough about your prospect's business or other interests to determine what type of gesture might offer value. Social media have made this process vastly easier than ever before, yet few people take advantage of the opportunity. Reciprocity gems will be found from simple Web searches, social network site lookups, and querying your own network to find other people who know your prospect.
Once you've done initial research, examine your own interests and pursuits and contacts, looking for ways they connect with those of your prospect. This is what I call your "inventorying reciprocity currency," something that you have or can easily obtain or can make happen that will be of value to the people you're approaching. Reciprocity currency can take many forms—a contact that would be of value to them or knowledge they might need. In some cases it can be something not directly related to your critical enabler's business or practice. What people find most surprising when they start to think hard about a gesture of progressive reciprocity is that they really don't have to think all that hard. Most of us are sitting on a reserve of reciprocity currency that we never think to inventory and fully realize. So it's important to understand how much of a reserve you can actually call on in order to smooth your way to your career and business objectives. Very often it is simply based on the common ground between you and your prospective critical enabler that your research uncovers.
When I explain the concept of progressive reciprocity to clients and friends, some initially balk at the idea. It can seem unpalatable or impractical and even contrived, especially if you're trying to develop a gesture based on information about an industry or a market segment or a technology you know little or nothing about, or when you're trying to approach a very important or accomplished person you hope will become your critical enabler. Who am I to think I could offer anything of value to this expert? people think. After all, he is the master, and I am just a grasshopper. But bear in mind that what you might be able to offer doesn't have to be in your sole possession. You can consider your network as an extension of your value. Some of the most valuable gestures of progressive reciprocity can be the easiest to deliver—if you make the right introduction, both parties will feel you've done them favors. So when you're developing a gesture of progressive reciprocity, don't limit yourself to what you know or can offer directly.
If you can't find the right gesture initially, don't give up on progressive reciprocity. You can create your own reciprocity currency, as most of the people I've worked with have discovered. If you're talking with someone who doesn't seem interested in your first offer, you can simply ask whether there's anything you can do. Say you like to keep the scales even and you hope there's some way you can help. Your prospect will probably say, "Oh no, I'm fine." But if you prompt for more detail, something may well crop up, and even if it doesn't, the attitude of willingness will often leave your prospect disposed to help you.
As you move forward, keep in mind that this process can frequently be quite flexible and indirect. Many of my clients— gestures are developed through bringing people together in combinations that came to mind only after they'd freed themselves of preconceptions about what might be valuable to their critical enablers.
Finally, remember that you're not hiring on as a consultant. Your gesture of progressive reciprocity need only be sincere and intriguing—you won't be judged on its success in generating specific value. Its purpose is to motivate your critical enabler to help you and in doing so to make it clear that you're not simply another leech trying to get something of value without giving anything in return. You're presenting yourself as someone who wants to earn help through offering your personal resourcefulness and spending time understanding your critical enabler's needs.
Once you've done your initial general research and gotten an idea of your prospective critical enabler's personality and interests, refine the development of your gesture. The way to do that is by asking a series of specific questions that will help you narrow your focus on a prospective critical enabler:
What kind of intelligence would help advance your prospect's interests?
What could your prospect do to find new customers or clients?
What new markets or territories might your prospect want to penetrate?
What other companies or businesses serve the same market as your prospect without being competitors?
What products or services will your prospect's company be competing with in developing its product or service line?
What weak links in your prospect's supply chain might you be able to help with?
What profile describes the ideal member or subscriber for your prospect's organization or journal?
What charitable causes does your prospect support?
What can you do personally, based on your own background or professional experience, that would be of value to your prospect?
Use these questions as starting points to trigger ideas of how you can develop a gesture that seems likely to turn your prospect into a critical enabler. I think you will be quite surprised how unlocking the limits on your thinking allows you to come up with what might initially have seemed to you to be unlikely sources of reciprocity currency, enabling you to make connections and deliver on your gesture in wonderfully unexpected ways.
What kind of intelligence would help advance your prospect's interests?
Intelligence that is useful to your prospective critical enabler is among the first things you might look for when creating a gesture of progressive reciprocity. It doesn't need to be some secret or mysterious information that you have to go undercover to obtain—in fact, real secrets are not appropriate here. I'm talking very generally about potentially useful knowledge that your prospect is likely to perceive as valuable.
Here are some areas you can explore as you develop a gesture of progressive reciprocity based on what you know that your prospect doesn't:
Intelligence that helps improve your critical enabler's marketing
Intelligence about your critical enabler's competitors
Intelligence about technologies that your critical enabler might find useful
Intelligence about how your critical enabler's product or service is perceived in the marketplace by clients or customers
Intelligence about trends or anything new that could affect your critical enabler's business
My client Judith gained a marketing boost for her company by capitalizing on the valuable intelligence she could offer to her prospective critical enabler, the CEO of a company in a related field. In her research, she discovered that the company never appeared in Google search results until the third or fourth screen, and that triggered her idea for reciprocity. Judith had been working on revising her own company's Internet marketing plan, and her technical support staff had recently updated the Web site's search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to guarantee top placements when people used search terms relevant to the company's products and services. This seemed to be a likely opening to her prospect, so Judith sent him an introductory e-mail.
