Mastering Your Business – 7 Ways to Increase Influence with Colleagues, Prospects, and Clients.

Outstanding small business leaders and successful sales team members draw a roadmap that guides themselves and their target audience closer efficiently and effectively.

We have all met a person who can make anyone comfortable, engaged and trusting.  What superpower gives you that talent?

Business relationships like all relational connections incline to form between people who are similar.  How to broaden and diversity your internal network can be shared and learned.  True growth is gained from building business relationships that aren’t only made up of people just like you.

Let’s look at seven tactics that resonate strongest in our new returning to the office, post covid, world.

• Undo Stereotypes.Owners and managers today are responsible for leading up to five generations at the same time.  This makes intergenerational relationships at work more important than ever before.  Initiate discussion with your team about generational differences and challenge assumptions. A crucial first step to identify and reverse generational misperceptions is to mitigate age-based biases on your team.

For example, if there is a perception that older employees are resistant to change, showcase instances where senior team members have spearheaded successful innovation projects to oust such stereotypes.

• Highlight Intergenerational Team Benefits.Blended generational work teams tend to have diverse strengths.  Having a group of colleagues with diverse ages provides new perspectives that provide unique subject matter expertise and establish incredible mentoring and cross member coaching opportunities.

Encourage collaborative projects that leverage the diverse strengths of different age groups.  For instance, create a sales and marketing mentorship program pairing younger employees with seasoned professionals to facilitate knowledge sharing and skill development.

Imagine having multiple decades of reference points all knowledgeable on complementary skill sets.  Sharing internally and then engaging prospects and clients with this new insight will enhance the value of you to all.

• Emphasize a Shared Purpose.  Aligning a team or committee of highly diverse communications and motivations perspectives around a common goal, mission and vision will help foster unity across generation divides.  Well-managed generational variety has the capacity to bring extensive benefits, including knowledge transfer, innovation coaching, and higher employee satisfaction contributing to reducing turnover.

Develop a common mission that transcends generational differences. For instance, establish a company-wide initiative to give back to the community, which can unite employees of all ages around a shared goal and foster a sense of purpose.

• Establish Community Amongst Your Clients and Prospects.Organize a monthly virtual coffee chat where individuals from different generations within your network can join in to discuss industry trends, share best practices and learn from each other.  By creating a comfortable and interactive virtual space, you can facilitate connections and encourage knowledge sharing among diverse professionals.

Alternatively, you could host a monthly early morning or after work conversation in local gathering spaces to bring clients and prospects from different generations.  Hold them mid-week at easy access locations. This can create a relaxed environment for networking and relationship building outside of workday hours.

• Use Networking to Look Beyond “Chemistry”.Connections can naturally pop up, but don’t rely on this happening.  Adopt a more open mindset seeking out working relationships with new people who may have separate backgrounds, talent sets or merits than you.

When using networking to look beyond “chemistry”, consider attending workshops or seminars focused on professional development in areas outside your expertise.  For instance, if you are in sales, attending a marketing conference can introduce you to professionals with different backgrounds and skill sets, opening opportunities for collaboration and expanding your network.

• Make it a Habit.Setup specific times to catch up and collaborate with both internal and external contacts.  Regularly scheduled interactions – not just casual, on-off encounters – will help you to unlock a deeper, more interesting connection.  Meals or beverage sessions where work is a distant secondary conversation makes for interesting background and life conversations.
• Embrace and Harness Curiosity.Instead of perceiving interpersonal differences as obstacles, try to see them as opportunities for growth and learning. To embrace and harness curiosity, you can incorporate diversity and inclusion training sessions within your organization.  These workshops can encourage employees to ask questions, engage in meaningful discussions, and gain a deeper understanding of their peers’ perspectives and experiences.

Asking genuine questions about differing viewpoints, values and experiences plays a crucial role in nurturing diverse relationships.   By fostering a culture of curiosity and learning you can create a more inclusive and supportive work environment which attracts business prospects and establishes longer term “raving fan” customers and clients.

Conclusion:

You can be a small business success if you create a roadmap to guide yourself and team to engage with colleagues, prospects, and clients in diverse, engaging, and personal manners.  Remember buying decisions are 80% emotional and 20% logical.

Who is Mike Ronchetti?

With more than thirty-five years of real-life, on-the-ground small business experience across various industries, Mike has owned, operated, and successfully exited seven businesses. Mike lived in Plainfield, IL, St. Paul, MN, Anchorage, AK., and returned in 2013 to Plainfield. In 2020 Mike and Becky, his wife, relocated to South Bend to be closer to family. In 2021 he became an ActionCOACH certified business and executive coach and opened a local office.  His mission is to work with businesses owners to create vivid dreams, establish aggressive goals and then crush them.