Free Teleseminar tonight!

This evening, at 8pm BST, I'll be interviewed by Richard White on the subject of 'Leveraging the Power of your Network'.

This is a free teleseminar, and you'd be more than welcome to join us. You can get more information and sign up here.

Connecting is not Enough - The Newsletter

In the latest edition of Connecting is not Enough I get my teeth stuck into the British political system and what our politicians could learn by engaging in a little bit of networking. And it's not just the UK politicians who should be thinking more about collaboration.

Also included, of course, is the usual blend of networking tips, referral ideas, social networking suggestions and video. With, of course, the latest from The National Networker, a new video and just a little bit of fun.

If you're not a lucky subscriber and haven't had your copy hand delivered yet, you need wait no longer.

Connecting is not Enough - The Newsletter

The latest edition of Connecting is not Enough is now available.

In the latest edition, I answer questions from readers, including:

- How do you leverage old networks like school?

- What key points should you consider when setting a Networking Strategy? 

- Can online networking succeed without offline?

In addition, there's the usual mix of articles, video and fun as well as jobseekers and an opportunity in the events industry. 

CONNECTING IS NOT ENOUGH: Ten Tips to get your referral message across (Part Two)

 This article originally appeared in The National Networker

In last month’s first five tips we looked at the importance of knowing exactly the help you need when asking your network for referrals, and how to make specific requests that people respond to.

The type of information you share, the language you use and your consistency are also key, as we now go on to explore.


Tip Number Six - Keep it simple


People so often succumb to the temptation to load their champions with information to help them refer us. We want them to recognise every possible opportunity and answer every objection we can see coming.

Remember two things. First of all, they are simply our gatekeepers, making the introduction. They are not there to sell for us. Secondly, the more you give people to remember, the more they have to forget

Try using ‘The Twitter Measure’. Put your message into 140 characters. Edit, edit and edit some more. Does it still make sense? Could someone understand who you want to talk to and why?

Be brutal with your information. What do people NEED to know? Ensure you give them just enough to initiate the connection and then pass the rest to you.

Also consider their own background. Champions from your own industry or related areas may well need or be able to deal with more information than a friend who has the right connections but who doesn’t necessarily understand what’s involved.


Tip Number Seven - People love a story


Once you have worked out what your message is and the key information people need to understand, make it easier for them to do so by wrapping it up in a story. Case studies bring ideas to life and also add credibility to your request, proving you've solved similar problems successfully in the past and it’s not just an idea or concept.

Case studies also help people understand how to recognise a prospect and how you work with them to overcome their challenges and put the theory into context. Not only that but they are memorable and more easily recalled and repeated.


Tip Number Eight - Avoid Jargon


This is the trap that we can all easily fall into. It’s all so easy to lapse into words, phrases and references that we understand as part of our everyday language but which make no sense to people from outside our industry.

Do you know what terms you use that are jargon for someone else? Take the ‘Ten Year Old Test’. Tell a ten year old child what you do and then ask them to explain it back to you. Finding out how much they have been able to understand and relate back will give you a good indication of how well you are getting your message across.

The difference between a child and an adult is that the child will ask you if they don’t understand something. Adults are frightened of looking foolish and are more likely to nod politely and then take no action because they’ve missed the point than ask you to explain terms they’ve not understood.

Tailor your message to the person's experience. If it’s someone from your industry you can be far more complex in your explanations than someone who doesn’t have the relevant experience.


Tip Number Nine – Help people learn over time


As we’ve already discussed in a couple of these tips, you don't have to get everything across in one go. If you have someone who wants to refer you and has ample opportunity to do so, you’ll have plenty of time to educate them and help them to see a host of possibilities.

The fear of missing out on opportunities can lead to us trying to get across all of our products, services and prospects at the same time. However, focus on one request at a time and let people build up their understanding of how to help you gradually. Each individual request you make and referral they pass will build their knowledge.


Tip Number Ten - Manage how you are perceived


Help people to refer you by managing your reputation effectively. We often talk about ‘it’s not what you know but who you know.’ But I would argue that it’s far more important to be aware of who knows you and what they say about you.

What do you want people to say about you? We started off by looking at knowing who you would most like to be introduced to. It’s also vital that you understand what your general message and image should be. Focus on who you want people to be talking to about you, what you want them to be saying and how you can build the right public image.