In wording her message, Judith was careful to avoid assumptions about her prospect's marketing strategy. She explained that she'd been doing research about the company and had noticed that its Web site generally appeared only quite low in the search results. She wondered if the prospect might be interested in hearing about a new SEO strategy that her own company had developed, and she offered to share it if it was of interest. The prospect was impressed that Judith had taken the time to do this level of research and replied by offering to schedule a meeting.
There are a number of things to avoid, however, as you develop an intelligence-based gesture of progressive reciprocity. First, never offer any proprietary information or information you obtained on condition of not passing it on. In particular, avoid basing your gesture on confidential information about your prospect's competition, including anything you might have gathered when you were working for a competitor. Passing along this type of intelligence ("You didn't hear this from me, but . . .") will almost invariably damage rather than enhance your chances. Your prospect is all too likely to figure you'd probably be as free with information about anyone who trusts you not to disclose it.
Second, avoid gossip. For instance, if you find yourself shaping a comment like, "I heard that the head of R&D over at your competitor is leaving, and I think that means they're going to go in a new direction," stop and regroup. By passing along anything you might have heard around the water cooler but can't document, you're indicating to your critical enabler that your judgment is questionable.
Finally, avoid passing along secondhand social marketing intelligence as a gesture of progressive reciprocity. Especially in this age of Twitter and other rapid-response networking sites, many people reuse links they stumble upon or pass along references to books or articles they haven't read. Sending such messages tags you as someone who hasn't bothered to do real background work, and that will do little or nothing to build a relationship with a prospective critical enabler. Here's the real question to ask yourself as a test: If I were the recipient, would I view this information as uniquely appropriate to my business or situation? You want the recipient to respond, Wow, this is quite relevant to [my current challenge]!
What could your prospect do to find new customers or clients?
For many people in a position to serve as critical enablers, especially those who own their own companies or are compensated or awarded bonuses based on the business they write, gestures of progressive reciprocity that identify potential sources of new business are very attractive. This can be even more true if your prospect works for a smaller company of the type that operates on the maxim "everyone sells." The smaller and more early-stage the company, the more likely everyone in the organization will welcome sales leads, even if they're not directly involved in sales themselves. And entrepreneurs simply have to be resourceful about everything, especially about strategic new business development channel partnerships.
As noted earlier, it isn't essential that your gesture of progressive reciprocity actually results in a new sale, deal, revenue source, or business relationship for your prospective critical enabler. In most cases, just the chance of potential new business is enough to persuade a prospect to see your worthiness and be motivated to provide what you are asking for. I remember apologizing to a critical enabler in my own network because none of my eight proposed new business opportunities had materialized. To me it felt a bit like I had cried wolf too many times. Yet this critical enabler quickly reassured me that in his business he expected to kiss thirty frogs before one turned into a princess and that he still greatly appreciated my offers. It turned out that soon thereafter one of my leads did result in a closed deal. The critical enabler came back, profusely appreciative, and made the point that my hit rate had been better than his sales team's—but that was an extra benefit; the gesture of progressive reciprocity had already done its work for me. This organization was uniquely positioned to know and refer qualified clients for my business, which they did, numerous times.
The following real-life examples illustrate more ways to build your business by presenting the right lead.
Max, who was looking to change jobs, had identified as his prospective critical enabler a woman who owned a small business that specialized in organizing regional trade show events and conferences targeted at manufacturing companies, and who thus dealt with many of the decision makers he wanted to approach about employment. Because her livelihood depended directly on how many clients her company could serve, she was always looking for new connections.
Max worked for a manufacturing company, and he had already dealt with this woman. He was also very familiar with other manufacturing companies in the region'some were customers, some were vendors, and some were competitors. But he initially told me he thought he couldn't introduce any new clients to her, because she knew everyone in the industry. I replied that although that might be true, she looked like the perfect critical enabler. "You have to at least try to generate a gesture of progressive reciprocity for her!"
Once he set his negative thinking aside, Max researched his prospect's company Web site. He was surprised to notice the absence of several companies that he thought should be listed as attending her conferences and using her services at trade shows—and he knew many of the decision makers at those companies.
