In today’s world, it’s not who you know, it’s who you get to know.

Networking is the key to building new contacts and resources.  You may be standing next to someone who can bring a sizable amount of business to your bank or credit union, hire you for the next job, provide insight into a tricky problem you’re struggling with, or even become a mentor.

Yet you may never realize it if you don’t open your mouth.

If you develop professional networking skills, you can build relationships that can have staying powers in these troubling economic times.  Networking allows you to put a “face” on the package you bring to the table; it helps form synergies and ultimately it gets people who like you to root for you.

Networking is ultimately about sharing in the most non-selfish sense.  People want to hire and do business with people they click with.  Networking allows you to start the process, but because most people don’t know how to network effectively, it often falls flat.

Most people equate networking with pushiness; effective networking is far from this.  To me, networking is most akin to building friendships; you talk enough to see what you have in common, what you might mutually enjoy, and if you feel comfortable with each other.  Of course, there is the added dimension of economics.  That additional pressure often makes people feel self-conscious, and that’s where they stumble.

One of the largest networking mistakes is to cluster with people you already know when attending an event that is potentially ripe with networking opportunities.  People often feel there is safety in numbers, but this “safety net” actually becomes a trap.  Spending time with people you already know or sitting next to co-workers might be fun, but it’s not good networking.

A few years ago I did a workshop on networking for female bankers.  In going around to the various tables, I was struck by how many women were grouped people from the same bank or with people they already knew.  The first thing I did was get them up and moving and talking to people they didn’t know.  The energy in the room became kinetic.

A good networking rule is to try to meet at least five new people at every gathering.

Other no-no’s to avoid when networking:

• Don’t spend your time hanging out at the refreshment table. It’s hard to network when you’re juggling a forkful in one hand and a drink in the other. Remember, it’s net-working not net-entertaining.  The catch-phrase networking experts use is that networking is a verb.
• Don’t forget names. Try the repeater method to learn them. Say the person’s name several times in your mind after he or she tells you it. Use it once or twice within the first three or four minutes of conversation. Google other tips for remembering names and use what works for you. If you forget someone’s name, one good thing to say is, “I remember peoples’ faces (or energy levels), but not their names. Would you please tell me yours again?” or “I always have to hear someone’s name twice before it sinks in. May I hear yours again?”
• Don’t forget to read body language. One key thing: look at people’s feet. It’s usually a good sign if they are both pointed toward you. When one of both of them is pointed in another direction (like toward the exit), that is usually where the person wants to go.
• Don’t forget to carry a “conversation starter.” This is something like a book, a bag, a piece of jewelry, that people comment on whenever you carry/wear it. It makes you approachable.
• Don’t forget to smile. Ask a friend to observe you from across the room at a networking meeting and rate you on approachability. A 5 means, “I’ve got to get to know this person.” 4 means, “He’s/she looks interesting. I’m going to try to talk to  him/her today if I get a chance.”  3 means, “If that person crosses my path, I’m sure he/she would be okay to talk to.  No big deal, otherwise.” 2 means, “Whom are you talking about?” (In other words, they wouldn’t even notice you.) 1 means, “Boy, that person looks mean.”
• Don’t set your expectations too high. For example, at a recent meeting, I make six contacts, including one I was in a position to offer business to. I followed through with all six and received a half of a response. (The person was on vacation and wrote to say she would contact me again when she arrived back at the office, but then never did.)  The person I was in a position to offer business to never bothered to contact me back. (Her loss!)  Like many people,  I use networking responses as an indication of business character. For example, if the person I wrote to with a potential offer of new business writes me back five weeks later, I wouldn’t hire her because I would know she wasn’t good at prompt follow through.
• Don’t feel like you need to be pushy to be a good networker. When I ask workshop participants to list adjectives that describe good  networkers, “pushiness” never makes the list. Typical responses are: confident, friendly, energetic, positive, engaging, personable, humorous, good memory, knowledgeable. Aim for these instead. 
• Don’t forget your manners. When I ask workshop participants to list behaviors that they feel great networkers possess, typical answers are: they have good eye contact, they are great listeners, they thank everyone, they introduce themselves to everyone, they provide positive feedback to people, they act like a host, they learn and use people’s names, they smile a lot, and they do what they tell you they are going to do (follow through).
• Don’t forget your business cards. Carry them everywhere.
• Don’t forget to make notations on the back of business cards you collect. Add something that will job your members, such as “spoke about a potential position being created in six months.” Note appropriate action. “Send her my resume and include in cover letter Peace Corps experience.” Also note where you met.
• Don’t forget that networking is a two-way street. People will be more prone to help you if you are helpful yourself. Make it a two-sided conversation. Some good questions to ask is: How do I know if someone may be a good prospect for you? How is your company different from your competitions’? What trends are you noticing in your field?
• Don’t be negative. No one likes to do business with naysayers.
• Don’t forget to do a breath and hygiene check.
• Don’t forget to dress professionally. Dress for a professional event like you are going on a job interview.
• Don’t forget to reward yourself. When you’re done, breathe. Count your successes not in terms of new business made but in terms of personal growth. Finish this sentence, “I’m proud of myself today because I . . . “