Consistency is the key to ensuring that the right message is repeated. Whether that’s ensuring that your message and conversations are consistent with each other or your appearance and actions are consistent with the image and reputation you crave, you need to make sure everything fits.




Look at how you are getting your message out there at present and consider changes you could make using the ideas outlined above. If you’re not getting sufficient referrals at the moment, find two or three things you can change immediately and put them into place.

Approach people and ask for referrals. Be specific in your requests and keep the information simple and easy to understand. Put these ideas into practice and watch your flow of referrals increase with ease.

CONNECTING IS NOT ENOUGH: The Anatomy of a Referral (Part Three)

This article originally appeared in The National Networker


You are surrounded by people who have frequent opportunities to refer you and who would be delighted to help you, yet you rarely, if ever, receive referrals from them. In the cases where they do make introductions they tend to be far from the connections you’ve been looking for.

Why should this be? Surely if you have a network of people who will help, your word of mouth marketing should be simple?

The problem is that attracting good quality referrals takes a strong degree of focus and planning. You do have the tools and resources at your disposal, but you have to understand how to use them. After reading the last two articles in this series you should by now have a clear idea of what you are looking for in a referral and who to turn to for help. Once you have inspired those people to want to help you, the next step is to educate them so that they understand how.


Out of the picture

We talked in Part One of this series about the quality of a true referral. The person referring you (your ‘champion’) has spoken about you to someone who may be in need of your services. That person is interested in hearing from you and is waiting for your call.

If your champion is going to be able to get the prospective client interested in hearing from you, they need to know enough about your business to make a strong case. They need to recognise that your prospect has a problem that you are able to solve and have a reasonable understanding of how you solve that issue and the benefits that result.

Remember, most of the time you will not be there when they have the conversation. You have to consider yourself to be out of the picture. If you are going to educate your champions effectively, you have to be able to pre-empt the conversations they will have with your prospects without you there.

Very often you may ask for referrals to people and explain why you want to meet them. This is despite the fact that those people have no interest in why you want to meet them at all. They don’t know you and have no buy-in to meeting your needs. Instead, they are focused on what they need and what they want.

If your champions are going to be able to get them to want to meet you, therefore, they need a message that will be relevant to that person. Identify what their problems are and provide evidence that you may be the person with the solution and they’ll be interested.


Simple, sticky and transferable

Armed with the knowledge that you need your champions to have conversations about you when you’re not around, the temptation may be strong to give them as much information as possible, so that they couldn’t possibly forget anything.

Whatever you do, avoid this temptation! The more you give people to remember, the more they’ll have to forget. Keep your message simple.

In a workshop I ran a few years ago I was developing a sixty-second referral presentation with an image consultant. As local elections were approaching, I suggested focusing her request on referrals to people in politics. After all, we are often told how important image is in making first impressions and if you want your political message heard it is important to ensure your appearance appeals to your target demographic.

We crafted a straightforward request based on an easy to understand premise. People listening to the message would think of people they knew in politics and feel comfortable approaching them on the image consultant’s behalf, with a strong message that would be easy to understand.

Unfortunately, when it came to testing the presentation on the group in the workshop, the image consultant succumbed to temptation. She didn’t want to leave any opportunity untapped, and, while asking for introductions to people involved in local politics, also asked for Entrepreneurs, Chief Executives, Sales Directors and any other possible client she could think of.

When tested, no-one in the group remembered anything specific about her presentation, particularly that she wanted to meet people involved in local politics.

Focus in on who you want to meet when you ask people for referrals. If you’re being specific in your request, you can paint a clear picture of the conversation that will follow. What is that person/organisation’s specific problem? How would you approach it? What will happen as a result? Stick to answering those questions, keeping everything very simple.

Have you worked with people with similar issues in the past? If so, share a story that answers the three questions listed above. People love to hear case studies; they bring your business to life and make it so much more understandable to those outside your industry.

As well as being simple, your message needs to stick in people’s minds and be easy for them to repeat to possible clients for you. The more convoluted your message, the harder it is for people to remember and to pass on accurately.


Tracking the results

Once you have the basics of a good referral strategy in place, take it to another level by including it in your business planning.