In approaching her, Max said, "You know, it occurred to me that you and I are targeting many of the same companies, although for different reasons, and I'm thinking we might be able to collaborate. I think I can give you information that will help you develop client relationships with companies you're not currently working with. And of course, there is no question you could help me because, well . . . you know everyone in my target field." In their first conversation, he offered the name of a specific company that wasn't on her client list, along with the name of the decision maker she needed to contact. He also told her to feel free to use his name when she made use of the referral.
She welcomed the information, and in return she was very willing to share what she knew about the types of companies Max wanted to work for. In fact, her intelligence and her contacts led Max straight to the job he was looking for, while what he provided to her was of great value in building her business.
Richard was looking to expand the market for his company's accelerometers—electronic motion-detecting devices that were embedded in many other companies— products, including cameras, GPS units, and mobile phones. He'd identified as his prospective critical enabler the head of engineering for a manufacturer of mobile heart defibrillators, another product in which his company's accelerometers were used. Richard was certain that his prospect could help him identify other potential customers for his company's devices.
Richard had worked with his prospect before, and he was somewhat knowledgeable about his prospect's marketing efforts. These focused on businesses such as airlines, ambulance services, and bus companies that need to be prepared with emergency equipment in case any of their passengers suffer a heart attack. Richard also knew that the company was expanding its marketing to include businesses such as gyms and other recreation facilities. In reviewing his network, Richard recalled a business acquaintance who was a partner in a company that was investing in the health and fitness industry, specifically in acquiring gyms. He called the acquaintance and asked if he'd be interested in receiving a presentation about defibrillation devices from his prospect.
After receiving a go-ahead, Richard approached his prospect. He mentioned that he thought the prospect might be able to help him develop contacts with other companies that could use his own company's accelerometers in their products, but that he first wanted to set up a meeting between the prospect and his business acquaintance to explore a lead into a market the company hadn't fully penetrated. The prospect happily served as a critical enabler for Richard, providing exactly the referrals to contacts in other industries and the information about them that he needed to expand his company's business.
Celeste owned a small company that produced and packaged "green energy" solutions for businesses. She was interested in marketing her company's services to state and municipal government offices, and she'd identified a partner at an executive search firm as a critical enabler who specialized in and could easily put her in contact with decision makers at agencies that would be potential customers.
But Celeste expressed a valid objection about this critical enabler. "Of course this headhunter is the perfect critical enabler for me because of her business and networks," she said. "And I know I'm not the only one thinking the same thing. These search guys and gals are constantly getting hit up for referrals to their networks. Plus, making referrals is essentially what they get paid to do. So why would this one help me in the way that I need?"
"Let's just see about that," I said. So we discussed the fact that recruiting firms, especially these days, were always looking for new search assignments. And of course, out-of-work executives outnumbered the places available in companies that might pay for the firm's placement services. Celeste knew of a small company that was on a rapid growth trajectory and might be interested in the executive placement company's services, and she called her prospect with an offer to put her in contact with the president of this growing company.
"That's a pleasant surprise," the prospect replied. "Nobody ever calls us to offer new clients. The only thing they want is for us to help them find jobs."
Celeste explained that although she did know that her friend's company was hiring, she couldn't guarantee that it would be able to justify paying a search fee to find talent. She did think, though, that it might use her prospect's services, and that was the key to the success of the exchange. Subsequently, the prospect was happy to provide referrals to several key regional government officials likely to be willing to meet with Celeste in exchange for the potential source of new business for her company.
What new markets or territories might your prospect want to penetrate?
You can help your prospective critical enabler's business expand by identifying fresh areas that it could serve. To do this, think of new applications for its existing products or services—ways they might be repurposed to serve a different or expanded market, or existing products from other organizations that they might integrate with to reach new areas of the market.
Also look at other services or products that are consumed along with or used in conjunction with those of your critical enabler. Think in terms of "co-branding"—combining your prospect's products or services with those of another company to create a new hybrid offering. This is often one of the most productive areas to explore in developing your gesture of progressive reciprocity, and in many cases you'll find that you already have the reciprocity currency you need to make an intriguing offer.
Three of my clients used the power of expansion opportunities to broker new relationships (including their own).
Jonathan worked for a struggling business publication that desperately needed an award-winning story to boost subscription sales. His boss was pressuring him to get something out much faster than normal to come out alongside an upcoming FDA ruling (even though "normal" speed in his business was insanely aggressive to begin with). Jonathan's goal was to write the definitive work about cutting-edge antimicrobial technology and applications, a field he wasn't that familiar with. He needed to find and befriend one industry authority who not only could tell him everything he needed to know for the story but also would be willing to share some fairly proprietary knowledge with him. And he needed to do this fast. This urgency led Jonathan to approach the head of engineering at a company that specialized in using silver (a powerful antimicrobial agent) as the basis for products that helped prevent the spread of germs and that therefore actively sought partners in whose products its antimicrobial technology could be incorporated.
