Understanding Spheres of Influence

Once you have developed your list of key contacts (i.e. centers of influence) it is important to understand the concept of “Spheres of Influence.” This simply means that people influence others in many ways, not just in business circles. For example, people are involved on volunteer committees, church groups, sports team, activities for their children, on boards or committees for their company, non-profit activities, fund raising committees and special interest groups.

Understanding this concept is important in two ways. We can uncover people who we know or come into contact with who might have gone unrecognized. Secondly, asking probing questions of your key contacts or “connection agents” or centers of influence (COI) will uncover more people who they know. What I suggest is arranging getting together with each of your COIs to discover and discuss their spheres of influence as well as to discuss yours to better understand them.

Here is a relevant example. I was driving up to a meeting in Boston with my business partner. We were just dialoguing on a personal level when it came up that I went to the same school and worked with the head of marketing at the Basketball Hall of Fame. He said to me kiddingly “why have you been holding out on me?” Since he works with marketing decision makers in his business this is a strong referral for him. Point being, you need to think of ALL of the people who you know in every context, not just your business world. Once you have identified the key areas that you know people in, then you need to ask the simplest, yet most important question in networking: “who do you know, who knows …” One statistic shared with me is that 20% of clients give out referrals without being prompted, 20% never do and the balance of the 60% would give you a referral but are never asked!

I call it “peeling the onion.” You need to peel the onion in two ways when meeting on this topic. Firstly, you need to fully understand what type of contacts would be valuable to the person you are meeting with. Keep in mind good contacts are not just prospective customers but strategic partners, employees and media contacts to name a few. One of Dale Carnegie’s principles in his book How to Win Friends and Influence People is the concept of talking in terms of the other person’s interests. Our natural tendency is to talk about ourselves and what we need. If you shift the paradigm and think in terms of what benefits the other person you will increase your business opportunities drastically. Secondly, once you understand their target audience then you can peel the onion on your side across your spheres of influence. Who do you know who knows someone that person needs to meet and what sphere do you know them in.

Ultimately, whether directly or indirectly, you know many more people than you actually realize. Understanding this is so important to both growing your business and helping others grow theirs.