Set up a spreadsheet of your top introducers and make a note of who they know, how you are inspiring them and referrals they have promised or you have requested. As referrals come in, attribute them to the appropriate champion and track your follow up, make sure you stay on top of the game.

By keeping a note of all activity, you can keep your champions involved, letting them know how you are proceeding with the introductions they have passed and thanking them when they are successful. You should be just as focused on giving them feedback when they don’t work out, both to keep them informed and to help them understand how to pass successful referrals to you.

One advantage of tracking referral activity is the ability to see who your best referral sources are and what inspires them to refer you. You can then both make sure you keep them engaged and also replicate that behaviour with others.

Additionally, when someone stops referring you, it will be clear by looking at your spreadsheet. Where a referrals strategy doesn’t exist it might be months before you realise that you haven’t had a referral from or spoken to someone who had previously introduced you to a lot of new business. It can then often be embarrassing to go back to that person after a long period.

One of the exercises I ran when working with one of the major banks was to ask each delegate to make a list of people who had previously referred them but hadn’t done so for a while. I then asked them to call one person on that list and reignite the relationship.

Several of the delegates found that their previous champion had assumed that the delegate had left the bank or moved onto another job as they hadn’t heard from them for so long, and on more than one occasion they offered a new referral during that telephone call. How much business had been referred elsewhere in the meantime?

Another advantage of tracking your referrals behaviour is that it allows you to forecast the level of business coming in from future referrals. Once you have a system in place that consistently produces good quality referrals, it is easier to predict and guide future behaviour.

It’s all a long way from the manufacturing company I mentioned at the beginning of this series who track every source of new business other than referrals, and who had not seen a genuine referral in at least eighteen months. Having implemented an effective referral system, they can now look forward to a regular, predictable flow of referrals, spend time in meetings with champions rather than cold-calling unproductively, and see the business turn into a profitable concern once more.

When are you going to start?


If you’d like to get started with a free ten question survey to find out how effective your current referral strategy is and a ‘Referral Book’ spreadsheet to track referral activity, please email me at andy@lopata.co.uk

Connecting is not Enough... the newsletter

The latest edition of Connecting is not Enough, the newsletter, is available now. It's packed with vital information to help you network more effectively, including:

- It's not what you know or who you know...

- The pros and cons fo turning to family and friends for support

- The importance of being proactive on social networks

- How to remember names

and not forgetting....

Muppet Bohemian Rhapsody!

You can get your latest fix of networking tips and referrals strategies here.

CONNECTING IS NOT ENOUGH: The Anatomy of a Referral (Part Two)

This article originally appeared in The National Networker

Referrals should be the backbone of the development strategy in many businesses, but few approach the key skill of asking for referrals with the necessary understanding of what they are asking for, who to ask and how to track results.

In The Anatomy of a Referral Part One I talked about a client of mine whose lack of the knowledge outlined above has had a severe impact on their bottom line. We looked at what a referral is, in comparison to other types of business information such as recommendations and leads. And we discussed the impact referrals can have on the way you work and the results you get from the activity of your sales team.

We now need to move on and investigate where referrals come from, before next month, moving on to how to educate the people who are going to refer you, to make it as easy as possible for them to make the connections you are looking for.


Who do you ask?

If you are going to build a strong referral strategy, you need to recognise who your Champions or Advocates are going to be.

To do this, you need a firm understanding of the principle of Six Degrees of Separation. This phrase, coined by social psychologist Stanley Milgram in the US in 1967, has caught the imagination of people across the World, leading to films and games with the same title. In short, the theory suggests that we are no more than five steps from anyone in the World.

For example, I recently wanted to source a signed Chicago Cubs jersey as a present for my cousin’s son. One of my contacts in the UK introduced me to his sister, who works in a senior position in the White House. In one simple introduction I was one step from the President of the United States!

You won’t necessarily want such high level connections, but if you have a clear idea of who is in your network and who they are connected to, it becomes much easier to recognise the routes you need to the connections you seek.

In another case, a participant on one of my workshops talked about me and introduced me to the father of one of the boys on the kids’ football team he coached. That father was the Sales Director for one of the World’s leading airlines.