Jonathan was an avid practitioner of yoga. From personal experience and observation, he knew that yoga enthusiasts generally don't like carrying their own mats and other equipment around with them, but they like even less the thought of using equipment that's been used by other people. In other words, sanitation is a key issue.
Through writing other health-related stories, Jonathan had developed relationships with a number of manufacturers of yoga-related products, including yoga mats, bands used in stretching, and other yoga accessories. When he was looking for a way to develop a gesture of progressive reciprocity for this silver technology company's head of engineering, Jonathan saw that helping the company penetrate a new market would be the ideal way to make that happen. He mentioned to his friend that using his critical enabler's technology to permanently sanitize yoga equipment would be an excellent way to add value to his products, and the friend loved the idea. In approaching his prospect, Jonathan offered to put him in touch with his friend at the yoga accessories manufacturing company, making him feel much better about asking for the research he needed for what turned out to be his award-winning story. The gesture was greatly appreciated by both of the people he brought together—a real win-win-win situation.
Sandra had recently taken a job as vice president of business development for a network security company. The company provided consulting services that focused on keeping corporate data secure—in effect, bulletproofing clients— data. One of the market segments it focused on was financial institutions, including banks and credit card companies. Sandra was looking to develop a client base of businesses with extensive information assets and IT operations, for whom security was a particularly important concern.
Sandra had identified a company that specialized in providing data storage solutions for corporate clients as a likely place to find a critical enabler, and she'd gotten a referral to a former vice president of the company who had recently left that position to form his own data storage firm. Just like Sandra's, the new company was competing with larger rivals for clients, and both were attempting to build their portfolios rapidly.
Sandra's e-mail to her prospective critical enabler emphasized the fact that their companies served similar markets with different but complementary products. She also mentioned two clients to whom she would be happy to provide referrals, and she suggested that she and her prospect meet to discuss putting together an informal partnership, with each asking their clients about the needs and challenges the other's services addressed. By actively keeping an eye out for each other, they both enjoyed a flurry of cross-referrals and a spike in revenue.
Samuel had a company based on software that could capture GPS data from police patrol cars and analyze it to show the best possible routes'the ones that would provide optimal patrol car coverage in large cities. He had identified a potential critical enabler who worked for a large company that provided communications support to all of his state's police departments. He wanted to convince his prospect to refer him to police departments that might be interested in GPS-processing software.
One of Samuel's friends was marketing an application that let homeowners monitor energy consumption in their houses and display dynamic presentations of their energy usage on their television screens. Samuel immediately recognized that this technology might be a perfect complement to the technology of the prospect he was approaching, and he got the OK from his friend to mention his company to his prospective critical enabler. In his initial phone call, Samuel told his prospect about his friend's company and said he thought it might be a good fit with the cable TV and Internet services that the critical enabler's company provided. Samuel also explained that his own company had developed new technology that could be very useful to police departments in tracking patrol car activity, and that he wanted to get referrals to police departments around the state to pitch the product. The communications executive was happy to provide referrals to Samuel in exchange for the lead on the complementary technology developed by his friend's company.
What other companies or businesses serve the same market as your prospect's without being competitors?
To implement another effective strategy, examine the market your prospective critical enabler's company competes in. Companies that serve the same customer base with unrelated products are natural allies. For instance, suppliers of nutritional supplements serve the same market as personal trainers: people committed to their own personal fitness. Likewise, a day care service works in the same market as a dog walker: busy people who need help taking care of those whose welfare is their responsibility. Many mutually beneficial relationships have been forged based on building connections between companies that serve the same market with different products or services.
Here are two more individuals who each identified and developed partnerships of mutual support that paid off handsomely for all concerned.
Julie had built up a small natural foods production company, and now she was ready to sell it. For a critical enabler, she was looking into a food distribution company that handled products for many of the companies she regarded as potential buyers. Her research into this distributor revealed that its client list omitted several manufacturers with whom she had ongoing relationships.
Julie approached the distributor's CEO with an offer to provide referrals to these companies, and she mentioned her interest in referrals to the decision makers in companies that might be interested in purchasing her business. The CEO immediately welcomed the opportunity to expand his own business. And although he wasn't a distributor for Julie's products, he knew of the company and its excellent reputation, and he had no qualms about recommending Julie to a possible acquirer he knew. In exchange for referrals to a number of manufacturers that might use his distribution service, he identified the ideal candidate to purchase Julie's brand: a regional food manufacturer that was expanding by buying up smaller companies.
The relationship eventually resulted in two positive outcomes: the distributor was able to pick up distribution for two large manufacturers that wanted to sell their products in his region, and Julie was able to sell her company to the one the distributor had recommended to her.
