Develop Your Networking Relationships

Business people spend a lot of time networking, some times it is important to slow down and develop relationships with the people that you have added to your network.  In the book “The 29% Solution” by Dr. Ivan R Misner and Michelle Donovan, they discuss tactics for building better relationships with your network members.  The more we get to know our network members the more credibility we build with them.

Here are 5 questions to ask your network member that will allow you to develop a deeper relationship.

1.  What would yo like to accomplish with your business this year?

2.  What are your challenges this year?

3.  What is standing in the way of your meeting yur goals?

4.  How can I help you?

5.  What do you need to help you be successful?

Pay attention to what you hear, make notes and set out to help your network member.  It is important to spend time working on your network instead of doing more networking.  The deeper you develop your network the more valuable it becomes.

Learn Somthing New

If you are not growing you are dying! Part of growing is the act of learning something new, consistently.   So, let me ask you, what are you learning that is new right now?

I am an avid seeker of knowledge, I hated school and wasted a scholarship, but I love to learn.  It is my goal to learn something new all the time, this year it is Spanish.

I have decided to learn Spanish,  so I am hosting Spanish Classes in my Referral Institute training center.   I invited several hundred people to join me in learning Spanish.  I figure there is this whole population of people whom I cannot network with effectively and that means I am losing business to people who can connect with them.  I thought other business people would feel the same way, but that has not been the case.  Of the 600 people I invited to participate, only 10 showed up to learn.

What a pity, what an opportunity loss.  It is so vital that we find new markets, new networks, new connectors and influencers and new ways of doing business.  Still no one was interested in this opportunity to expand their knowledge and their businesses.

Those same people who spent so much time telling me they could not afford the time, or the money are the very same people who will tell me six months from now, that they don’t have any business, or business is slow.

If you are going to stay in business, you need to learn something new, like Social Networking, Web 2.0, Spanish, how to get in front of more prospects or how to close more deals.  Because those who are learning will out perform you and your customers might become theirs.

Unfortunately,  many business people spend more time telling me what they can’t do instead of finding ways to figure out what they can do.

Now is not the time to pull back on investing in yourself, your company and your staff.  Now more than ever it is important to learn something new!  Money and time invested in yourself and your team is always money well spent.

Thank you from your Retailer

Last week I did some shopping, you see I have lost some weight and that means I have had to buy some new clothes.  Yea Me!!

First I went to Macy’s and bought a suite, 2 shirts and a pair of pants.  From there I went to Talbots, picked up a jacket and a sweater, and that lead me to Nordstroms where I bought 2 dresses, a pair of shoes and hosiery.

I took all of my loot home and put it all away.  Excited about my new purchases but not thinking much about it after that.

A week later, there was one of those nice little envelopes that usually holds an invitation or a thank you card.  When I opened it, there was a hand written note from the lady at Nordstroms who sold me my dresses.  It was very nice, she used my name and remembered my weight loss and smaller size dresses.  How great was that!

I did not get a card from Macy’s or Talbots, or even the clerk at Nordstroms who sold me the shoes and hosiery.  But I know where I am going to go to by my next suite and I know who I am going to ask to help me.

Here is the question, what stops other retailers from doing the same thing?  Why can one retail store make it part of their culture and others never give it a thought?  Macy sends me lots of coupons but never a thank you note, why?

It is the little things that you do in your business that creates customer loyalty, so let me ask you….What are you doing that sets you apart and makes your customers want to come back to you.

The Speed of Trust

The Speed of Trust

I think that one of the best tips that I can pass along to all of you, are the books I have read and how they have impacted my business. This week I would like to tell you about a book that I believe is very pertinent to the referral process. The Speed of Trust, written by Stephen M.R. Covey.

Trust or Credibility is the most important aspect of building your business by referral. If a person does not trust you, they are never ever going to refer business to you. Equally, if they do not trust your team or business they will be reluctant to refer to you. In the past I believed that there was little that you could do to speed up trust or manage trust. That changed recently when I picked up a copy of “The Speed of Trust”. Speed and trust do not really seem to go hand in hand, after all you can’t rush trust or can you?

Stephen explains the high cost to organizations and individuals to have no trust or low trust. He also bust the myths that we have about trust and address the reality of trust, for instance it is a common belief that “You can’t teach trust.” Reality is “trust can be effectively taught and learned, and it can become a leverageable, strategic advantage.” Read the book to get the other 7 Myths.

The foundation of the book is the discussion of the 5 waves of trust, self trust, relationship trust, organizational trust, market trust, and societal trust with the steps and tips for building each of these levels.

BONUS:   Take a look at his website, The Speed of Trust there are variety of resources for you to take advantage of, get a Complimentary analysis of your personal credibility or an Online survey to assess the level of trust colleagues, friends, and others have in you. I was surprised by my results!

Get the book today, you will be glad you did!   TRUST ME!

Are you likable?