Most companies who do have a referral strategy of any kind tend to focus on their existing clients, which is a sensible place to start. After all, there are two key elements that make people comfortable referring you. They need to have trust in both you and your product, and they need to understand your services and why people would want to talk to you. Who better to ask than your clients, people who hopefully have both of those elements in place?

Interestingly, however, the most popular time to ask a client for a referral is when they have just bought from you. At that stage I would argue that, although they have shown an element of trust by parting with money for your support, that trust is based on what you have told them, not on their personal experiences.

Surely the best time to ask for referrals is later on in your relationship, when they have witnessed the power of what you do and the impact on their business or life?

I discussed this point in a meeting with one company recently. They admitted that they asked new clients for referrals as a matter of course when they signed them up, but couldn’t recall a single instance of going back to those clients to ask again after delivery, or when their relationship had developed. As we discussed this they realised how nonsensical their current approach was.


Break out of narrow thinking

My concern is that most companies who focus on just asking their clients for referrals miss so many opportunities through such narrow thinking. They are not tapping into the support available from the people closest to them and with the greatest vested interest in their success.

During the workshop I ran with the manufacturing company I wrote about last month, the Managing Director suddenly realised that in the eighteen months he had worked for the company he had not recognised that a connection to a dream client was the person closest to him. As we talked about possible referral sources, he thought of his wife, who works in a senior position for a company who has the exact need for his company’s products.

Interestingly enough his wife had recognised the same opportunity at the same time. As he was talking about the possible connection in the workshop, she was talking to her colleagues about inviting him into the company to tell them more about what he could offer!

This wasn’t an unusual outcome from a workshop. On another occasion, a Deputy Regional Director for a major bank went out at the break and called his brother-in-law to ask for referrals. He had never asked before, or even thought of doing so, yet he walked back into the room with three promised introductions and the business relationship developed from there.

Why do we have such an obstacle about asking our family and friends for support? There is a reticence to cross the ‘line’ between personal and business lives. That is understandable but that line is becoming increasingly blurred as people make friends through their networks and realise the power of connecting people.

Besides, who decides where the line should be drawn and how thick it is? It’s absolutely right that you shouldn’t force your business problems on friends or family; I remember sitting stupefied through a friend’s flipchart Amway presentation when I was eighteen. But how would you feel if you found out that a friend’s business had folded and you could have helped; but they never asked?

A friend of mine recently found out what I do for a living, after knowing each other for fifteen years or more. We go to football together and never discussed work. It was only through becoming Facebook Friends that he started to see what my business is. He was mortified to realise that his firm had been working with one of my competitors for five years instead of with me!


The danger of pigeon-holing

In a coaching session last year with a web designer, we talked about the different people who could possibly refer him. One key place to start is with people who understand your business well (remember the importance of trust and understanding discussed above) and who are talking to similar customers about similar issues.
I asked my client if he used a printing company in his business and whether that printer regularly visits his office and chats with the team when he is there. As expected, the answer was yes on all counts.

I then asked where the printer would go when he wasn’t with my client or at his own premises. Of course he wasn’t just visiting one client; he was out and about going to deliver to a number of companies and getting to know their business and their challenges. Not only that but he was surely in a great position to refer a web designer as he would be talking to clients about their marketing and about changes in their business which required new print work. Such changes would often impact on their web strategy too.

So, had the web designer ever asked the printer for help with introductions and referrals? Of course not! Not only had he never had the discussion, the printer had just had a new website done and hadn’t invited my client to tender.

The reason for this was quite simple, the printer saw the designer as a client and the designer saw the printer as a supplier. These pigeon-holed positions dictated the conversations they had and the way they thought of each other. Yet surely the printer had a vested interest in supporting the web designer and helping his business grow. After all, the more successful the designer, the more work the printer would get and, hopefully, the more punctually the printer would pay his bills!

You are surrounded by a network of people who can help you. But if you are like most people, you are pigeon-holing them into particular relationships. Understanding how to develop a network of Champions starts with unraveling those relationships and recognizing that they all potentially have a network which could support you.

Look to friends and family, industry peers, clients, suppliers and social groups for people who could potentially refer you. Identify who has the greatest levels of trust in you, who wants to refer you the most, who understands your business and can recognise opportunities for you and who mixes in the right circles, talking about the right subjects giving them the opportunities to refer.