Perry, a psychiatrist who specialized in behavioral disorders, was looking for more patients. He identified a prospective critical enabler whose company had developed a diagnostic monitor that tracked the activity of children with behavioral disorders and pinpointed the specific disorder that their activity patterns indicated they had. Perry felt that this prospect would be an excellent source of patient referrals for his psychiatry practice.
One of Perry's business acquaintances had developed a new and highly effective treatment for people suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and Perry wanted to bring him together with his prospect. Perry reasoned that it would benefit his prospect by enabling him to refer his clients suffering from PTSD to someone who'd developed an effective treatment. His business acquaintance thought it would be a great idea, and Perry proposed it as a gesture of progressive reciprocity to his prospect, who also liked the sound of it. In the end, Perry gained a new source of patient referrals for his practice while bringing together two people who served the same market with complementary services.
What products or services will your prospect's company be competing with in developing its product or service line?
Surprisingly often, people who would be ideal critical enablers are too busy marketing their own company's products or services to have the time to do a good competitive analysis. Meanwhile, if you're interested in that industry, you're likely spending a lot of time and energy collecting information about it. What you want, of course, is the information and intelligence you need to fulfill your own business objective, and you may feel like you're spinning your wheels until you find exactly what you're looking for. But don't undervalue those efforts—information that is useless for your primary purpose may well be useful to someone else. You can repurpose it fairly easily into competitive intelligence that makes an effective gesture of progressive reciprocity for your prospect.
It helps to realize that you don't have to have an entire competitive report to offer for it to be of value. Something as simple as a tip you picked up about a prospect's competitors being considered as an acquisition by XYZ Co. is valuable—just make sure you didn't pick it up under conditions that make it confidential information.
My client Megan was head of R&D at a genetic engineering company ("genco") charged with developing a new cancer treatment product. The problem was that her industry is very fragmented, with thousands of companies scattered around the globe, many of them quite small and low profile and all working on different products. There's often a great deal of duplication of effort among the companies involved in this type of research and development, and Megan felt she desperately needed intelligence about what other developers might be about to deliver.
Megan needed a reliable source of information on what other companies were working on. She'd identified several potential sources that maintained databases that tracked developments in genomics and genetic engineering. One looked like a particularly good source for the information she needed, but it sold the data it developed at prices Megan's budget didn't cover. When she began to examine the gestures of progressive reciprocity she might make in her approach to a prospective critical enabler there, she focused on the fact that the database company was in a market as competitive as her own.
Megan realized the information about all of the other genomics data companies (the ones she either didn't like or also couldn't afford) could be useful to the company whose database she really wanted. When she approached her prospect, she asked whether the spreadsheet she'd developed for comparing all the genco competitors for her own purposes would be interesting. The prospect was intrigued enough to set up a meeting, and eventually arranged for her to acquire the information she needed at a substantial discount.
What weak links in your prospect's supply chain might you be able to help with?
In answering this question, picture your critical enabler's business as a web of chains linked with customers, suppliers, service vendors, distributors, or resellers. Each of these links is a possible place for a gesture of progressive reciprocity. That leads to the next question: "Is there any knowledge or relationship I or someone in my network might have in these areas that I can develop for my critical enabler?"
By scoping the market, two of my clients found ways to forge links with critical enablers and others to which they were linked.
Terrence had just relocated from the West Coast to the East Coast and was looking for a job with a sporting goods apparel manufacturer similar to the one he'd left. He'd applied for a job with a company that made athletic shoes, and although it turned out the company was not hiring, he realized that its CEO must know everyone in her industry in the area and surely had the intelligence he needed, making her an ideal critical enabler. Terrence decided to take advantage of his knowledge of outsourcing footwear manufacturing to develop a gesture of progressive reciprocity. He e-mailed his prospect explaining that he had done some investigation about her company after he'd become familiar with its footwear line and had found a manufacturer that seemed likely to save her company a significant amount of money. He included the manufacturer's costs for products similar to some of those her company was producing.
She picked up the phone and called Terrence, saying she'd very much like to discuss the information he'd sent her, which seemed likely to save her upward of a million dollars annually. Then, without any prompting from Terrence, she asked what she might do for him in return. Terrence was able to help his critical enabler find a new manufacturer for one of her product lines, and she in return provided him with referrals and intelligence about companies she thought would be looking to hire someone with his capabilities.
Gregg was an industrial engineer in the process of moving to the financial services industry, and he had identified a prospective critical enabler at a large organization in his new field. He had a personal account with his prospect's company, which put him in a position to observe what he described as "serious continuity problems" with the reports he received. He inferred that the back-office processing was inefficient at capturing, monitoring, and updating customer information, so clients were not receiving their statements on time. In addition, it was clear that the reports were not generated centrally; instead, each type of report was produced independently by different departments or personnel, all working by hand and without necessarily having access to the same data.
