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?
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?
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?
“[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:
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.
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?
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.
Many people attend business networking events or join leads groups without doing much research.
If you did, here is what you might find:
“[My biggest networking challenge is] finding an appropriate networking group. Most groups are comprised of businesses with annual revenue of less than $1M. We really have nothing to offer businesses of this size.”
Or your experience may be this:
“I cannot find a networking group to attend. I am a single mom, I have my own business in the financial industry and I would lile to take my business to the next level. Morning events do not work I take my daughter to school and I am out doing appointments in the evening. I am also looking for a networking group in the Htfd area of CT that does not have many financial professional members already. What do you suggest?”
My response: If you can’t find a group that fits your needs, create one!
I recently wrote about someone who created her own group, and is already reaping the results. Click here to read that story.
If you custom-design a networking group built around the shared objectives of the group members, the return on your investment (of time, energy and money) will be well worth it.
For instructions on how to create your own group, click here.
Important note: to get good returns from networking groups, you do need to invest your time, energy and usually money as well.
If you can’t or aren’t willing to do this, there are alternatives. Click here to read about some of these other options.
Here is a good follow-on article to last week: you can use the concepts discussed here to get really clear about your networking objectives and figure out your strategies.
Right Tool for the Right Job: Six Different Ways to Get Your Business Known
By Kim Castle, BrandU®
If you’re like most people, you started out in your business with an idea of creating something, a dream of making lots of moola with it, and a desire to help people with it.
You then toil to make this idea a reality by developing it, testing it, making it, and then… it sits.
It’s only then do you realize that… your work hasn’t even begun yet.
You have to get the word out about your business.
Without knowing how, you start grabbing at tactics like straws in great hope of causing a clamor of customers lining up at your door.
Taking action is great. BUT do you know what job really needs to be accomplished and the right tool to achieve it?
To make your action and business a success, here are the major ways to get your business word out, what they do, and what you should and should not expect from them. They are in order of the biggest bang for your buck.
1. Branding – Define Your Communication
Branding is the process of creating precise and pin-pointed communication of your business (product or service), the value for which it stands, and the feeling customers consistently get from it.
In addition to giving you clear communication of your business’ value and uniqueness, branding provides you a set of rules, a bible, to follow. It also enables all other methods to be united and at their most effective.
NOTE: Branding is NOT a conceptual practice. In fact, it’s the act of turning the concept of your business idea into a solid commerce-driven experience. Just think about the brands you buy everyday. Branding is easy to do, if you have a process to follow.
2. Marketing – Connect to Eye-balls
Marketing is the act of taking a specific product offering out to as many people as possible in a way that elicits their attention and makes them eager to buy. In establishing the frequency of delivery you make sure they see your offer over the hundreds of marketing messages they see everyday without tipping the scale so far they tune your business out.
There are 3 main types of marketing:
Undifferentiated marketing, which assumes everyone is the same and aims a particular product at everyone. Sometimes referred to as a shotgun approach.
Differentiated marketing, which aims the product at specific segments in the market. Often referred to as defining a target market.
Concentrated marketing, when the message is aimed at just one small market. Often referred as finding a niche.
NOTE: Marketing does NOT define your business’ uniqueness, nor does it establish your credibility. Rather it is a set of systems based on a set of decisions. In order for your marketing to be it’s most effective, you have to have something solid to base those decisions on— your set of rules.
3. Public Relations – Enlist Big Mouths
PR is the art of influencing public opinion using the presentation of a client’s image, message, or product through exposure in the media.
Depending on how big you want your business to be (either in revenue, size, or impact), at some point you will want help in extending your reach and establishing credibility.
NOTE: The role of PR is NOT to define your business. Its action is to get the media’s assistance in amplifying what you have already defined. But you have to define it. Again, a set of rules is an invaluable asset. PR is a great way to assist with credibility. It should not be confused with publicity.