Make life easy for yourself and draw up a list of five or ten people drawn from all of these groups. People who you think may either be motivated to or positioned to refer you. You can then focus on building the levels of trust and understanding, working out the connections they have in their network and building these people into your team of Champions. Start with this group before adding to it.

In next month’s article we’ll take this group and look at how you educate those people so that they find it easy to make connections for you and become effective sources of new business for you. In the meantime, think about what you need to do to inspire them to want to do so and how you can help them first.

CONNECTING IS NOT ENOUGH: The Anatomy of a Referral (Part One)

This article originally appeared in The National Networker


Growing a business without developing a flow of good quality referrals can be tough. Yet so many companies try to do so.

Last month I was working with a manufacturing company. Owned by a larger US organisation, the chances are that they wouldn’t be in business without external support from the parent company. They have been making a loss for over two years and last year made most of their sales team redundant, losing a number of clients in the process.

Around the same time they brought in a new Managing Director with the remit to turn the fortunes of the business around. That would be a tough enough job for anyone in the circumstances, it’s proven to be even more so in the current economic climate.

The Managing Director asked me to come in and work with his sales team and help them gain an understanding of how networking could help them turn the tide.

Most of their business has come through existing customers re-ordering or purchasing new products. There is very little external business and most of what has come in has been attracted through their website. There has been very little pro-activity from the sales team to bring in new business. Referrals certainly haven’t been on the agenda.

It was very interesting to look at the reports the MD showed me. The company has been meticulous in tracking all sources of business. At a glance you can tell what business came through existing customers, cold calling and from the website. But there was no recognition of referrals in the report. They hadn’t even mentioned them.

I asked the team to share the last time they received a referral. The first person to answer had been with the company for eighteen months. He had received one ‘referral’ in that time, over a year ago. There was a similar story from others in the group.

Clearly, this company needs a change in focus. Referrals quite simply haven’t been on the agenda. In fact, I quickly identified that there is even a lack of understanding of what a referral is. When the sales team talked about ‘referrals’ they had received, they talked about when an existing customer moved companies and invited them to tender in their new role, or when one person told another that they were a company who could help.

Much like people who try to give out two or three business cards to everyone they meet in the hope that they will be passed on, there is a clear misunderstanding of exactly what a referral is. This is a common problem. When I was Managing Director of Business Referral Exchange, I often found myself frustrated with seeing members pass each other phone numbers to cold call under the guise of a ‘referral’.


What is a referral?

If you are going to introduce a strong referrals strategy into your business, take some time to understand exactly what you are looking for. There are various pieces of business information that can help you develop and generate sales, but they are not all referrals.

Tip
A Tip is quite simply a piece of information, nothing more than that. No individual names or contact details are passed; you may not even know there is a need for your services. A commercial estate agent might like to know that a company is moving, a speaker that a conference is imminent, a lawyer that a merger is imminent.

We can all be helped by knowing more information about prospective clients. With a tip, we have to do all of the subsequent leg work ourselves.

Lead
With a lead you have some more information. A name and phone number perhaps. According to Wikepedia, a lead ‘represents the first stage of a sales process’. There is still a lot of work to do but you are a step further ahead.

When someone in your network gives you a name and a number and says ‘you need to speak to this person’, they are giving you a lead. If they invite you to use their name when approaching the prospect, that is simply a warm lead.

Recommendation
Most commonly mistaken for referrals, a recommendation involves someone telling your prospect that they should consider using your services. Wonderful when it happens…..as long as your prospect then follows through and contacts you. Until the telephone rings, recommendations hold little value.


Three Steps to Referral Heaven

There are ‘Three Steps to Referral Heaven’.

STEP ONE – The person referring you identified someone who has a problem you may be able to solve.

STEP TWO – They talk to your prospect, who is interested in speaking with you.

STEP THREE – Your prospect is expecting your call.

Referrals are the best form of business information you can receive. Like a recommendation, they are more powerful than tips or leads because your prospect knows about you in advance of your conversation. Unlike a recommendation, you are in control of the conversation; rather than you waiting for the telephone to ring, your prospect is expecting your call.

Where companies go so wrong is for accepting tips, leads and recommendations when they could improve the quality of information they receive. If someone offers you a tip, try to find out more. If they give you a name and a number, ask if they could introduce you. Similarly, if they tell you they have recommended you, ask if you can be introduced.

