When it comes to establishing a relationship, there is a pattern we see over and over. This is not scientific by any means, but in my experience and that of networking colleagues, we see these steps in this order in many different situations.
From business to social to dating interactions, the establishment of a relationship progresses through these five steps:
- Initial contact
- Familiarity
- Trading information
- Call back
- A face-to-face meeting
Initial contact takes the form of a first interaction: a meeting at a chamber of commerce, a quick conversation on an elevator, or someone viewing a profile (LinkedIn or MAtch or Facebook, for example).
Familiarity grows with a secondary contact with one part reaching out with a message, “like” or a “wink.”
Once contact is made, information is exchanged and either a direct email, text or other message suggests a conversation.
The call back is an actual voice-to-voice phone call. Voices tell a lot about a person and, if things are still working, a face-to-face meeting is suggested.
At a face-to-face (F2F) meeting, real interaction takes place. The time it takes to get to know someone speeds up in person. facial expressions, speech patterns (inflection), eye contact, appearance, body language, all of thoese “real” things make for the true establishment of a relationship.
From here, a relationship can move to the building phase and then on to being maintained and enhanced. While social media are important tools, they are really nothing more than a bridge to a face-to-face connection to a real person, who, hopefully, becomes your client, friend or associate.
Relentless
