3 Top Questions For Good Business Karma

I recently found myself on the receiving end of a pitch from a potential ‘referral-friend’ at a coffee shop and, though I liked the guys, they spent very little time getting to know me, instantly relegating them in my mind to “Vendor I Know” rather than a trusted advisor whom I would feel comfortable sending to my clients. They even sparked up some slides (Uh…more coffee please!?)

In fairness, they were new to networking and the “give-and-give” of modern business relationship-building. They just went at it as if they had a lot of information to spew and little time to spew it in.

Most successful executives understand the value of “karmatic goodness”. They tend to have highly evolved empathic skills and seek out ways to help others in business. Thus they are generally more successful than those who merely seek out opportunity. (Ironically, opportunists wind up with fewer opportunities.)

Before (or preferably, instead of) launching into a pitch, here are three good questions you should ask potential referral partners:

1: “How exactly do you provide value to your customers?”

2. “Who (title, company type) is your ideal target customer?”

3. “How can I help you?”

To step it up a notch, come up with one prospect/lead for the person and help make a meeting happen. Though it may feel funny at first to help business people when “they’ve never done anything for you”, but rest assured, more likely than not they will eagerly reciprocate if they know what’s good for them. Conversely, you are almost guaranteed a wasted meeting if you trust that just because someone knows who you are they will refer leads to you.

Nothing builds a relationship faster than true service coupled with energetic follow-through. Make serving others your number one priority and you will find karma to be very kind to your business.

Don’t let The Office become your office

Just caught another great episode of NBC’s The Office and (business nerd that I am) it got me thinking about what motivates others and how that aligns with a company’s vision…

There are basically three methods to motivating others: 1) Delivering on their needs/wants 2) fear, and 3) intimidation. Certainly you can tell employees what to do, but if they don’t buy into your vision they will usually do the bare minimum required of them because they don’t have any understanding of where they’re headed, or why. And unless they do, they’re not exicited about their work. So you end up with a morose or frustrated bunch of people who need to be cajoled constantly to produce. Like the good folks at Dunder-Mifflin.

A better route to motivate is through a vested interest in your company’s direction. This can be done with all types of rewards, not just financial. 

How about a sense of purpose as a reward? Today’s professionals, especially in creative or rapidly changing industries and especially younger employees, need to know the work they are doing means something to them, their families, their co-workers and/or the world at large. For your vision to become reality, everyone in your organzation must share it. Create a vision and what it stands for, build trust, and outline the rule of the road to get there.

Otherwise, just move to Scranton and get it over with.