After all, if someone likes and trusts you enough to share such information or recommend you, would they be willing to take the next step and make it easier for you?

That third step, that your prospect is expecting your call, makes such a difference. However well meaning an introduction where you can use someone’s name to open the conversation, unsolicited calls are very difficult to make. When someone calls you out of the blue, how receptive are you to what they have to say?

Few of us can honestly admit to being completely open when that happens, particularly if we are busy when the phone rings. We like to know in advance why people are calling us and that it is in our interest to have a discussion with them. Otherwise we tend to be, by nature, defensive.


The Difference a referral can make

One of the salesmen in my client’s company currently spends at least one day a week simply making sales calls. I asked him how many meetings he sets up each week on average as a result of this activity. He is getting three meetings.

I then asked how many of those meetings are converting to new business, he couldn’t answer, the number is so low.

While cold calling has a place in lead generation for many companies, I would argue that there is a much more efficient use of his time. He certainly isn’t boasting an impressive return on the time he is currently investing on the phone.

We discussed the alternative of spending a day a week building relationships with potential referral sources, deepening and strengthening the ties within his network. Surely from such activity, and with the focus on asking for the right introductions, he would be able to generate more than three meetings a week. And the chance of converting those meetings into business and, indeed, further referrals would be much greater.

Why am I so confident about this? It’s simple. Referrals introduce you to people who have recognised they have a problem you could possibly solve. Those people have been told about you by a third party who has recommended your services. That gives them greater confidence in using you, they are not entering the unknown.

I’m not, however, telling you anything you don’t already know. Just like my client, however, you may not be focusing enough on it within your business. With the right approach, how much of a difference could you make to your bottom line?

In Part Two of this article next month, we’ll look at who you can ask for referrals, how to make it as easy as possible for people to refer you and the importance of tracking the results.

When, if ever, is it time to quit building a relationship with a potential referral source?

Vena Ramphal has just asked me this question on Twitter. It's a very interesting question. Referrals come from people with whom you have built relationships over a period of time. In some cases the relationships may take years to develop. So how do you know when to focus your efforts elsewhere?

The first thing to understand is how a referral comes about. People are more likely to refer you, and provide you with quality referrals, the more they trust you and understand what you do. Some businesses need greater levels of trust and understanding before people refer them than others. For example, you will probably be more comfortable referring a printer you have only recently met than an accountant.

Everyone you meet and everyone around you is potentially a referral source. Whether they are clients or colleagues, family or friends, they will have their own network and will potentially come across opportunities to refer you.

A referral strategy, however, requires a degree of focus. While you can make efforts to build stronger relationships with everyone around you and communicate your needs more clearly to them, it makes sense to spend some more time developing specific referral relationships with a small group of people.

In each of these cases, you need to understand how much they want to and are able to refer you. In other words, how much do they trust you and understand what you do? These are the first two areas to focus on, unless they score highly on both these counts you can't start asking them for referrals.

To do so, you have to look at each person individually and ask yourself what will inspire them to want to refer you. How can you get them to trust you more? What do they need to know to understand better what you do and who you do it for?

Each of these steps take time. Some people in your network will be ready and able to refer you straight away. Others need a lot more attention.

It is this attention that provides the answer to Vena's question. In theory as long as a relationship is growing and remains positive, you shouldn't write off anyone as a referral source. However, if a lot of time and effort is required to develop the trust and understanding to a sufficient level for them to refer you, it is time perhaps to consider the return on that investment.

A harsh way to talk about relationships, perhaps, but a necessary evil. If you are investing your business time and resources in cultivating relationships with the intention of generating referrals, you need to have a clear vision of what success will look like.

Think about who people know and the conversations they are likely to have. Once they have reached a sufficient level of trust and understanding to refer you comfortably, are they re in a position to refer you on a regular basis to the people you want to meet? If so, carry on investing the time and effort to get to that stage. If they have a limited network and don't have the type of connections you are looking for, perhaps you should look elsewhere.

Ideal referral sources are in a position to keep introducing you to potential customers and other potential Champions for your business. Your referral strategy will be far more efficient if you develop strong bonds with ten key people who each refer you five or six times a year, than if you try to build relationships with 50 or 60 people who might refer you once.

