Show Up

Woody Allen’s said: “Eighty percent of success is showing up.” Showing up counts. The more often you show up, the more visible you become, and the more people know you and recognize you.

Opportunities abound at the Holidays to meet new people at a very social and happy time of year. Invite someone you enjoy to go along with you—perhaps a new acquaintance or someone you haven’t seen in awhile. They make new connections, and you both win.

Many sales people refrain from actively networking. When I tell my clients that I expect them to attend at least one business networking event a week, they gasp. Am I asking them to do something so terrible?

We encounter so many people who network poorly. They shove business cards in our face and ask us to do referral marketing for them. They are loud and pushy and fail to understand that referral networking means connecting to people—one person at a time.

Get Involved

Consider networking an essential tool in building your Business Referral Network. The contacts you develop because you attend networking events emerge strong. You not only attend business networking gatherings, but you volunteer. Every organization needs and welcomes volunteers. Think about ways to contribute. Even if it is a small amount of time, you develop lasting relationships because others know your work, you deliver what you promise, and keep your time commitments.

Once you get to know people and they get to know you, you discover many opportunities to provide business referrals. Refer someone to a potential client, alliance partner, or to a person in a similar business. Give a personal referral—to an accountant, banker, or mechanic—a resource to help the other person. We become referral marketing sources for each other. How perfect!

One salesperson told me that she stopped going to certain networking groups because she didn’t receive any sales leads. She sounded desperate to me, and I bet she came across that way in her networking interactions. I told her if she relied on sales leads as a measure of networking success, she attended for the wrong reasons. Networking is building relationships and expanding our network of resources. Ultimately, we want to refer business back and forth. But that only happens when we take the time to get to know people. People do business with people they know, like, and trust. Period. End of story.

Build Your Business Referral Network

Referral networking means building relationships and being genuine. You network to make friends, sell a product, promote your company, find a job, find new clients, learn the latest from others, or gain more visibility in the business community. Business networking opportunities exist everywhere—meetings, professional associations, alumni groups, sports groups, community groups, weddings, parties, and any place people come together.

Set a goal and attend at least one networking event per week, where you meet potential referral sources. In fact, my referral marketing strategy includes proactive networking. This is a non-negotiable. Attend a breakfast, lunch, or evening networking event—or all three. Get out of your familiar places. Go where you clients go, go and hear an exciting speaker, attend professional association meetings, ask your colleagues what events they attend. Just show up!

Want great networking tips? Learn from the Mingling Maven, the leading authority and original expert on how to work a room: Susan RoAne and get her latest book, FACE TO FACE: How to Reclaim the Personal Touch in a Digital World (check out page 50 for a mention of yours, truly.)

Three Networking Goals

Manage your networking goals. My three goals when I attend a business networking event:

1. Meet interesting people
2. Learn a tip from an engaging speaker
3. Have fun.

When I achieve at least two of these goals—and I make a point to do so—great things happen!

So go out there, build your Business Referral Network, meet terrific people, and watch your business soar!

New Rules, New Referral Opportunities

Why ask your competition? Sometimes government regulations prohibit you from working with a particular client. In the United States, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act prevents accounting firms from auditing and consulting within the same client company. Accounting firms that used to be fierce competitors are now proactively identifying one other (where they can) to refer business. In this case, government regulations have opened up a new world of sales. Welcome to the world of “Who Thought that Would Ever Happen?”

There’s a similar trend in technology companies. With the move to software as a service (SaaS), the sales cycle is longer, and companies are becoming more and more specialized. They must decide to partner with former (and sometimes current) competitors, and determine how they will work together on a long-term engagement. This opens up many interesting sales strategies for discussion.

Benefits of Competitive Referrals

I always talk about referrals: It’s what I do. By developing and following a Referral Action Plan you can:

• Convert more than 50% of your contacts into clients
• Attract new clients without any marketing costs
• Get clients who pay the bills and increase your profits
• Taken one step further, by offering a referral your competitor, you can:
• Gain an introduction to a new or previously impacted industry
• Become your clients’ “go-to” expert and resource
• Expand your sales network reach and depth
• Boost your industry reputation as an insightful and creative collaborator
• Become a trusted partner
• Win, win, win!

Granted, you may not be the first to refer a competitor. Smart sales pros always look inside first: what do you have that could be positioned, modified, expanded to address your customers’ business issues? However, the benefits of a competitive referral often outweigh your concern. Consider a staffing company that specializes in administrative placement. Perhaps a client asks the company to find an individual who is outside of their traditional realm-a financial analyst, for example. Often, one staffing company will work out an arrangement with another if they don’t have the right candidate, because their only goal is to find the best person for their client.

Top-Notch Client Care

When you really care about your clients, you dedicate yourself to finding the best solution for them. You look for opportunities to refer and to add value. One of the greatest things you can do for your clients-and for your reputation-is to be a trusted and valued referral resource.