Gregg approached his prospect by explaining that he knew thought leaders who had helped a major company develop efficiencies in manufacturing processes, and he reasoned that his prospect's company, even though it was not a manufacturing operation, might benefit from a consultation about best practices with the engineers he was referring to. He gave his prospect a referral to one of his contacts, and the response was immediately positive. His prospect recognized that his firm had supply chain problems, and the firm ended up adopting many of the recommendations of the manufacturing engineers that Gregg referred to them. Prompted by his gesture of progressive reciprocity, Gregg received referrals to several people in the financial industry likely to be interested in hiring him.
What profile describes the ideal member or subscriber for your prospect's organization or journal?
Professional organizations are among the best, most efficient, and most under utilized places to find critical enabler thought leaders when you're developing a gesture of progressive reciprocity. Membership directors of these organizations tend to gravitate toward their jobs because they're excellent networkers, and, as part of their job responsibilities, they tend to develop their networks very fully. Further, their job is to increase membership rolls, so they almost always welcome help with that task. Program directors of professional organizations also tend to be excellent sources of intelligence, because they work directly with industry thought leaders to develop the content of presentations and activities to retain members and attract new members.
My clients Sarah and Jerry did their homework to build background information that provided valuable progressive reciprocity for their potential critical enablers.
Sarah wanted to make a diagonal move in her company, going from quality assurance to the product development division. She needed to quickly develop information on the new area. Sarah had identified the membership director of a leading professional association in her field as someone likely to direct her to the thought leaders from whom she could gather the information she needed to make the transition.
As part of her research into her prospective critical enabler's needs, Sarah searched through her network looking for contacts who might be able to help her prospect find new members. Her old department at the university she'd graduated from might be an excellent source of leads, she thought. She decided to suggest that her prospect and the department head—with whom she had worked to develop her undergraduate thesis—could develop a relationship that would likely be beneficial to both.
Sarah contacted her thesis adviser, mentioning that she would be approaching the membership director and that she thought it might be beneficial for his department and the professional organization to develop a relationship. Her professor liked the idea very much—he had already identified improving the department's outreach efforts as something he needed to do—and he gave her the go-ahead to arrange a meeting.
In her initial phone call to her prospect, Sarah began by saying that her old thesis adviser liked the idea of referring potential new members to the organization, feeling the university would gain from such a relationship—especially in the area of enabling its students to make valuable contacts as they were preparing to go out into the business world. Sarah went so far as to suggest they might set up a model program based on her prospect's organization working with colleges and universities in this way.
Sarah then explained that she herself was interested in talking with several industry thought leaders in order to gain the intelligence she needed to move into a new area within her company. Her prospect welcomed the opportunity to help, and he agreed to refer Sarah to several people from whom she could gain the information she was seeking. Her strategy was such a success that she soon found her ideal job—and in making the offer, her new department head made it a point to note that she had distinguished herself from other applicants for the job by the depth and breadth of knowledge she demonstrated about the company's products and those of its competitors in the industry.
Jerry wanted to interview for the job of vice president of marketing that had just opened up at a major corporation, so he was seeking a referral to the person in charge of hiring for that position. On one of the social networking sites he frequented, he discovered that someone in his network—a man he'd met casually about a year earlier—had a direct connection to the person he wanted to meet. He didn't know the network member well enough to just call him and ask for a referral, so we began to search for a gesture of progressive reciprocity Jerry could make to turn this remote connection into a critical enabler.
In gathering background information on the prospect, we noted that he worked for a customer loyalty analytics company that was in the business of researching and analyzing customer franchises. The subscriber profile for the company's services included businesses that kept very close tabs on their customers and clients, and when Jerry discovered that, the light went on. Earlier in his career, Jerry had worked for an international magazine that was constantly looking for ways to capture feedback about its readers— satisfaction with the product. The magazine was the most subscriber-oriented business he could imagine, and he felt it would be a perfect candidate to use his critical enabler's services as a way of getting insight into its customers.
Jerry approached his prospect with an offer to refer him to a decision maker at the magazine he used to work for; in exchange, he requested a referral to the decision maker in charge of hiring for the position he was seeking. The critical enabler was happy to exchange referrals, commenting that the magazine Jerry had recommended seemed to be an ideal candidate for his company's services.
What charitable causes does your prospect support?
Many people pride themselves on their commitment to community service, and this can be a productive area to examine as you develop your gesture of progressive reciprocity. Find the names of specific charities or nonprofits your critical enabler is associated with and explore the possibility of helping support their activity.
If you look beyond business connections and consider other aspects of life, you're apt to find your prospect's true passions. This kind of information is often easy to find on social networking sites. If you're on the same journey in some level of "real life"'that is, outside of business—you may find a gesture of progressive reciprocity that really matters to your prospect.