I don't think you ever need to 'quit building a relationship with a potential referral source', or with anyone with whom you have a rapport. You may, however, choose not to spend as much time developing that particular relationship if the return is outweighed by the investment.

Work your butt off

"I hate loyalty schemes. Why not just work your butt off and do extra for your customer?"



Last night I attended a Big Fish networking event and listened to the guest speaker Sinclair Beecham, co-founder of Pret a Manger, share his experience and his thoughts on business. Inviting questions from the audience throughout his presentation, Sinclair was asked by one self-confessed 'loyal customer' why they didn't operate a loyalty scheme as many of their competitors do. Sinclair's response, as repeated above, was interesting as was the reaction of the audience.

The person who originally asked the question felt strongly that he wanted a loyalty scheme and wasn't interested just in extra service. Sinclair turned the question to the audience, the majority of whom admitted to being customers of Pret a Manger. It came as some surprise perhaps to everyone present when a very large majority said they didn't want a loyalty scheme.

I've written before, in this post, about companies relying too much on incentive schemes to generate referrals instead of focusing on enhanced customer service. Sinclair's comments are in a similar vein. Although they are looking to sell more to the same customers rather than get recommendations or referrals, he is clear in his mind that exceptional service is far more powerful than incentive schemes.

It looks as though most of his customers may well agree with him.

Connecting is not Enough....The Newsletter

The latest edition of the Connecting is not Enough newsletter is now available here. From the next edition this will now come out every three weeks rather than fortnightly.

The latest edition includes:

- How well do you know your network?

- A pointless exercise

- What to do when you drop the ball

- The amazing Mr Flydini

Connecting is not Enough....The Newsletter

The latest edition of Connecting is not Enough is available now. Click here to view the newsletter.

This fortnight's spectacular includes:

- Designing your business cards
- Predicting the conversation
- Underpromise and overdeliver



and a man flying through the air into a paddling pool!

Establish Contacts - Mike Southon's column in the Financial Times

Mike Southon, best selling author of 'Beermat Entrepreneur' and the other Beermat books, recently interviewed me for his weekly column in the Financial Times.

In the article, 'Making Contacts', Mike talked to me about the need to generate a strong referral strategy and making the most of the connections you have.

You can read Mike's article here.

Connecting is not Enough.....The Newsletter

This week's newsletter is now available here

Includes:

Networking multitasking
The importance of niches
How I use Twitter
The £1 Challenge
and a group of naked Swedes dancing!

Connecting is not Enough......the newsletter

The latest issue of Connecting is not Enough is available here.

The issue includes:

The importance of a 'real connection'
Do you open your network on LinkedIn
Joe Cocker....the Woodstock lyrics in full (or sort of!).

Are you Referral-Aware or do you have a Referral Strategy?

I was discussing referral strategy yesterday with someone I had, appropriately, been referred to by a client. The company are a sales-focused company with a strong referral awareness, yet it became apparent that despite that awareness there is no strategy. That shortcoming is potentially leaving a lot of business untapped.

What was very interesting was the fact that well over 50% of new leads generated comes from cold-calling and, when asked, he was unable to name the company's top referral sources. While the company is referral-aware, the activity they follow is simply asking for a couple of referrals at the end of the meeting. Every member of their team knows that they need to do this yet, as I have discussed elsewhere, while that approach will produce some results, it is far from the most effective tool available.

Towards the end of our conversation we talked about the best ways and times to inspire our clients to refer us.

"It's interesting", he said. "We only ask our top clients to refer us once, and that's when we first meet."

A good referral has two key elements.

- Someone has to have a high degree of trust in you to refer you with confidence. The more they trust you and want to refer you, the more likely they will and that their referrals will convert and you will retain the ongoing business.

- The person referring you knows who you are looking to meet, why they need your help and how you can help them. In short, they understand how to recognise and convert opportunities to refer you.

When you first start working with a client the levels of trust and understanding are a long way short of where you hope they will be as the relationship between you matures. Asking just once, at the start of the relationship, misses the opportunity in two big ways. They are asking when people are less likely/interested in referring them and they are not asking when people like them enough to help and know how to.

Who in your network, or among your clients, knows, likes and trusts you enough to refer you, yet you never ask them? How many people have you asked for referrals before they've had the chance to build that trust or really understand your business? How successful were you?

