Power Acronym 34: F.O.R.M.
F.O.R.M.-ing relationships
“Your network is your net worth”.
You've undoubtedly heard this phrase before.
My career has been shaped significantly by networking.
The opportunity for the job I have now came from a friend tagging me on a post on LinkedIn. A couple of months later, the Trucking for Millennials Podcast was launched, and fast forward almost 5 years later we’re 200+ episodes in, have moved thousands of truckloads for our customers and my network of logistics professionals continues to grow every day.
Some of these connections are competitors, some I have only had an hour-long conversation with, but it doesn’t matter - we’ve built a relationship over our occupation.
We have rapport and that relationship is an asset that will appreciate over time as long as I continue making positive deposits into it.
Which brings me to today’s Power Acronym.
I found it on a sign at Palm Beach Tan.
They use F.O.R.M. as a way to train their team on building rapport with customers.
It's an easy-to-remember framework that can double as a map of where to focus your efforts for growing your network. Check it out:
Power Acronym 34: F.O.R.M.
Here’s a distinction I think is valuable to keep in mind when thinking about building rapport I heard from Grant Cardone:
Be INTERESTED. Then be INTERESTING.
To effectively build rapport (defined as a close and harmonious relationship in which the people or groups concerned understand each other's feelings or ideas and communicate well) you have to be genuinely INTERESTED in having that close and harmonious relationship.
Maya Angelou said it best:
“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
So remember to always infuse anything you say with a genuine, heartfelt, loving curiosity so that you can forge a stronger relationship with the person across from you.
Now the framework:
Family
Learning about someone's family is a great way to learn about people as individuals. It also serves as an opportunity to establish points of connection.
What stories do you have about your family that may relate to the person you're speaking with?
What do you know about the place they grew up? If you know nothing, that’s great! Get interested and learn something.
Occupation
Typically the first thing that comes up in any “nice to meet you” context is what you do for work. A small detail or two is all you need to start an entire conversation about the industry, how it relates to what you do or where you are, and what it means for that person.
The key to having a good conversation about work is to ask open-ended questions:
“What’s it like being a [INSERT PERSON’s POSITION] in the [INSERT INDUSTRY]”?
“What’s your favorite thing about [INSERT INDUSTRY]”?
“How did you get your job”?
“What did you do before”?
Recreation
There’s only so much talk about work that some folks want to engage in. So a great pivot is to talk about play, or what people like to do off work.
I run, read, write, podcast, travel with my wife, and hang with my dogs.
Some people love reality TV or movies. Others like to talk about sports.
What are your customers / local network obsessed with?
Associating yourself with that conversation can be a great way to build a fruitful relationship.
Motivation
Here are a few examples of starting rapport from someone’s motivation:
Eating healthy
Buying a car
Meeting new people
Learning something
You can imagine how these different contexts start and influence how relationships are formed.
What do you think?
Power Acronym Daily
366 Acronyms to encourage, enrich, and empower.