Blockchain Is a Game-Changer In Referral Networking”: DirectRope CEO Eddie Konialian

Eddie Konialian is the founder and CEO of DirectRope, a trilateral referral network for salespeople, clients and referral sources.

With over 25 years of experience in the financial industry, Eddie’s an executive focused on growth, behavior improvement and team building.

According to him, blockchain can enhance online network marketing in the areas of data storage and referral tracking– if utilized!

I had the privilege to sit down with Eddie for a discussion about the trilateral referral concept and the role of blockchain technology in reshaping networking dynamics.

#Thank you, Mr. Eddie for showing up. Can you briefly tell us about yourself and your route to referral networking?

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it. As for my background. I was born in the Middle East. My family migrated to the United States during the civil war in Lebanon. So I grew up here in Los Angeles. Our upbringing had allowed us to work with people to get goals accomplished.

I think inherently as a family, we were brought up to work with others. So at the core of us as a people we always try to understand that life exists because we were provided with opportunities to give before we asked. In terms of work. I have been in the financial industry for 25 years, working in mostly managerial roles and in some cases, higher end executive roles and managing teams of up to 100 to 105 salespeople.

And the basis of my management and leadership was mainly around accountability, not only from my employees to me, but me to be accountable to my employees by providing them knowledge, education, and being able to understand who they are as individuals.

It’s about not only asked me, my employees to be loyal to me, but I wanted to be loyal to my employees by teaching them by making sure that they were self-sufficient in everything that they did, and always started off with knowledge. So the more they knew about themselves, and what they did.

#What is trilateral referral all about?

So, the trilateral referral is essentially bringing the customer into the process of referrals.

We kind of noticed as we developed DirectRope that most people are either doing referrals unilaterally, through cold calling, through marketing, or doing it bilaterally. So two people exchange referral codes.

When you give the customer the ability to know that they’re going to be called or somebody’s talking about them, you give them the power to determine who calls them and who reaches out to them. So the whole trilateral concept is being able to network with the customer in mind and the customer involved.

#What can you tell us about the founding of DirectRope?

DirectRope is based on a different concept and currently, the referral process exists. So most people right now operate referrals through text messages,emails, spreadsheets or through CRM systems.

We kind of want to give people the ability to know what their networks are doing for them, how their networks are growing and how their networks are producing and we want to give them the ability to own their own data.

So with direct rope and the referral process we believe that there’s work being done prior to people ending up in a CRM system being tracked, and that work is valuable to the people doing it.

Most organizations manage data through return on investment, we spend this much and we get this much output. One of my core beliefs is managing return on activity.

The time that you put in has more value than the money that you spend. So that’s what we’re trying to manage. DirectRope is understanding your return on activity and your network’s return on activity versus just simply your return on investment.

#How does it create or enhance networking opportunities?

So I’m glad you asked actually, that’s kind of the basis of this whole thing. Networking right now happens in a manipulated, at least in my mind, a manipulated environment. People could tell you who they are, and you have to believe them, right?

If I tell you I’m valuable to your network, whether you choose to believe me or not, what we have done is we have given people the ability to quantify their existence in networks.

So being able to say, here’s my DirectRope dashboard, this is what we produce for our network, this is what my network produces for me. It gives people the ability to know who they’re networking with. So essentially, you know “who you’re dating in business, you understand your relationship”.

#How can blockchain help to improve the system?

I think that’s a very valid question, especially looking at the direction that most industries are going right now.

For us it is about ownership. Ownership of data is number one, but number two is the inability to manipulate data. I think validation and data accuracy is a big player in the referral and activity tracking market. As a matter of fact, blockchain is a game changer in referral networking.

Existing on a blockchain is going to be key for us. But how we’re going to be able to deliver that is by allowing individuals to input data for themselves.

The concept here is to create data for others. By existing in an environment where you’re creating data for others, we are able to avoid data manipulation, and by bringing the trilateral process in, we allow a third party to validate data as well.

When you’re talking to someone, you know that they are unable to create data for themselves. So that data is not manipulated when it comes to you. But more importantly, I strongly believe that you should own your own data and your work, right? Wherever you go in the world, you are able to take that with you.

There’s an environment where we can coexist with existing CRMs where we can share data and share information with our users. And that user can feel empowered by owning that data. So their existence is justified by the work that they do. And the validation obviously happens by people in their network. If I send you enough clients or enough referrals, that means you’ve done right by me and you’ve treated my past referrals well.

#Can you take us on a tour of DirectRope?

I’ll start off by saying that over the last year and a half, I’ve given out 164 referrals to my network. And I’ve received 32. So that’s all validated information as there’s names, times and places.

DirectRope concept is everything that’s been done historically is being done in an automated fashion now. in DirectRope. Humans have networked for years on end. People have sent clients to mechanics restaurants, etc. But now we’re doing it in an automated fashion.

Trust is reflected on this platform. The most important thing to remember is that there are other platforms that exist and I don’t want to drop names. They give people the power to manipulate information. They give people the power to manipulate data. I could be sitting in my backyard and posting a picture and giving you the perception that I’m sitting on a vacation on top of a mountain somewhere, right? But that’s not necessarily true.

With DirectRope, we are trying to make sure that everybody knows who they’re dealing with and who they’re working with. That way the relationships are strong from the beginning and last longer. There’s no in and out, it’s either you’re into this relationship or you’re not.

There’s a lot of factors for checks and balances. No one is going to be able to take advantage of anyone on our platform and at the core, that’s what I want. I don’t want salespeople to be able to take advantage of each other, the customer or the managers.

The managers don’t take advantage of their salespeople or customers and vice versa. So being able to include all parties in one area eliminates that distrust. I think by being able to deliver honest results, real time results, it would stop people from distrusting each other.

What a great environment it would be if we had a baseline performance for all salespeople. One that’s not hidden. My resume, for example, is not going to be hidden from you anymore. I’m not gonna be able to make up things from my resume.

Eventually, this is going to cause people to start thinking that they can trust all I can work with all because, look, he’s worked with hundreds of people before and so so many different environments. We have asked so many questions around how you build your business. And I would say more than 95% of the time,people say it’s through word to mouth referrals. It’s always referrals. When asked to justify it, nobody can really do so.

#What Advice Would You Give to Fellow Startup Founders?

The biggest advice that I can give is believing in yourself, believing in your vision. There’s a lot of ups and downs in this world. Your thoughts will be challenged; people will believe in you; people will not support you. But so long as you stay committed to your ideas and your own vision, there will be a time when you will overcome those challenges.

The biggest opportunity that I have found with other entrepreneurs that I’m consulting for is that there is a break even- point or a point of no return. Other than that you are going to go back to being a paycheck employee versus taking your legs and bruises through the startup world and bringing something to life that you never thought would exist.

So I think believing in yourself and in your emotional and mental state is the biggest win.