Effortless Networking

You may find such people in networking groups, and many people join such groups mainly to get referrals.

But there’s a much better source:

• This group of people is truly passionate about your product or service.
• They’re usually very willing to talk about their experience with it, to anyone who they think will be interested.
• And you already know them. (No, they’re not your friends and family!)

Before I give you the answer, here’s an easy quiz:

What would you do in this situation?

1. If you were about to buy a house, and needed to find a home-inspector, whom would you ask for a recommendation? Your realtor, or your friend who just bought a house?
2. And if you got 2 recommendations, one from your realtor who hadn’t personally used this home-inspector’s services but knew that he was very good, and one from your friend who was delighted with their home-inspector’s services during their house buying process, which inspector would you choose? Why is this?

(Have you figured out the answer yet?)

When looking for a recommendation about a product or service, most people look for someone who has already had some experience with that product or service.

They want to have a sense of what their experience might be like with that product or service, before they spend their money on it.

By the way, the opposite is also true: how many times have you avoided doing business with someone, or buying a product, because a friend told you about his or her horrible experience with it?

So who is this group of people, whom you can rely on to recommend you happily and whole-heartedly? I won’t tease you anymore:

The best and most effective referrals come from your delighted customers.

It’s hard to beat the genuine enthusiasm of these people!

Just think: What did you do, the last time you were absolutely delighted with a product or service?

Smart networking is about tapping into the network of these delighted people. It’s about leveraging and amplifying this phenomenon that happens everyday, without anyone thinking about it twice.

And yet, many people invest a lot of time and money trying to generate referrals through other means — while ignoring this excellent source of qualified referrals.

To tap into your customers’ network and cultivate this most effective source of good quality referral, you must do 3 simple but very important things, covered in the Effortless Networking self-coaching program.

Sri —

Thank you so much for time you spent with me today and your en pointe insight.

Within 20 minutes of our 30 minute conversation you were able to reframe my perspective and provide a real-world solution to a business issue that I’ve struggled with for the past six months. I’m confident the approach you suggested will soon yield positive results.

As a procurement executive, I evaluate value based on cost and return on investment. Sri, I can describe the advice you offered to me today in two words…Tremendous Value!

With best regards,

Thomas Flint,
Director of Supply Chain Management and Consultant
Wingspan Partners, Inc.