Endless Referrals Book Note

Finally, a book that explains network building the right way, without all of that manipulative stuff.

The amount of posture you have and the amount of posture you display is directly proportional to the number of quality names on your list—your inventory.

Networking is the cultivating of mutually beneficial, give-and-take, win-win relationships.

All things being equal, people will do business with, and refer business to, those people they know, like, and trust.

We are not dependent on each other; nor are we independent of each other; we are all interdependent with each other.

Each of us has a personal sphere of influence of about 250 people. And so does every person we meet.

It isn’t just what you know, and it isn’t just who you know. It’s also who knows you and what you do for a living—when that person, or someone that person knows, needs your products, goods, or services. Providing that first person knows you, likes you, and trusts you.

After the introduction, invest 99.9 percent of the conversation asking the other person questions about himself and his business. Do not talk about yourself and your business.

Ten Networking Questions That Work Every Time:

How did you get your start in the widget business? People like to be the Movie of the Week in someone else’s mind. “I worked my way through college, then started in the mail room, then blah, blah, blah, and finally began the fascinating career of selling widgets.” Let them share their story with you while you actively listen.
What do you enjoy most about your profession? Again, it’s a question that elicits a good, positive feeling. And it should get you the positive response you’re seeking. By this time you’ve got him on a roll.
What separates you and your company from the competition? I call this the permission-to-brag question. All our lives we’re taught not to brag about ourselves and our accomplishments, yet you’ve just given this person carte blanche to let it all hang out.
What advice would you give someone just starting in the widget business? This is my mentor question. Don’t we all like to feel like a mentor—to feel that our answer matters? Give your new networking prospect a chance to feel like a mentor by asking this question.
What one thing would you do with your business if you knew you could not fail? This is a paraphrase of a question from noted theologian and author Dr. Robert Schuller, who asks, “What one thing would you do with your life if you knew you could not fail?” We all have a dream, don’t we? What is this person’s dream? The question gives her a chance to fantasize. She’ll appreciate the fact that you cared enough to ask. And you’ll notice that people always take a few moments to really ponder this one before they answer.
What significant changes have you seen take place in your profession through the years? Asking people who are a little bit more mature in years can be perfect because they love answering this question. They’ve gone through the takeover of fax machines, the advent of PCs and then the Internet, and the transition from a time when service really seemed to matter.
What do you see as the coming trends in the widget business? I call this the speculator question. Aren’t people who are asked to speculate usually important, hot-shot types on television? You are therefore giving this person a chance to speculate and share his knowledge with you—to be an expert! You’re making him feel good about himself.
Describe the strangest or funniest incident you’ve experienced in your business. Give people the opportunity to share their war stories. After all, isn’t that something practically everyone likes to do? Don’t we all have stories we like to share from when we began in business? Something very embarrassing happened that certainly wasn’t funny then but is now. The problem is, most people rarely or never get the chance to share these stories. And here you are, actually volunteering to be this person’s audience!
What ways have you found to be the most effective for promoting your business? Again, you are accentuating the positive in this person’s mind, while finding out something about the way he thinks. However, if you happen to be in the advertising field, absolutely do not ask this question. Why? Because right now, it would be a probing question, and would be perceived as such by your networking prospect. Eventually you will get to ask that question, but not now.
What one sentence would you like people to use in describing the way you do business? Almost always, the person will stop and think really hard before answering this question. What a compliment you’ve paid her. You’ve asked a question that, quite possibly, the people who are closest to her have never thought to ask.
This next question is key to the process of getting this person to feel he knows you, likes you and trusts you. How can I know if someone I’m speaking to is a good prospect for you?

Networking opportunities occur constantly, anywhere and at any time. If you are networking correctly, the other person will never notice that you are networking.

Ask several of the 10 open-ended, Feel-Good Questions® to find out more about your networking prospect. Remember, these questions are not intended to be probing in nature, but simply to establish a rapport.

You can also ask “F-O-R-M” questions when the person is not in a “sales” type of business.

There are seven steps that will ensure your success at business functions:

Adjust your attitude. Realize that the purpose of attending this function is to work and build your network.
Work the crowd. Be pleasant and approachable.
Introduce yourself to someone new. If possible, have that person be a Center of Influence.
After the introduction, invest 99.9 percent of the conversation in asking that person questions about herself and her business. Do not talk about yourself and your business.
Ask for your networking prospect’s business card.
Later on, pop back by and call that person by name.
Introduce people you have met to others and help them find ways to benefit one another.

