Legal and Business Writing Consultant : Lori Herz : Write For Clients : Professional Writing and Online Content Consulting

Keith Ferrazzi’s Never Eat Alone is one of my favorite books on building business relationships. You’ll find a nice overview of its core messages in this USA Today article.

Ferrazzi recognizes that business relationships are personal. To help us make this connection, he encourages us to find our currency. We all have this particular kind of currency. It’s our “capacity to help somebody else fulfill their mission or vision of themselves in some way.”

In fact, according to Ferrazzi, most of us have multiple currencies. Some are naturally stronger than others. Typically, he says, “our most valuable currencies are things we do that seem as natural as breathing -- natural to us, but to others, these skills are a real rarity!”

Your business writing provides a clear channel for conveying your currencies to clients and prospects. But, to optimize these communications, you first need to pinpoint what your currencies are.

To do this, Ferrazzi suggests that you consider the following questions:

• What things do you say about yourself and your interests that excite or intrigue people you meet?

• When did you help make someone else a success at something?

• Of the times you were able to give, which worked the best and which felt the best?

• How can you purposely incorporate those currencies into your sales and networking plans?

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I've previously discussed how business writing can facilitate the human-to-human exchange that’s vital to successful client relationships.

An exchange is a two-way proposition.

Just as you need to learn about their issues, concerns and goals, your clients need to learn about you – the you that exists beyond your professional credentials and experience. This doesn’t mean that you spill all the details of your personal life. Rather, you offer appropriate anecdotes and insights that convey who you are as a person, thinker and collaborator.

Writing provides a solid platform for infusing your self into your business relationships. Susan Cartier Liebel nicely illustrates this point in a post about standing by the decision to start a solo law practice.

Through her writing, she depicts the emotions she felt while transitioning from solo law practice to her current work as a consultant, educator and blogger. She also acknowledges the feelings that lawyers often experience in going solo. I regularly read Liebel’s posts. But, given this new snapshot of the human behind the writer, I now have a heightened interest in her blog and other business offerings.

Many people resist, and even resent, the idea that self-expression is a business asset because it raises the specter of people pejoratively described as:

• Self-absorbed

• Selfish

• Self-Centered

• Self–Aggrandizing

While I understand why they make this connection, I think it’s a faulty one.

Certainly, self-expression can be taken to an unhealthy extreme. When that happens, there’s no room for give and take. So, there’s little to no chance of creating mutually rewarding and lasting relationships in business or elsewhere.

But, the same poor odds hold when we try to cultivate business connections without putting our selves into play.

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