My client Colleen was preparing her company for an IPO, and she had identified the managing director of an investment bank as a prospective critical enabler who could help her work through the details of the exit strategy to be included in her business plan. As we researched her prospect's interests, we discovered that he was very involved with a nonprofit organization that ran homeless shelters. When I suggested that we explore this further, Colleen demurred, saying that she couldn't imagine what she could provide that would be of benefit to this charitable organization.
I suggested that despite her reservations we continue to explore this area, starting with the question, "What do homeless shelters need?"
"Well, food, of course," Colleen said, adding that homeless shelters are basically in the business of providing meals for their clients. This triggered an interesting connection. Colleen recalled that she had a friend who owned a turkey farm, and turkeys were certainly something a homeless shelter could use in almost endless quantity. She immediately called her friend to ask whether he'd be interested in making a donation of frozen turkeys to the homeless shelters her critical enabler was affiliated with. Her friend, recognizing the opportunity to provide a valuable service that would also generate good publicity, said he would do so.
When Colleen's prospect learned of the offer of holiday turkeys, he was delighted, saying that he couldn't wait to let others at the shelters know of the donation. In return, the bank officer was more than willing to help Colleen develop her exit strategy. The result was an ongoing relationship in which Colleen's friend provided the homeless shelters with annual donations of turkeys for the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. Colleen, in turn, was able to complete her public offering while paying significantly lower investment bank fees.
What can you do personally, based on your own background or professional experience, that would be of value to your prospect?
When you're preparing to approach the people who have the information and contacts you need, you often need to use lateral thinking. Rather than asking individuals for the information you want, for example, you can poll a discussion forum on a topic of general interest and offer to share the collective response to those who participate'that's a fairly easy way of creating quick value. Or you can post a survey, article, or even a white paper about best practices and then approach a variety of people who'd be good critical enablers (along with other industry leaders) and offer the opportunity to contribute to it and be quoted in your write-up.
Although this might seem like a lot of extra work just to persuade someone to provide referrals and information, it can be a strategic move. I've worked with a number of people who were breaking into totally new fields and took this tack. They gained not only access to critical enablers but also instant credibility, simply by virtue of collecting and posting thought leaders— questions and answers about an important but underaddressed issue in the field. It is kind of like being a reporter. The real story or value comes from the interviewees, but just by association the person preparing the report becomes regarded as a valuable resource'someone deserving of further help. That's certainly what my client Mary discovered.
Mary wanted to get back to consulting now that her children were in school. Because of her own medical history and her experience with overseeing her young children's medical care and that of her aging parents, she had developed a special interest in applying her expertise in the medical industry, where she was certain her skills could make a big difference in changing industry standards and best practices for the better.
Mary had identified several prospective critical enabl-ers, including one hospital chief medical officer who was scheduled to give a talk at a convention in a city near where she lived. It was too late to set up a meeting or even to query her network and see if she could get an introduction, so she determined that she would attend his lecture and approach him directly with her proposal. Mary attended the conference, and she was the first in line to speak with her contact after his talk. After introducing herself, she made her gesture of progressive reciprocity very directly by saying, "I'm working on a white paper about what key medical industry executives think are the most important best-practices issues that need to be addressed today, and I'd very much like to get your input on the subject."
Her contact responded immediately and positively, saying that he'd be honored to help her out. He shared his contact information with her and suggested she call his administrative assistant to set up an interview. During the interview, her critical enabler not only answered her questions about which issues he felt were currently most important, but also made suggestions as to how such a survey might be worded, and he suggested she use his name to contact two other people he was sure would want to contribute to her project.
Mary's gesture of progressive reciprocity was proposing that her critical enabler work with her to develop a paper that would very likely be of great benefit to the entire medical industry. She was giving him and others she approached a chance to give back to their industry. In the process, she discovered that she was able to obtain not only an interview with one industry leader but access to other industry leaders as well, dramatically expanding her pool of critical enablers.
After her interviews with the two referrals that her initial critical enabler had provided, word of Mary's project began to spread quite rapidly. She found she no longer needed to try to find a job; rather, the jobs were trying to find her. Within the next two months, she had no fewer than three offers from consulting firms that worked in her target field, and she also was approached by two hospitals that wanted to hire her to work on implementing organizational changes based on correcting best-practices issues they had identified.
What if you can't find the right gesture of progressive reciprocity in your initial research about your prospect?
It sometimes happens that you don't hit on precisely the right gesture to establish the kind or level of progressive reciprocity that you would like. Your initial offer may not be something your prospective critical enabler actually values, or you simply may not be able to discover a sufficiently compelling gesture. In that case, don't just abandon the idea; before you go back to square one and look for another person who could serve as your critical enabler, rethink and redefine your approach to your first choice.
