Transactional vs Relational
When I started out to write the book, Business Networking and Sex, I suggested to my co-authors that we might find that men are more tranactional in their network building while women are more relational. It has been my experience after years of teaching businesses how to develop and implement sound referral strategies, that there was and is a difference between the sexes. Men have a tendency to be about the business, while women will go for the relationship. At the end of our survey we had one last question, ?Is there anything that you would like to share with us about your experience networking?? Here are 3 quotes that were shared that directly concurred with what I believed.
#280 When I meet with women to network and discuss business I find we spend about 90% of the time getting to know each other, we discuss family, who we are, our backgrounds , etc. then we spend about 10% of time talking about business. When meeting with men I find we spend 10% of our time getting to know each other and 90% of our time talking about business. Both approaches are effective, but I enjoy networking with women more.
#220 In my experience, women tend to network intuitively, but they tend to focus on relationship issues. Men tend to network by design, and they tend to focus on business issues.
#178 I find that most women who network are definitely more interested in developing a relationship and then business later. Most men get right into the conversation of ?so what do you do??
Gentlemen if you only go for the business when you first meet a women, you lose the opportunity to build ?long term relationships that lead to on going referrals and connections. ?Seeking transactions you means are always out there looking for the next deal. Your business relationships with women can become a highly profitable if you take the time to get to know them, build trust and teach them how you can help them build their business as they help you. Women will use your services and they will spread positive word of mouth about you, your business and your products if they know you, like you and trust you.
Ladies, you can?t just build the relationship and hope they will do business with you, you must to ask for business, you have to teach your network how to refer business to you as well as learn how to give referrals to them. Women get stuck in the relationship and have a tendency not to move it forward into a profitable relationship. They are concerned that they will be seen as commercializing their relationships, or being considered pushy.
This accounts for one of the reasons that women business owners earn .55 to the $1.00 of a male owned business. Remembering that business is about ?business? and there is an expectation that business will happen when you are building your network are your referral strategies around sound relational processes.
There is much we can learn from each other, men can learn to slow down, take time and build a strong referral relationship that will supply quality referrals for both sides, while women can learn to let her network know what kind of business she is looking for and how she wants to be referred. When we learn to adapt to each other we both win!
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About author:
Hazel Walker?s passion for lifelong learning, personal growth, and relationship-building has been invaluable in her evolution to serial entrepreneur, seasoned author and dynamic speaker.
All entries by Hazel Walker
Source: http://businessnetworkingandsex.com/he-says-go-for-the-deal-she-says-go-for-the-relationship/
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