It's not enough to be referral-aware. You need a referral strategy, or you'll be leaving business untapped and money on the table.

Making more Dough through referrals

During my talk to the Academy for Chief Executives Conference last week I talked about the importance of substantially exceeding clients' expectations if you want them to refer you.

Here's the problem. Most businesses recognise that referrals or recommendations represent their best source of new business. However, few do anything proactive about it. We employ cold calling teams, spend fortunes on pay per click and search engine optimisation, develop marketing strategies and invest in advertising campaigns. Yet we just expect referrals from our clients automatically.

There's nothing wrong with the marketing techniques above, they are all part of the marketing mix. Surely though, there's something wrong when the least resource goes into the most effective marketing channel.

This becomes a major issue when you realise that your customers don't refer you automatically, just because you give them good service. People don't work like that.

Look at the front page of the newspapers on most days and what you'll see is bad news. Bad news travels much more quickly than good, mainly because it gives us a story. Have a good meal in a restaurant and you might compliment the chef, have a lousy one and you'll tell all of your friends.

People will only relate good news if it's exceptional. In other words, if you give them a story.

The Conference last week was held at Warren House in Surrey. On the evening before the Conference Academy CEO Mike Burnage arrived with a guest. They sat in the lounge and asked the waiter for some Scones.

The waiter started to tell Mike that there were no scones available that day but stopped himself. "One moment please sir", he said and disappeared into the kitchen. A few minutes later he came out and said "Chef is making some fresh scones for you now". Twenty minutes later he re-emerged with piping hot freshly made scones.

How do I know this? Because Mike told me.....he had a story where Warren House substantially exceeded his expectations. How often would you expect a hotel that has no scones to make some for you there and then?

Not only did Mike tell me, I then relayed the same story to fellow diners that night, and again I told the audience from the stage the next day.

Give your customers a positive story to tell their friends, colleagues and family if you want referrals. Under promise and over deliver.

Above all, if you want to be referred, substantially exceed their expectations.

Networking in Ninety Minutes

If you're still struggling to put together the right networking strategy for your business or understand how to maximise the number of referrals you get from your customers, I might now have the solution for you!

I have recorded a double CD set, Networking in Ninety Minutes. The first CD, 'How to Grow Your Business by Increasing Your Referrals' looks at how to implement a referrals strategy to maximise the new leads generated by clients, friends and business associates.

The second CD, 'Networking with FOCUS. How to Increase the Return on Your Networking Investment' explores the best approach to selecting, joining and getting results from networking organisations, online and off.

"Andy Lopata has consistently produced networking material that is of remarkable value and insight; 'Networking in 90 Minutes' is no exception. With success strategies that are straightforward and simple, yet powerfully cutting edge, this CD set belongs in the hands of anyone and everyone wishing to achieve optimum results from their networking efforts."
Ivan Misner, NY Times Bestselling author and Founder of BNI

"This CD pack is the perfect point to start to put a serious strategy into place, and is an essential investment for any serious business. So, the question is not why or when you should start working on this. The question is, what are you waiting for?"
Ignacio Hernandez, Managing Director EMEA, Currencies Direct Limited

"These CDs provide a great insight into how to focus your networking activities to maximise your return on investment and also claw back some work and social time by targeting the best events and maximising the activities related to them."
Richard Alvin, Managing Editor, Business Matters magazine

Click here to read more and order.

The Perfect Referral

I recently spoke at a Success Day for Forever Living Products in Cheltenham. The event was the result of a referral from Dave Clarke of NRG Networks, and, more specifically, a regular meeting we have to see how we can help each other.

Having a referrals strategy is not as simple as asking people 'can you refer me?'. It involves a clear understanding of the introductions you are looking for, knowing who your 'Champions' are and communicating clearly enough to make it simple for them to help you.

In his 'Business Networking Blog', Dave has described how the referral came about from his point of view.

Are you getting enough referrals from your network? Are there people who you know would be willing to refer you but don't? In your referrals strategy, it is important to understand the perspective of your referrers, rather than just coming at it from your own angle. It's too easy to miss the importance of this and not see the wider picture.

Try asking your most likely referrers what they need in order to refer you. You might be surprised at the responses.