A letter that shows up at the person’s desk or home the day after you meet is a nice touch. This note should be a nonpushy, simple, brief note, written in blue ink (research indicates blue ink is more effective, in both business and personal correspondence). It should say something like, “Hi Dave (or Mary, or even Mr. or Ms., depending upon the particular situation), Thank you. It was a pleasure meeting you. If I can ever refer business your way, I certainly will.”

According to Tom Hopkins, author of How to Master the Art of Selling, the note should read something along these lines: Dear Mary, thank you so much for your kind referral of Bob Jones. You can be assured that anyone you refer to me will be treated with the utmost caring and professionalism.

Send a personalized thank-you note on an 8-x-3½–inch personalized note card that includes your picture. The note should be written in blue ink, enclosed in a number 10 envelope, hand-addressed and hand-stamped. Make the time to consistently write and send these notes.

Send any articles, newspaper or magazine clippings, or other pieces of information that relate to your networking prospects or their business. If you hear of something that might be helpful to them, send it on a piece of your note card stationery.

Send your networking prospects a note pad regularly to keep you on their minds. Include your company name, logo, picture, and contact information.

Always give more in use value than what you take in cash value. You cannot give a person more in cash value than you take from them, but you can give them more in use value than the cash value of the thing you take from them.

No matter what your profession, if you can give increase of life to others and make them sensible [i.e., “aware”] of this gift, they will be attracted to you, and you will get rich.

What’s important to remember is to give, not with an emotional demand that the person to whom you’re giving must repay you in kind, but purely out of the joy of adding increase to the life of another human being.

It is a universal law that when we give, we will always end up receiving, usually even more abundantly than we gave.

Superstar networkers are givers, and they are connectors.

One thing I always do is tell the referrer, “I promise I’ll call.” And when I call the referred prospect, I say, “Hi, Ms. Johnson. This is Bob Burg calling. I promised Joe Callahan I’d call you.” Sort of positions us a little better in that person’s mind right off the bat, doesn’t it?

Develop a benefit statement for the product or service you provide.

To ask for referrals in a way that helps the other person come up with answers, isolate a specific group of people in the referrer’s mind so he can “see” them.

Inside this huge, multicolored, cardboard envelope is your letter enclosed in a regular number 10 envelope. It should be brief, businesslike and to the point. It should let the person know who you are and should also contain a short benefit statement and a request to be put through next time you call. Here’s a generic example: Dear Mr. Thomas, Would you like to know more about a surefire way to cut down on your sales staff’s wasted, nonproductive time? Gadger Gidgets. These profit builders, designed specifically for ______________ (his type of business) will show you how to increase production and profitability by up to 34 percent, and at a very affordable price. When I’ve called, you’ve been very busy. I’m sure that’s the norm for you. May I make a request? I’ll call Thursday, October 17, at 2:10 p.m. If you are in, I’d appreciate your taking my call. I promise to be brief and help you determine quickly if our system might fit your needs. If you are not in and would like to speak with me, could you have your secretary schedule a time for me to call back at your convenience? Sincerely yours, Steve Larkin.

Notice that the time I gave was 2:10 p.m. Whenever scheduling any appointment you should suggest an odd time, as opposed to 2:00, 2:15, 2:30, or 2:45. This gives the impression of your time being clearly slotted, accounted for, and important. The same goes for percentages: 34 percent is actually much more credible than 35 percent. Why? Because it’s much more specific, and it suggests documentation.

Simply put a money value on the time you’ll take to speak with the decision maker. The following example is a conversation I had with a secretary who had consistently denied me access to the boss for over three weeks. After reading Mr. Mackay’s book, I decided to go for it. ME: May I speak with Mr. Prospect, please? SECRETARY: No, he’s busy. ME: May I make a telephone appointment to speak with him? SECRETARY: No, he’s too busy even for that. Just send whatever it is you have in writing! (charming individual) ME: I’ll tell you what. Please put me on hold and ask Mr. Prospect if I can take just 200 seconds of his time. Tell him that if I go even one second over, I’ll donate $500 to his favorite charity. SECRETARY: (bewildered) Hold on a moment. COMPANY MESSAGE OVER “EASY LISTENING” BACKGROUND MUSIC: “You’ll find this to be one company that really loves people…” (The message playing was actually pretty close to that!) SECRETARY: He’ll take your call at nine tomorrow morning… and his charity is the Heart Fund. TELEPHONE: Click!