How many times have you met someone and you knew right away you did not like them?  Or on the other hand you met someone and right away you really liked them.  What is it that makes one person likable while the other unlikable?

People want to do business with people they know, like and trust.  Like is very important factor in building relationships.  When was the last time that you referred one of your best customers to someone you did not like? How many times have you chosen to do business with someone because you liked them.

I had the opportunity to experience this for myself recently when I was looking to hire someone to do some work for me. There were two people both equally qualified to do the project. I ended up going with the person I liked and his price was 12% higher. I was willing to pay more because I liked the person.

Do you want to be more likable?  Follow these simple tips:

• Speak Less, Listen More – People don’t want to hear about you they want to talk about themselves.
• Don’t be a know it all – Even if you do know everything you don’t have to prove it.
• Be Engaged – Looking at your watch, over someones shoulder or checking your cell is not engaged
• Smile – A smile that goes to your eyes wins people over
• Give a Compliment – Whenever possible give a compliment about something, it wins others over.
• Follow up with people – When you take the time to follow up with people they are engaged, and want to learn more about you

Little things make you likable and being likable will have a positive impact on your bottom line!

Looking for Love in all the Wrong Places

 Do you remember the old country western song about the guy going from place to place lookin for love? “I was lookin’ for love in all the wrong places, lookin’ for love in too many places.”

Frankly, this should be the theme song for many of the business professionals running from networking event to networking event. Unfortunately, it is a poor way to find love and an even worse way to find good referral partners.

 Many business people spend their time attending one networking event after another, looking for leads, prospects and connections. Collecting cards, adding names to their Rolodex, their mailing list and their email list. They repeat this activity over and over again because it’s the best plan they have.

 Before you go to your next networking event, make a plan. Here are a few things you may want to think about before you head out the door:

• Set 3 Goals you want to achieve at this networking event?

• Who is your target market and will they be at this event?

• Who are your best referral sources and how will attending this event help them?

• What is your follow up system after the event?

• What activities will you use to build trust with your network?

• What activities will you use to give to your network?

Instead of looking for new people to build referral relationships with, take a look at who you already network with. Maybe your time would be better spent digging deeper into your existing network and building stronger relationships instead of adding additional people to your network.

Love takes time, so does building a strong network of people who will refer business to you regularly. Before you walk out the door to do more networking make a plan, you may find that the love your lookin for is already in your network.

 

Are you Tracking Your Referrals?

 

Referrals can come to you from many different directions.  Some will come from people you meet at networking events, some may come to you from your customers, and others may come from your trained Referral Partners.  You will never know where they are coming from if you do not take the time to track your business.

 

Every time someone calls, ask the simple question, “How did you hear about us?”  Open a spreadsheet and track every customers or prospective customer’s response.

 

This simple task will allow you to identify where you may want to spend more time or money.  If you find you have one person who is acting as your advocate you will want to find ways to thank or reward that person.

 

Maybe you find that all the time you have spent at a particular organization has not paid off as well as you thought, but the place where you have been volunteering  has had the added benefit of being a gold mine of clients.  Now you will be able to make a sound decision about where you are spending your time.

 

Until you start tracking, it’s all guesswork and you may be ignoring some of your best sources.

How did you choose your target market?

Know your target market

This is a Question that I got on Linkedin, I thought it was very appropriate for this blog.

 In my coaching practice, clients (especially new entrepreneurs) often tell me they don’t want to nail down a specific target market because “everyone is a potential client” and/or they feel like they are missing out on business opportunities in other markets.

Have you nailed down one target market? If so, how did you go about making your choice? Did your target market choose you? How long after starting your business did it take for you to choose your target market?    Do you target more than one market? How do you balance your marketing?  Do you even believe that choosing a target market is essential to your marketing success? If not, please tell us why.

This is one of the toughest questions that I tackle with my students in the Referral Dynamics Program.  Generally business people think with a scarcity mindset, always afraid that they are going to miss out on some business regardless of the quality of the business.

For instance if I am an Insurance agent who writes insurance on anyone who has a business, then I am always running around trying to find anyone!  From the small one person business who has very little money to the multi-million dollar business.  It’s like shooting in the air and hoping that a bird will fly over.

On the other hand if I am the insurance agent who is an expert in working with Attorney Firms who have one or more partners in the Central Indiana area, I know exactly where to spend my time and my money marketing.  IF a CPA Firm calls my office and ask me to write a policy for them would I say NO?  Heck no, I would do business with them.

Declaring a target market does not mean that you cannot or may not do business with anyone else, it just means that you will have a target to aim your message to and spend your money on.  When the time comes to recruit Referral Partners they will be easy to find and easy to train.

It allows you to develop yourself as an expert so that your target market seeks you out instead of you searching for them.  It allows your customers to create a buzz about you!  Take a moment and ask yourself the following questions……..

1.  Who do I like to work with?

2.  What makes me the most money?

3.  What market do you have the greatest experiece in?

4.  Is there a market less served?

Building yourself a strong target market will allow you to work less and make more money!