4. Advertising – Toot Your Horn
Advertising is the practice of creating specific campaigns to attract public attention to a product, service, or company. By means of paid announcements you affect perception or arouse consumer desire to make a purchase or take a particular action. Often this is done through the medias of radio, magazine, newspaper, or television. In fact, the media was invented as a vehicle of advertising.
While glamorous, advertising is often cost prohibitive for businesses just starting out. Without a significant long-term money and time commitment, it will prove unsuccessful and… painful.
NOTE: Advertising is NOT a quick fix way into the marketplace. Its action is to get attention and gain credibility by repeated exposure. Following a map will assure you are going in the right direction over the long haul.
5. Publicity – Make a Spectacle
Publicity is a tool of public relations focused on generating editorial media coverage for a company and/or its products, often done through press releases and community events. The best publicity causes a public commotion; often bad publicity gains more attention than good.
6. Promotions – Spread the Word
Promotions is the routine of getting your business seen. This is often accomplished by imprinting your logo on a pen, keychain, Frisbee or water bottle or by sponsoring specific events. Partnering with another business will spread out the costs as well as your reach.
Now that you truly understand the tools available to you and know the most beneficial order to proceed with them, you can rest assured that you can effectively get the word out about your business and have customers lining up at your door with moola in hand.
Author and Brand Visioneer, Kim Castle teaches entrepreneurs and small business owners how to tap into the full power of their business— the power behind their brand. If you want to experience clarity all the way to the bank™ go to www.whybrandu.com
“Experts” may tell you there’s a right way to network.
I disagree.
Just as in any other area of life, one size does not fit all. In fact, if you network in a way that doesn’t suit your personality, it won’t work.
For example, you may plan to regularly meet with someone then find yourself constantly canceling or rescheduling your appointments.
Or you may decide to attend business mixers and realize that you’re too self-conscious to connect with people there.
On the other hand, when you find a networking approach that truly fits with who you are, you’ll achieve your networking goals much more easily.
Further, when your networking goal is aligned with your networking approach, you’ll start getting remarkable results seemingly effortlessly.
So how do you do this?
Take a moment to notice how you naturally interact with people.
You may find, for example, that you use email to stay connected with most people, but there are a few key people that you regularly talk to over the phone.
Or that you enjoy throwing parties, where you can introduce new friends to old friends.
Being aware of your personality and your preferences will help you to understand what networking environments and approaches are best for you.
Think about your networking objective.
Do you want to generate more visibility for your business? Do you want to find joint venture opportunities? Do you want business leads?
Networking to find a joint venture opportunity is very different from networking to get potential customers for your business.
The techniques may be the same, but the approach, venue and conversations can be very different.
Consider different networking approaches
For instance, you can network through organizations — such as, professional associations, Chamber of Commerce mixers, Leads groups, online networking forums, etc.
Or you can schedule one-on-one meetings with specific people, whether in person, on the phone or online.
Each has its pros and cons.
And each serves a particular need very well.
For instance, if you want to meet a lot of people in a particular industry quickly, going to an event sponsored by that professional association would be ideal. On the other hand, if you want to have an in-depth conversation about something, a private meeting would be better.
Once you have a sense of these 3 factors, you can mix and match them for best results.
For example, if you’re a business owner who prefers interacting with people one-on-one, who wants to generate more business through networking, and has a very busy schedule and limited free time, you might do the following:
Find an appropriate event to attend so you can quickly meet a large number of people who may be good referral sources for you.
Schedule follow-up meetings with only those who show an interest in partnering with you — and based on your mutual availability, of course.
Use these meetings to define and build sound working relationships with each other.
This allows you to make the most of your limited time, leverage your personal preference, and meet your business networking goals.
I’d love to hear about how you’d combine these to fit your needs. So please share your comments below…
And interestingly, in the past few weeks, I have done business with at least 6 small businesses — all of whom said that they got the bulk of their business easily — through “word-of-mouth”.
In other words, most of their clients are referred to them by past clients.
Immediately I asked them whether I could interview them, so I could find out their story and the secret of their success!
Although they were interested, no one has followed through yet.