MARY JONES: Hi, this is Mary Jones. How can I help you? ME: Good morning, Ms. Jones (not “Mary” yet), this is Bob Burg. I understand you’re the person in charge of bringing in outside professional speakers for your annual convention. Is that correct? MARY JONES: Yes, it is. What can I do for you? ME: Well I…by the way, do you have a real quick minute or have I caught you at a really awful time? I and many others have found this exact language to be very helpful: After all, has any other salesperson shown this much empathy and consideration for their potential time constraints? Also, you’ve given them an “out,” and typically, when you voluntarily give someone an out, they are less likely to go looking for one.

There are three parts to what is known as the “marketing bridge” we all need to cross when working with prospects:

Do they need it?
Do they want it?
Can they afford it?

Instead, we give them a choice of two yeses. ME: Would tomorrow evening at 7:15 be good, or would Wednesday evening at 7:45 be more convenient for you? PROSPECT: Tomorrow’s no good. I guess we can do it Wednesday. This is called the “alternate of choice.” It’s very effective—but we need to be very careful when utilizing it, for two reasons.

worst thing a salesperson can do is simply walk in, introduce himself, sit down without being invited to do so, and start “machine-gunning” through a presentation. In fact, the same applies even with a planned appointment. If faced with the decision-maker, we must first discover (or create) a need, a want, and a financial capability.

If using the telephone simply to set in-person appointments, be sure to limit your conversation to just that. Give too much information and you might disqualify yourself right then and there.

According to Patrick Anderson, “Giving someone a link can be a golden hook that pulls people in to your Web site. He says, “Trading links is the fundamental spirit of networking on the Internet.”

Exposure alone is no longer a money-maker. Positioning yourself as the expert in your field is the key.

Once we make a choice or take a stand, we will encounter personal and interpersonal pressures to behave consistently with that commitment. Those pressures will cause us to respond in ways that justify our earlier decision. We simply convince ourselves that we have made the right choice and, no doubt, feel better about our decision. It is, quite simply, our desire to be (and to appear) consistent with what we have already done.

There’s no question that the best possible person to ask for referrals is the one who has just made a purchase from you. Why? For one thing, at this very moment, this client probably feels the best and most excited about you he will ever feel. Not that he won’t continue to like you afterwards. He will, especially because of the caring and wonderful customer service you’re going to provide. But his positive feelings are especially strong right now because when one makes a buying decision (and especially when a substantial price is involved), it’s a very emotional decision.

You’ve probably learned before that people buy emotionally and back up that emotional decision with logic. We all do this. And when we make that decision our brain releases endorphins, those feel-good chemicals in our brain, and we feel good about ourselves, the transaction, and the cause of that transaction: the salesperson. Not surprisingly, now would be an ideal time for referrals!

More money is “left on the table” by salespeople who fail to ask for referrals after a successful sales presentation than in virtually any other phase of business.

There are seven major benefits of referrals:

Referred prospects are easier to set appointments with.
With referred prospects, price is less of an issue.
Referred prospects are easier to close.
You are automatically positioned as a referral-based salesperson.
Referrals give your prospect the advantage of indirect experience.
A referral builds the loyalty of the person who gave you the referral—and he will continue to do so.
Referrals give you additional time with which to work.

You can divide your referrals into three types: A-list, B-list, and C-list. The ultimate goal is to build your network out of A-list referrals, and avoid presenting to C-list referrals altogether.

Testimonial endorsement letters are one of the greatest tools, perhaps the greatest tool, a salesperson can use to answer objections and complete the transaction.

If your client or customer seems hesitant to offer a referral, you can tell him exactly how you’ll approach that referral, including the exact language you’ll use.

Since the advent of Do Not Call laws, you often need to have your referral source contact the referral first, to gain permission for you to call. Here are a few methods for doing this:

Provide the reasoning and explain how to do it.
Provide your referral source with the exact language to deflect objections and elicit permission.
Gain permission through e-mail.
Use a booklet or special report.

“Ms. Henderson, thank you so much for agreeing to meet with me. I just want you to know and be assured that I’m not here for, nor do I in any way expect, a job, a position, or a favor of any kind. I learned that you know a lot about the industry and job market and are willing to provide some helpful information. And I appreciate that very much.”