Are you interested or are you committed

My son is very interested in playing golf.  He plays regularly, even in the winter when others are setting at home in the warmth.  He has a great game, plays daily, and spends time practicing.  He loves the game and has a keen interest in becoming better.

 

On the other hand, there is Tiger Woods.  Tiger is committed to playing golf.  He spends money and time to improve his game every single day.  He strives to learn something new to improve his game.  He knows that he is one of the best in the world and he knows that he can always learn more.  He has coaches that hold him accountable while he spends time and money improving his game.  That is commitment.

 

So are you interested in growing your business by referral, or are you committed?  

 

Common traits of those committed to a business by referral:

 

• They regularly take the time to learn more about referrals
• They practice what they learn
• They have accountability coaches or partners
• They implement systems in their business
• They never make the assumption that they already know
• They seek others who are working to do the same

 

Experts are committed to what they are doing, while amateurs are merely interested. Which are you? 

 

Chaos in the World of Business Networking

Referrals, leads, word of mouth, buzz marketing, viral marketing, networking, seven second introductions, elevator speeches, referral groups, business networking and social networking.  It all blends, causing confusion, misunderstanding and a muddied mess in the business world. 

You see it everyday, one networking event after another, business cards being passed, people shaking hands, and those ever so famous seven-second introductions being pitched.  It’s the same people at every event, giving out the same cards, same pitch hoping for a different outcome. 

We hear about networking as a way to grow our businesses, and everyone calls themselves networking experts. If you put the words “business networking” into Google, you will get 186,000,000 hits  So called experts teach classes and workshops on how to do better seven second pitches, how to hand out their cards, what to do after the event, how to give more, and do more. 

Recently I ask a young man how he got most of his business, “90% by Referral” he stated.  When I ask what kind of system he had to generate and track that level of referrals his answer was; “I have a great yellow page ad that generates a lot of referrals for us.”  While having a Yellow Page ad will create a lot of visibility for you it is not generating referrals.  

What’s missing here?  What is the plan?  Where is the system?  People who are networking have no idea where their business is coming from, who their referral sources are, what target market they are connecting with, or even if they are networking in the right place.  When asked what their ROI is on all of their networking activities they will say things like, “Great” or “I have made a lot of business contacts and friends while networking”.  Rarely if ever do they really know the ROI.   

If business professionals are going to build their business by referral, there has to be a plan that goes beyond, what most networking gurus are teaching. Word of mouth does not mean business by referral, and Networking does not mean you will get referrals. 

If you really want to build your business by referral, you have to develop a plan, a system.  Much the same way as you developed a Marketing Plan.   

Who are your customers, where do they live, what do they do, are they other businesses or are they consumers? Companies spend thousands of dollars every year identifying their target market, their customers.  How much time have you spent, is your customer anybody who needs or wants your product or services:?  What do you offer to your customers, and why do they come to you?  Have you asked them? Who are your Referral Sources and what system do you have for motivating and training them? 

Networking is very valuable, but learning how to develop a system is more important.  Once the system is in place, and you know whom you want to connect with and whom your referral sources are you will then be able to choose the right places to network.   

If you’re going to build a house you need to take some time and do your preparation, lay out the design, build the foundation, then build the building.  Every step must be followed in the proper order.  The same holds true when you are building your business by referral.  Where is your plan, how is the foundation, or did you forget all of that and just start networking, hoping for best.  

Here are 5 Tips for building a foundation before you start networking. 

1.  Narrow your focus, having a clear Target Market is one of the most important aspects to building a business by referral.  Anybody, everybody, and small business does not constitute a target market.  

2.  Who are your potential referral sources?    If your target market is “Any small business that needs health insurance”, you will find that all you are able to generate will be random unpredictable leads from the people that you network with. 

On the other hand, if your target market is; “Family owned businesses, with 3-50 employees, in the manufacturing industry.” You will have a better chance of building strategic referral partnerships with others working in the same target market.  

3.  Know where you want to spend your time and efforts.  Building a business by referral takes time.  You only have time and money to spend, you can make more money but you cannot make more time, spend it wisely.  When you are networking look for those people who would make great referral partners and begin the relationship process with them.  You do not need 2500 people in your database if you have 10-trained referral partners helping you connect with their clients and contacts. 

4.  Clean up your database.  Are there people in there you don’t even know?  When was the last time you contacted them?  Are clients, contacts, prospects, clearly identified?  Do you have other ways of sorting, like support, information, and referrals?   

5. Create a system for tracking your networking activities.  How many calls did you make? How many notes did you send?  How many hours did you spend out networking?  What events did you participate in?  Who did you give referrals or leads to?  What gets measured gets done, tracking is one of the most important things you can do, but often the most neglected. 

Don’t get caught up in the Networking madness until you have a plan.  Do some work first, build your foundation, identify who you want to network with and where you want to network, then get started. 

Hazel M Walker

Referral Strategist