One thing that my workshop participants learn is that networking is not something you do only at trade shows, chamber meetings, and other events.  It’s something you do anytime and anywhere. I once met a woman at a resort conference center where I was a guest speaker.  I held the door open for her and commented on her pretty dress.  About 20 minutes later, I was moving my car from the area where I was unloading and saw her again.  I smiled and say, “Hello, again, pretty dress lady.”  We started talking and it turned out she was the coordinator for a convention of nutritionists.  She hired me to speak at their next meeting.

Practice everywhere.  Talk to people while you’re waiting for your Mocha-Java-tini at the coffee house. Speak to people when you’re waiting on line somewhere.  Once you get in the habit, it becomes second nature.  The key is you need to deal with your fear of rejection.

I once had a vice president of a bank attend a workshop.  He started the day with a strong fear of rejection, feeling that “networking” was simply another way of spelling “pushiness.”  By the end of the day, he told me that he now felt that his bank offered a great service to small businesses in the community.  Looking at networking as synonymous with helping makes all the difference.

Margaret DeMarino is a business communications trainer who specializes in topics ranging from effective business development to supervisory skills to customer service.  My workshop on networking is called “Work That Room!”  For more information, please call 800-795-5242 x1180.

NO, I’m not talking about George Carlin’s “words you can’t say on television”.  (Ahem).  I’m talking about plain ol’ every day garden variety words that are BAD because they’re wishy-washy and weak.  When introducing yourself, your business, product, or service you want to use BIG BOLD BRAVE words.  Words that bespeak confidence about you and what you offer.

Maybe: (might, perhaps, etc):  This is no time for indecision or wavering.  It’s not “Maybe we can help.”, or “You might want to give us a call.”  Take a deep breath and say, “We can help.” Or “Give us a call.”  Be definitive, be certain.  If you say “maybe” the audience thinks “maybe not”.  In an elevator speech or persuasive presentation we don’t want to leave wiggle room.

Hopefully: Not that there isn’t a leap of faith involved in just about every business undertaking, but we certainly don’t want our audience to know that.  “Hopefully you’ll contact us.” Sounds like you’re living on a wing and a prayer, not on sound products and services.  HOPE has nothing to do with the prospect, employer, or client contacting you, hiring you, buying your stuff.  It’s the SOLID earthly benefits of you, your product or service that sells.  You must sound positive so that they are positive about you.

Sort of: Ay yi yi.  Are you or aren’t you?  Is it or isn’t it? Do you have a good handle on what it is you’re selling or not?? HELLO.  If you don’t absolutely know your product or service in absolute language you may as well stay home. Seriously.  You may be offering the greatest thing since pockets, but if in telling about it you use mushy half-committed words then your audience will be left with a mushy half-committed feeling about it.  You can’t expect them to be more sure of or excited about your product or service than you are, right?  If you aren’t gaga-over-the-moon-certain about it, how will anyone else sign on?

Sorry: My mother-in-law is a gourmet cook who had a bad habit of critiquing her meals OUT LOUD while we were eating them.  “When I made this for the Capetula’s I added more salt and it tasted better.”  Huh?  As far as I was concerned the dish was delicious!  Her self-criticism diminished my enjoyment, (albeit only slightly – the woman can cook).

