Summary: This is a rebroadcast of Episode 148. Note that the Ask Ivan Misner site is no longer live. Synopsis Dr. Misner posted his story about premature solicitation on some of his favorite social networks. Most people expressed their horror and sympathy, but one person actually wrote, "I donât happen to believe that you need a relationship with the person you are asking first. What you must have is a compelling story or product or service that would genuinely benefit the referral. The fact that you had not cultivated a relationship with the person has become irrelevant, because more importantly, youâd been in a position to help your contact benefit from the introduction. If itâs of genuine benefit to the person being referred, I donât see the problem. Itâs about the benefit of whatâs being referred rather than the relationship with the person thatâs asking for the referral. Who am I to deny my contacts something good?â Everybody thinks they have a good product. How do you know whether youâre denying your contacts something good if you donât know anything about this person or their product? Some people donât get it even when you explain it to them. Brought to you by Ask Ivan Misner. Complete Transcription of BNI Podcast Episode 148 - Priscilla: Hello everyone, and welcome back to The Official BNI Podcast brought to you by AskIvanMisner.com, which is a new Web site where you can ask Ivan any question you have ever had about networking. Iâm Priscilla Rice, and Iâm coming to you from Live Oak Recording Studio in Berkley, California, and Iâm joined on the phone today by the founder and the chairman of BNI, Dr. Ivan Misner. Hello, Ivan. How are you and where are you? Ivan: This week Iâm in Austin, Texas. Iâm doing some recording for a follow-up CDs to the BNI Networking Secrets. Weâve talked about Networking Secrets on these podcasts, and the del Fuego ladies, Sarah and Flynn, have come up with some great ideas for a follow-up CD. Everyoneâs going to be seeing those soon. Weâll be recording them, and weâll bring it up here on the podcast as soon as theyâre ready. And thatâs what Iâm doing in Austin this week. Priscilla: That sounds great. I loved the last ones they did. Ivan: Thank you. Priscilla: So whatâs your topic? What are you going to talk to us about? Ivan: Well, remember last weekâs topic? I spoke about premature solicitation. Priscilla: Uh-huh. Ivan: It was about a situation where someone whom I never met, didnât know asked me to introduce him and his product to a really important connection of mine. Well, I wrote that as a blog on NetworkingNowBlog.com, which is my blog. For those of you listening, if you havenât gone to it, take a look at it, NetworkingNowBlog.com. And I shared what I posted up on the blog and a few other different venues, I shared what I talked about in the podcast last week and a few other different venues, including one of my favorite online social networks. And a great dialogue ensued when I posted this on one of the social networks, with most people sharing their horror stories and frustrations about people who pounce on them; you know, they just jump on them at networking meetings asking for business even though theyâve never met the person before. Well, every time I start to think thatâs itâs an almost universal feeling of distaste for that approach to networking. I am brought back to reality by the minority of people who still think that this is actually a good networking technique, pouncing on somebody asking for business before you know them. To my astonishment, someone on the forum actually wrote â now, I am going to quote you their actual words. Theyâre totally serious with what Iâm about to say. This is excerpted from a very long message on the forum. They said, and I quote, âI donât happen to believe that you need a relationship with the person you are asking first.