If you can arrange a meeting, focus it on your prospect. That is, turn it into a sort of needs interview, an in-person getting-to-know-you meeting in which you follow up to find more information about what's important to your critical enabler and how you might use that knowledge to make a meaningful gesture of progressive reciprocity. Look for information about what the prospect does and what factors affect the prospect's performance appraisal, along with markets the prospect wants to reach and activities the prospect engages in outside business. Chances are that this discussion will suggest a gesture of progressive reciprocity you can make on the spot or in the future.
Although you may initially find that your prospective critical enabler is reluctant to reveal any real needs, continue to diplomatically and respectfully probe this area, because you never know where your critical enabler's need is going to pop up. Even if you ultimately can't deliver a gesture of progressive reciprocity, your efforts to do so will not go unnoticed. You'll gain a great deal of respect from your critical enabler for your efforts, because you made it clear how important such gestures are to you. I liken it to a math test in which, even if you can't come up with the right answer, you get points for "showing your work."
In my experience this does work almost all of the time. If you look for a connection that allows you to offer something your prospect finds valuable, or at least meaningful enough to give you credit for trying, you can almost always find one. In my experience, even the people who are toughest to get anything from are softened by this approach'to the point of providing things they normally would never even consider. So don't give up or give in to early pessimism; the gesture of progressive reciprocity really is almost uniformly effective—as my persevering client Aaron learned.
Aaron was trying to build a leadership consulting practice, so I referred him to a well-known thought leader whose own consulting practice focused on leadership transitions; I thought he would be ideal as a critical enabler for Aaron's quest for clients. The two were consulting with the same kinds of clients but were taking different approaches by focusing on different aspects of corporate transition consulting.
Aaron's original gesture of progressive reciprocity was an offer to refer his critical enabler to a corporate client with whom he was currently working. Although his critical enabler had agreed to an initial meeting, Aaron was concerned that he hadn't really found the right gesture and that his approach might not get him the results he wanted.
Aaron's worries were confirmed early in their first meeting, when his critical enabler danced around the specifics of what their business relationship might involve. It was clear that something more was needed, and Aaron determined to find a better, more compelling offer. To do that, he continued to ask his critical enabler questions and to exchange information with him about various topics, including business objectives and methods as well as personal history. When they got around to talking about their upcoming summer plans, Aaron learned that his prospect was planning a trip to France with his family, including a chartered barge up the Seine River into Belgium. As it turned out, Aaron had a wealth of reciprocity currency he'd no idea he possessed.
It so happened that Aaron had vacationed in France with his family and they had taken several trips up the Seine—precisely the same type of trip his prospect was planning. Aaron had found that the primary key to making such a trip pleasant and relaxing was finding the right captain for the charter. In his travels, Aaron had acquired a great deal of knowledge about the captains in the business, and he was able to say, "Here's the captain you need to call. He's the best and most reliable and least expensive out of dozens I've met or heard of." The prospect immediately responded by saying, "You don't know how much this means to me. My wife has been after me to work on this part of our trip, and I didn't know where to begin to research it, and I wouldn't have the time even if I did." Then he said, "Now, what was it you were looking for?"
In many cases you simply can't know in advance what reciprocity currency you might be able to call on with your potential critical enabler. Aaron achieved his goal by becoming a critical enabler in the very specialized and somewhat obscure area of chartered boat trips up the Seine in France for the very person he had identified as his critical enabler!
Continue to try to connect with your critical enablers, to find out who they are on a personal level. This kind of effort to discover who your potential critical enablers are and what they need is another key to unlocking relationships in which true value exchanges can occur.
But not everyone who can help will help, and eventually it's time to move on. If it doesn't work out after your own best efforts, simply look for another prospect—as discussed in Chapter Seven.
Of course, I haven't begun to cover the countless business situations you might become involved in. If none of the questions here apply to your particular case, develop your own. Use the questions and stories in this chapter as models to expand your own exploration of your reciprocity currency.
Many people find themselves by default spending their time online engaging in unproductive digital networking activities rather than making targeted requests for assistance. The reason often boils down to a somewhat distorted mental image: when they imagine actually asking people for something, whether it's a job or funding or any other business favor, they see themselves as down on their knees begging. They see themselves as submissive, not in control, in the weak position of having to ask.
When you offer a gesture of progressive reciprocity, you reverse that equation. You become the one in control, the one offering help—and it's remarkable how empowering such a gesture is. It levels the playing field, essentially reframing the important issues, changing the focus from approaching your critical enabler asking for help to offering something of value in advance. And once you begin the practice of offering something in advance before you ask for something for yourself, you'll discover that it's much easier to approach people. You'll be able to honestly say that you have the express intent of helping your critical enabler, and you'll find that is an enormous confidence-booster.