Sandra Hart

Naughty or nice – what difference does it make?

December 24, 2012

A couple of years ago my two young children were writing to Santa, they both asked for a surprise on their list. Santa came up with (what Mammy thought was) a lovely surprise for each of them, for Matthew a “Ben 10” blanket and for Katie a “Dora the Explorer” blanket, lovely snuggly cosy blankets…….. Mammy’s and Santa’s idea of a lovely surprise…..NOT as it turns out, so exciting for the kids! They had toys in mind!! Two years have passed and letters have been written to Santa….none have since included even a sniff of a surprise, they are not [...]

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ABCs of Referral Marketing – D is for debrief

November 8, 2012

How many times have you come home from a networking event with piles of business cards? Where do they go? On the desk, in a drawer or maybe they end up in the bin? A few minutes spent debriefing after an event will mean a lot for your effectiveness when networking. It is said that “time is money” but really productive time is money, and being productive means having some decent business systems to handle your networking activity. There are lots of gadgets for you gadget lovers out there, you can scan cards with all sorts of apps which will [...]

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The ABCs of Referral Marketing – F is for ……….follow up!

August 31, 2012

So you’ve been to a networking event you’ve met some great contacts, you have got lots of business cards, you had some fantastic conversations. What now? Are you sitting in the office the next day just waiting for that phone to ring, the inbox to fill up, and people to call you with orders? I hope not because you may be disappointed. Networking is about building relationships with people, and a critical element is reconnecting with people in an appropriate way, a lot depends on the quality of the follow up.

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ABCs of Referral Marketing – E is for engage

June 29, 2012

How do you engage people at an event? How to people remember you rather than your competitor or other people at an event. There are a few easy ways to engage people in conversation and to be memorable and they all involve a little thought and preparation. The easiest way to start to engage people is to ask open ended questions, prepare four or five questions which you can use depending on the situation that you can engage people in conversation. Most people are reciprocal and therefore will ask you back the same question that you asked them. So let’s [...]

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ABC of Referral Marketing – C is for Credibility

April 26, 2012

There is one thing that goes to the grave with you and lives on after you have left this earth, and that is your reputation. Building and maintaining your credibility in your relationships is the key to having a great reputation. Being credible is crucial to you being referable.  Every relationship starts with two people at a stage of visibility, you become aware of the other person, they see you across a crowded room, at a networking event, at a meeting, maybe at the local football match. Maybe they are even aware of you without meeting you, through your PR [...]

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The ABC of referral marketing – b is for benefits

March 5, 2012

Before you begin marketing any product or service you need to know some basics, what is your value proposition? How are you different from your competitors? What are the features of your product? And of the utmost importance in word of mouth marketing….what are the benefits. The benefits of your product or service are what the client is left with after you are gone, it is the value that they have derived from having some interaction with your product or service. Clients and customers want a product to do a job or a service to meet a need not as [...]

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Referrals, as easy as ABC!

December 30, 2011

A is for….. Authenticity! In Referral marketing it is very important to be authentic with your referral partners and your referral sources. If you are not being authentic people can see through this very easily. Depending on how well they know you and how well they know your network it may take a short time or a long time, but they will find out!!!

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