New technologies and new delivery mechanisms have changed the landscape of sales. Companies in every industry are looking to scale without a heavy financial investment. The obvious solution is to partner with companies with whom you can collaborate to provide a complete solution to your customer.

Decide to look at things differently. Do things differently. Reach out to your relationships, and don’t rule out your competition!

President-elects of the United States typically spend the two months of transition between Election Day and their Inauguration assembling their Cabinet and top advisors. President-Elect Barack Obama is no different. The nation and world have been watching with curiosity and interest as to whom Obama will select.

Business professionals and sales managers should follow the President’s lead and surround themselves with intelligent and trusted people who can help them build referrals and sales success.

The world is our sales team. We need to be proactive in identifying people who can be great Referral Sources. Like any President or great leader, ordinary people can surround themselves with individuals who are supportive and excel in areas that they don’t. For sales professionals, it’s important to ask for help and guidance in building a referral-based business because we never know who someone else may know.

5 Tips to Build Your Own “Executive Cabinet for Sales Success”

1. Form a Sales Advisory Board. This will enable you to brainstorm ideas and create a “leap in demand” and more sales for your products and services.  An easy way to boost sales effectiveness.

2. Commit to Building a Referral Business. Surround yourself with people who are movers and shakers who can offer business referrals your way and vice versa.

3. Form Alliances. Think of innovative ways to partner with others to increase your visibility, brand, and attract new business.

4. Create Accountability. Choose an accountability partner such as a trusted colleague, coach, or associate to share ideas and help each other on a weekly basis.  This is sort of idea sharing can contribute to your business success.

5. Become a Thought Leader. When you are passionate about your expertise and share your knowledge, you will increase your credibility and widen your circles. This leads to new business contacts, referrals, and partnerships.

Inaugurate Your Own New Sales Strategy

Commit to building your own Executive Cabinet for Sales Success. I practice the Executive Cabinet approach, and build my business exclusively through referrals. Regardless of your political perspective, referral selling is a winning sales strategy.

Get presidential. Make today your new beginning. Build your own “Executive Cabinet for Sales Success” and commit to changing your business. Now.

Regardless of what the experts say about a “real” recession: American consumers are behaving as though we’re in a recession. And we’ve just begun to see the “trickle down” effect of our slowing economy. Don’t let the lagging economy trickle down on you and your business. Recession-proof your business with these 8 Killer Steps.

In March, I shared my 5 Killer Steps to Recession-Proof your business:

1.       Broaden Your Business Perspective

2.       Make Your Business Nimble and Innovative

3.       Dazzle Your Current Customers

4.       Prioritize for More Sales

5.       Become an Expert

Read the March 2008 Newsletter: Recession-Proof Selling

In the last few months, I have spoken to many audiences on Recession-Proof Selling, and conducted a Webinar on the topic. The exciting replay is now available to you with companion slides and a written transcript.

Learn more about the Recession-Proof Your Business Emergency Kit

Bonus! 3 More Killer Steps!

Now it’s June. And I have 3 more Killer Steps to share with you. I’ve used these steps all along-they are business lifesavers in any economy.

Killer Step #6: Keep Your Network Going Strong

Network like crazy. Attend a minimum of one event a week. You never know who you will meet and what you will learn. Woody Allen said that 80 percent of life is showing up. He also said 70 percent of success in life is showing up. Show Up! It counts.

Never let your network go down. Networking is an essential activity in making connections and building your business.

Talk to people and find out how you can help them. How is their business doing? Are they being impacted by the lagging economy? Don’t email, call. You make connections by talking to people, spending the time to have a robust conversation. Pick up the phone. It’s the best way to spend your time.

Killer Step #7: Don’t Cut Price

There’s a lot of chatter about cutting price in a lagging economy- businesses are cutting back, they don’t have money for your project. Consider how to “get in and get started.” Divide your offering into smaller chunks, get results, and create traction. If you do decide to adjust your price, always get something in return. Cutting price and getting nothing back isn’t a winning strategy.

Let your client know that you would like to find a way to work together. Remember, nothing is traditional anymore. Think of new ways to solve old problems. Work together with your clients and collaborate on a solution.

Killer Step #8: Commit to Building Your Referral Business

What if you could reach your market without hard costs-no marketing budget, no direct mail budget, no advertising budget, no trade show budget. The only budget you need to worry about is your Time & Referrals Budget. Your time. Your time to ask for referrals. Referrals are always terrific, but they mean even more in a lagging economy. There is no line-item cost to referrals.

In addition, you are pre-sold, you have credibility and trust, you ace out the competition, and you will get a new client well over 50 percent of the time. There is no other strategy that comes close to these results, and at no cost.

We’ve just begun to see the “trickle down” effect of our slowing economy. Don’t let the lagging economy trickle down on you and your sales business. The companies that take charge and compete will win! Just like traditional indicators have changed, so have traditional responses. Nothing is traditional anymore. What can you do to be non-traditional?