In presentations, “sorry” should not escape your lips.  What in the world are you apologizing for?  Unless you’re two hours late because your flight was delayed or you were in a terrible traffic jam, or the thermostat’s broken in the room, you have NOTHING to apologize for.  This means if your slides are messed up, or you forgot something, or your notes are too small for you to read KEEP IT TO YOURSELF.  Don’t distract the audience with something about which they wouldn’t have known and don’t really care.

Try: As in “We try and help our clients…” You’re kidding, right?  Potential clients don’t want to hear about “trying”, they want to hear about DOING.  They want to hear words like GUARANTEE.  They want to hear words like CONSISTENT.  Try?  People try to do things all day long; your prospects and clients want to hear about SUCCEEDING.  Remember, your audience is looking to you to assure them in no uncertain terms that you CAN deliver.  Period.

It may take some conscious effort to move out of the land of wishy-washy and into the solid sanctuary of BIG BOLD and BRAVE.  Give your audience the assurance and confidence they’re looking for in something they want to “buy”.  They are counting on you to be your own unequivocal cheerleader.   Toss those weak words; adopt the BIG, BOLD BRAVE ones instead, and you’ll be heard.

An individual enters a financial institution with the intention of renting a safe deposit box. This person has certain expectations. By the very nature of the term “safe deposit box”, he assumes that he is renting a box in which he can deposit his valuables in a safe place within this facility. Since he is renting from a financial institution, he expects ethical, highly trained personnel who will do their utmost to protect his valuables with dedication, integrity and professionalism. He also should know that, although his box contents are not insured, the financial institution must meet specific state, federal and OCC safe deposit regulations, guidelines, and nationally accepted procedures, all designed to safeguard his property.

Fortunately, in the vast majority of cases, all of these expectations are met. However, over the past few years, many financial institutions have been acquired by other larger institutions and this trend is escalating. As these acquisitions, mergers, branch closings and consolidations of records, equipment and personnel are occurring, serious mistakes are resulting. In all the confusion and flux created by relocations, records such as lease agreements, access forms and computer records are being lost or destroyed. Faulty key control can also be a problem, and all of this may result as a phenomenon known in safe deposit circles as “mystery boxes”.

When a box renter enters his financial institution and requests access to his safe deposit box, he may find, to his dismay, that his box is no longer located in the vault of the facility from which it was rented. The employee may be clueless concerning its whereabouts. Without the proper documentation that could lead to the box’s present location, our renter now has a “mystery box’.

Mystery boxes fall into two categories. The first category is boxes that have no keys or contract. The second category is boxes that have a contract, access record and keys that are found in the unrented key storage area. Sometimes safe deposit boxes from many locations are brought to a central vault area. If these boxes have no activity over an extended period of time and/or records, contracts and keys have been lost, the financial institutions could find themselves in the unfortunate position of being in possession of a renter’s unclaimed property. Now these “orphaned” boxes must be drilled, inventoried and the contents stored in yet another vault location until, hopefully, the property and the owners can be reunited.

When renters discover their boxes and their valuables are in limbo somewhere, they are furious, they feel betrayed and lawsuits are bound to follow. Without implementing all state, federal and OCC regulations and procedures, a financial institution’s chances of winning any safe deposit litigation will be difficult, if not impossible. To illustrate the severity of the mystery box dilemma, consider the following situation:

Mystery Boxes Created

After merging numerous branch offices, one financial institution very carelessly consolidated their safe deposit boxes into a central vault location. Proper recordkeeping and key control procedures were not followed correctly. Because of these missing procedures, many box renters’ identities and records were lost.

After this consolidation was complete, an audit was performed and a significant number of mystery boxes were found. When these mystery boxes were identified, the financial institution immediately scheduled a massive box drill to open hundreds of boxes and inventory their contents. Unfortunately, this was all done while their lobby was still open and these boxes were drilled while other box renters roamed in and out of the vault. After spreading these mystery box contents over the vault floor, many inaccurate box content inventories were performed and only one person signed some of the inventory forms. To make matters worse, none of these inventory form signatures were notarized.

Many of these inventoried items contained the box owner’s name and address and clearly identified the box owners. Unfortunately, these poorly trained employees made no effort to research existing deposit account records to identify and notify these renters that their contents were now in the institution’s possession. After removing these drilled contents, the employees merely placed them in sealed bags and transported them to another vault location. This is where they remained for months until the box renters arrived at the branch to access their box. This was when the renters learned that their contents had been incorrectly and illegally removed from their box. Needless to say, many of these renters were very unhappy and retained legal counsel to file a lawsuit.

