JibberJobber to Manage (the strength of) Relationships

JibberJobber is a relationship management tool.

In Never Eat Alone, Keith Ferrazzi said something to the effective of “it’s not enough to collect names and number (and email addresses), we should know how strong the relationship is with our contacts.”

He suggested a system where you rank each contact as an A contact, a B contact, or a C contact.  In JibberJobber we have a 0 through 5 star ranking system.

Debbie (who I saw has logged in more than 1,000 times – congratulations Debbie!!) asks this question:

There are the stars for rating the strength of relationship. One time you shared your one star criteria” room for improvement and want to move it forward”. Can you share your criteria for the other stars?

Right under the star section on the add/edit page (of Contacts) there is a link that says “Click Here for more info on this.”  When you click that link it shows you this:

First, you must understand that you can use this feature however you want… here is an example of what many networking “experts” suggest.

Imagine you have a friend from school, named Joe, that you’ve kept in touch with for years. You follow eachothers careers, and when you are in town, you get together for dinner or to hang out. This is a person that you trust with anything, and if you were in a bind, they would help you out in any way that they could. This person would get five stars. 

Let’s say that Joe introduces you to a friend of theirs. You can tell that this friend, Sally, has a great deal of respect for Joe, and Joe is highly endorsing you. However, the casual introduction to Sally is brief, and you don’t really have the basis of a good networking relationship. When you enter Sally into your network, you would probably give her two stars. 

Now, let’s say you go to a convention and there is a terrific guest speaker. You introduce yourself after her speech, but so do dozens of other people. You really don’t have any relationship with this person, but you know you want to develop one. Give this person one star. 

Note that the goal is to CULTIVATE the relationships with each person, so just because someone is just a  or a  that isn’t bad. You need to work on your relationship with that person, and their rank will eventually increase.

Now, almost 6 years later, here’s how I use it (mine is totally on a whim, and subject to change… you can use the stars however you want):

0 Stars: If I hear  about you and want to put your name in the system.  If I haven’t met you.  This is so I can get you in my system, but I know I have no relationship and probably have not had any communication with you.

1 Star: If I met you in person, or we have been introduced via email, and I’m not sure if there’s a relationship there, or if we don’t really have something significant to pursue.

2 Stars: If I met you in person and I really want to pursue something… we’ve had a good conversation, even if it was really short, and I think there is something there.

3 Stars: When we’ve had a few conversations, or when I can tell that you are a networker and would value the relationship (ie, if you do me a favor, or are an evangelist, etc.)

4 Stars: When our relationship has moved forward and I feel it is really strong.  This is a great place to be – I am confident that goals align, or that you love what I’m doing and will be a champion/advocate for me, etc.

5 Stars: When our relationship is awesome, and I feel like I can call on you for anything and you’ll respond and help… and that I’d bend over backwards to help you if/when I can.

So that’s how I kind of use it… what do you think?

1 thought on “JibberJobber to Manage (the strength of) Relationships”

  1. So how many stars do I rate? 😉 I really like this and will start to put this in practice. I need to talk with you soon but I don’t have your number, could you send it to my email address above. Thanks hermano!

Comments are closed.