Could it be because they have too much business already and don’t want any more publicity? Perhaps they’re too busy with their clients and don’t have the time. Or maybe they don’t want to share their secret!
Well, I don’t really know.
So let me share the story of my experience as their customer instead:
We are in the process of buying a house. So we need a lot of different kinds of services to help with the home-buying process: a home inspection company, a lead inspector, a landscape designer, a window replacement specialist, a settlement company, and so on.
We found out about each of these services from our friends and colleagues (i.e. through word-of-mouth networking).
When we asked people for recommendations for these services, we obviously asked people who had used that particular service themselves.
So each service was referred to us by a past client, who was very happy with their work (and often, happy with the price as well).
Well, we’ve been very happy with each of these businesses, and would gladly recommend them to anyone who asks for our opinion.
By the way, you’ll be interested to know that a couple of times we were told NOT to hire certain companies. Clearly, these were dissatisfied clients!
The point of this story? Well, there are two questions to ponder, actually:
Are your clients or customers satisfied with your work? How can you tell?
Do they recommend you and your business to their friends and colleagues? What (if anything) can you do to encourage this?
Here’s an interesting question from a reader, which may be one that you share too:
“How [do I] impress them instantly, such that they can devote their precious time speaking with me alone, rather than splitting their time amongst those around?”
My response:
Listen to them with your full and undivided attention.
Don’t sell, persuade, advise, talk about yourself, etc.
When you DO talk, ask questions about the other person.
If you really want to impress someone and have them talk with only you, this is all you need to do!
Try it.
Now, here is my question for you:
What will you do with all the information you get from this conversation?
No, I don’t mean to be irritating or annoying! I do however want you to think why you might want to have someone speak with you all evening.
For another take on the same topic (about what NOT to do when trying to impress someone), click here.
Whether you’re talking with someone in person, by phone or by email, there are some principles that are absolutely necessary to establish a genuine connection with a prospective customer.
Without these, your conversation is over before you even get started.
And here is an article from Ari about how to use these principles when selling via email.
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How to Use E-Mail To Connect with a Decison Maker — Without Using a “Sales Pitch”
by Ari Galper
Of all the selling mediums that have been the most abused, email seems to be at the top of the heap.
Because e-mail communication is simply text, void of any real human connection, many people who sell have adopted it as a way of avoiding having to pick up the phone to call someone new.
In fact, e-mail selling has now become part of the traditional “numbers game”. The more e-mails you send out, the better your return might be.
The problem is, you make some sales doing that, but you’ll burn your reputation and lose more opportunity that you even thought possible.
Sending a cold email to a decision maker in an organization is like a one-way electronic cold call.
And, if the email is written using a traditional sales pitch, it puts immediate sales pressure on the receiver (yes, sales pressure can be delivered through email) and the receiver immediately associates the sender with the negative “salesperson” stereotype.
I get these kind of email “pitches” all the time, as I’m sure you do as well.
The good news is, if you can shift your mindset away from making a “pitch”, and use the Unlock The Game Mindset instead, create a dialogue, be gracious and focus on a problem you can help them solve, you’ll find email can be a very profitable selling tool.
One of my clients, who is a sales executive for a software company, sent me an example of an old-school email pitch that he received last week.
I decided to dissect it and reinvent it the Unlock The Game way, pulling concepts directly from the Mastery Program, so that if you don’t have the program yet, you can get a taste of what you’ll learn.
Here’s the “cold introduction” e-mail that arrived in my client’s inbox:
Dear John,
My name is Michael Johnson and I am with XYZ company. We are the leading provider in back-office operations software with many clients such as XXX, YYY, ZZZ.
I’m writing you to see if you or your company would be interested in a demonstration of our software. It would be a brief 15- to 30-minute demonstration that we could do at your convenience.
Our website, dogandponyshow.com, lists many testimonials from customers that describe how we have improved their productivity, as well as complete details about our products and services.
I’ll give you a call later in the week to see if we can set up a time for the demonstration.