Reducing Your Liability

Had these troubled institutions adhered to the following five steps; they would have avoided these potentially libelous conditions.

Step 1. Box Relocation and Consolidation: When merging safe deposit boxes from different locations, renter notification is essential. Proper documentation of box renter’s contract information, box access history and all other computer records relevant to the boxes is crucial, particularly if boxes sharing duplicate numbers are stored together.

Step 2. Safe Deposit Audit: An effective safe deposit audit program is an institution’s best protection against losses due to negligence. Doing so will hopefully identify and correct most audit exceptions. This audit will also identify all mystery boxes. Someone other than a safe deposit area employee should perform the audit.  

Step 3. Identifying Mystery Boxes: First, record all of the box numbers, contracts and available keys on your audit forms for all boxes and keys located in your vault. If you find a box that has no contract and no keys, this is a mystery box. Now check your open and closed contracts to determine if this box was previously surrendered and no keys returned.  Extreme caution should be exercised if your audit form indicates that you have a contract, access record and keys for the same box. First, check your records thoroughly to determine if the renter might have returned the keys but did not properly release the contract. If there is no indication that the renter surrendered this box, DESTROY THESE KEYS IMMEDIATELY.

Step 4. Drilling Mystery Boxes: If all efforts fail to identify and solve these mystery box situations, follow these steps. First, insert a red “Box Sealed” keyhole signal into the mystery box lock. Then prepare a “dummy contract” labeled Mystery Box and indicate the discovery date. From this date, wait twelve months, plus the additional period of time that your contract or state regulation requires you to provide a renter before drilling a past due box. If the renter doesn’t pay his rent or request access, you can now consider this box past due. Drill the box under dual control, inventory the contents on a notarized affidavit, and if you cannot identify the renter, follow your state’s unclaimed property requirements. If the renter can be identified, have your legal counsel create a “Release of Liability Affidavit”, contact the renter and ask him to come in and redeem his property immediately.

Step 5. Safekeeping and Unclaimed Property: After inventorying the box contents, place them in a tamper-resistant envelope in safekeeping under dual control. The notarized affidavit should be secured in a sealed, clear pouch located on the front of this envelope. If information is available, the renter’s name, address, box number, drilling and mystery box date must be visible for recordkeeping and retention purposes. If your renter never claims the drilled box contents, many states have specific unclaimed property time periods, usually ranging from three to seven years. When this retention period expires these abandoned box contents must be reported and/or delivered to the state. Many state authorities will then auction these unclaimed items.

In Conclusion

After reviewing these five important steps, how did your box relocation, mystery box and drilling procedures stack-up? Do you have an effective safe deposit audit program and all current state, federal and OCC regulations? Do you have a properly worded box inventory affidavit and do you secure all drilled box contents in tamper-resistant envelopes in a dual control safekeeping area? If you had difficulties with any of these questions, and need assistance or additional information, contact Dave McGuinn at www.sdspec.com.

About the Author:  David P. McGuinn, President of Safe Deposit Specialists in Houston, is a former banker and often referred to nationwide as the safe deposit GURU. In all 50 states he has trained over 250,000 safe deposit personnel since 1969. Dave has authored numerous safe deposit box manuals covering box relocation, audit and state and federal policies and procedures. For more than 40 years, McGuinn’s seminars, manuals and other resources have been considered the accepted standard for the financial industry.

Fifty-four (54) CFTACS credits are being accepted toward the following Bachelor of Science Degrees:

Accounting
Business Administration (with a concentration in Finance)
Business Administration (with a concentration in Accounting)

Twenty-seven (27) CFTACS credits are being accepted toward the following:

Associate’s Degree in Accounting
Bachelor’s Certificate in Accounting
Certificate in Forensic Accounting
Certificate in Finance

CFTACS credits can also be applied to other Post University programs.  For a complete list of available degree programs, please go to http://www.post.edu/cft/.

CFTACS has established similar credit transfer agreements with Thomas Edison State College, Charter Oak State College, and Excelsior College.  For more information, please visit CFT’s College Partnerships page.

College administrators can call Michael Meakem, President, CFTACS at 800-795-5242 x1178 to discuss partnership opportunities.