Generating referrals

Planning Your Networking Strategy

October 1, 2013

In developing your career and your business, it is no good being the best kept secret in the world. Unfortunately, many people see networking as a prime way to increase the visibility and embark on a networking frenzy without giving too much thought to a proper strategy.  As a result, they attend many events only to find progress is slow, results are haphazard and tracking a return on their investment is difficult.

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Networking- we have to do what we are taught not to do!

September 13, 2013

What do we continue to say to our children? ……….“DON’T SPEAK TO STRANGERS”  Yet to network effectively, what MUST we do ? …… the complete opposite – SPEAK TO STRANGERS !!

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Why Saying Less Could Ensure You Are Referred More

September 5, 2013

If, while you’re reading this blog, one of your friends, family or business associates found themselves face to face with someone you would want to meet, would they know? Would they think of you, recognise the connection, understand why and know what to say?

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Have you lost your referrals and don’t know where to find them?

July 17, 2013

I could never really understand the nursery rhyme… Little Bo-Peep, she just left everything to chance, hung out at home and waited for the sheep to find their way back to her! And low and behold, although sheep are not known for their ability to find their way anywhere without direction, they found their way home with no effort or pro-activity from Little Bo-Peep.

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Where does your target market ‘hang out’?

July 3, 2013

Part 2: Being Specific, Business to Consumer  In the first part of this three part blog series, we looked at how easy it is to be specific when asking for referral requests when you sell your product or service to businesses.  You can read Part 1 here, but in this article, we’ll be focussing on a very common question I hear from networkers everywhere.  Take this example, from Roger, an osteopath:

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Your ideal referral

May 10, 2013

In a previous blog, I talked about how to help people understand what you do in order to help you more effectively; making it easy for them to do so rather than antagonising them.  Once your network understand what you want them to say about you, you then need to focus on who you want them to share your message with. If, for example, you are looking for contacts in the public sector, there is little advantage to be gained if your message is being shared with small start-up companies. 

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The power of introducers

April 16, 2013

Just as you need to be very clear on who your ideal referrals are when speaking to your Champions, so it is important for you to think about how you can best help the people you want to refer. Whereas a referral to a prospective client may lead to just one transaction taking place, one to an introducer could lead to a number of transactions over a period of time, and to long-term partnerships. It may, therefore, be far more powerful for you to refer potential introducers to your network, rather than just clients.

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Waiting for things to happen

February 15, 2013

Over the years I have run many seminars and training sessions on referrals strategy. I have asked a lot of business audiences where their best and most effective new leads come from and the vast majority will always reply ‘word of mouth’, ‘recommendation’ or ‘referral’. Yet, when I ask specifically for them to describe what strategy people have in place, I am met with blank looks. On the whole, companies believe that if they deliver good service, their customers will refer them naturally. This is a passive approach, and in reality quality referrals are unlikely to be forthcoming.

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