Sincerely,
Michael Johnson
Productivity Consultant
XYZ Software
On the surface, it looks innocent enough, but take a moment and ask yourself what your instant reaction would be if it arrived in your e-mail box.
Let’s look at it sentence by sentence:
Dear John,
My name is Michael Johnson, and I am with XYZ company. (Starting a conversation without asking a question can be perceived as an intrusion. Also, starting out with “My” and using “I” immediately focuses the conversation on you, not on your prospect.)
We are the leading provider in back-office operations software with many clients such as XXX, YYY, ZZZ. (This sentence is a mini-presentation designed to show off your client list. The writer is assuming that the prospect is already interested in the sender’s software. He’s also assuming that the prospect has a problem to be solved and that his company’s product can solve it.)
I’m writing you to see if you or your company would be interested in a demonstration of our software. It would be a brief 15- to 30-minute demonstration that we could do at your convenience. (Offering to demonstrate a solution without first determining any problem is likely to set off negative sales alarms.)
Our website, dogandponyshow.com, lists many testimonials from customers that describe how we have improved their productivity, as well as complete details about our products and services. (This paragraph continues the barrage of information, all based on the assumption that the reader is interested. If he isn’t, however, this writer has come across as a typical “salesperson.” He has communicated that he and his company are aggressive and interested only in the sale, rather than in taking the time to build trust and get to know the issues and problems that face potential customers.)
I’ll give you a call later in the week to see if we can set up a time for the demonstration. (This is the usual “assumptive” close used by most traditional salespeople. However, it only reinforces that this e-mail is an obvious attempt to get an appointment so the sender can make a sale, rather than opening communication so the sender can understand the reader’s world.)
Sincerely, (This is the traditional cold and aloof closing.)
Michael Johnson
Productivity Consultant
XYZ Software
My comments (in blue) zero in on the specific wording and phrases that feed the negative sales stereotype and give the impression that the writer cares only about the sale.
The problem is — even if your intentions are honest and sincere, e-mails like this are more likely to burn bridges than to build trust.
My comments show the reasons behind the phrases and why they both reduce potential sales tension and increase the chances of a favorable response.
Dear John,
Not sure if you can help me, but thought you could possibly point me in the right direction. (By starting off from a position of humility rather than with the typical assumptive introduction, and by asking for help, this e-mail gives the reader a chance to either tell the sender that he has reached the right person or to refer him on to someone else.)
Would you happen to know who in your organization would be responsible for diagnosing and solving productivity issues related to your technology infrastructure — specifically, underperforming servers, outdated software upgrades, or out-of-date computer hardware? (Rather than offering solutions, the writer is addressing very some real problems and issues that may exist in the reader’s company. In other words, the e-mail is about the receiver, not the sender. Also, the writer doesn’t mention any demonstration because problems must always come first, and the solutions later.)
I’m with XYZ company, and we specifically help companies solve these types of issues. (This reinforces that the writer’s company solves problems.)
Any help you could provide would be very graciously appreciated. (This statement expresses the warmth of the writer’s gratitude in advance.)
Warmest regards, (The warmth of this closing humanizes the whole communication.)
Michael Johnson
Productivity Consultant
XYZ Software
How do you think you would react if you received this e-mail?
Perhaps you would give a sigh of relief because you wouldn’t be feeling any sales pressure from this stranger you’ve never met.
This example shows that, even though e-mail is basically an impersonal one-way form of communicating, with the Unlock The Game Mindset you can humanize the connection.
When you give prospects a chance to respond to your request for help, you increase the possibilities for two-way communication and trust-building dialogue.
You might want to start reviewing your e-mails to prospects.
To your success,
Ari
Ari Galper is the founder of Unlock The Game™, the only selling program that completely eliminates pressure from the selling process. His Unlock The Game™ Sales Program has helped thousands of entrepenuers and sales professionals worldwide. Visit ww.UnlockTheGame.com to take a Free Test Drive!
book, I wrote about how to connect with prospects at business mixers or similar events. 
