Effortless Networking

A few days ago, I noticed that my crocuses in my garden were beginning to come up. It made me really happy — because it meant that spring is here (even though many days it doesn’t feel like it).

Planting a garden with my son

Seeing the spiky leaves poking out of the ground, I remembered the day last fall when my son and I planted our flower garden. I remember remarking to my neighbor that planting a garden is just like building a business. Or cultivating a networking contact, for that matter.

You have a vision of what the end result will look like, and accordingly, you pick and place your plants (or select and time your business strategies and tactics, for that matter).

But you don’t get to see that end result for several months.

And when you do, you are sometimes surprised at how it looks.

Sometimes you may be surprised because in the many months of waiting, your original vision changes, or your memory of the vision fades.

And sometimes you’re taken aback by unexpected things that pop up! For instance, I have some mystery bulbs in my garden. And I’m really curious to find out what they are.

What does my garden have to do with your business or your networking habits?

Well, I don’t know about you, but I like to see results quickly. So gardening is my way of practicing patience.

Seeing the sprouts and the buds always give me hope. And the flowers, besides making me happy, remind me of why I planted the garden in the first place.

And those mystery plants — they remind me to be curious about the unexpected turns in business and the unexpected actions of people. (I find that to be far better than getting worked up!)

So, what is your way of practicing patience? How do you remain curious and open to new possibilities?

The most effective source of good quality referrals are your satisfied customers.

It’s hard to beat the genuine enthusiasm of delighted customers.

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.

Here’s what I mean:

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.

So 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?

My point is this: If your customers are delighted with you, they’re much more like to whole-heartedly recommend you, whenever the opportunity arises.

And you will get a great referral - because that person will most likely trust their friend’s judgment and go with what he or she recommends.

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?

But you know what? You probably you know all this already.

So, if you’re using business networking to mainly get referrals, are you tapping into your customers’ network?

Are you cultivating this most effective source of good quality referrals? If not, why not?

I got this comment recently:

“[My biggest challenge in business networking is] Motivating my referral partners to enthusiastically refer a steady stream of clients to me every single month.”

Here’s the brutal and honest truth:

1. First, it takes long time to build up a “referral engine”.

   You have to find the right people — those who have access to the kinds of leads you want.

   Then, you have to make sure these people are willing and able to send you quality leads.

   Just because they can, doesn’t mean they’re ready to do so. You have to demonstrate your credibility and earn their trust first.

2. Second, even after you build this “referral engine” there is no guarantee that the referrals will flow in regularly and consistently.

   You really have no control over this.

   Influence, yes; control, no. You can encourage people, provide incentives — but, in the end, you have no control over what they actually do.

   Think about it: how often (and how consistently) are you able to send referrals to people in your network? Why do you suppose this is?

3. Before you despair, here’s the third fact.

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

   This is something over which you have a LOT of influence. So cultivate this source of referrals.

   I recently published two success stories from business owners who do just this.

   Check out Sandy’s story and Jeremy’s story to see what they do.

The good news — I think — is that you can use networking to accomplish other things while waiting the referrals to flow in. I cover this in Lesson 5.

In a nutshell: you can network your way to other business building opportunities, that work quicker.

Just a couple of questions for you today.

If you’re using business networking as the main (or only) way to market your business,

• How did you choose this method? Based on what factors?
• Is it the most effective method, given the nature of your business? What makes you say this?

I find that many people are frustrated with their networking efforts.

I’m curious to hear about your opinion and experience, so I hope you’ll post your comment below.