Acknowledging Referrals Whats In It For You

Writen by Charlene Rashkow

I grew up in a household where saying thank you was a code of behavior that was absolutely essential. There were simply no exceptions. A thank you note was sent immediately for any gift received or for any kind or decent action.

The Art of Saying Thank You!

I have to confess that as a young girl I thought it was unnecessary to write a thank you note since I already said thank you when receiving the gift. Yet today, I'm grateful to my parents for instilling in me the art of saying thank you. Why? Because I've come to realize that it does just as much for me when I say thank you as it does for the recipient. Not only does saying thank you with sincerity show appreciation to another for their efforts of kindness and support, but it makes the giver of the acknowledgement feel empowered as well!

Making Others Feel Valued!

Which brings me to referrals. We may think what we do in business is primarily for the money and in truth a good bit of it is, but an aspect that we overlook is that we're really all trying to make connections with people that value what we provide. Do you take the time to acknowledge the referrals you receive so that it makes the other person feel valued? Or do you simply take the referral for granted and ignore the fact that someone thought enough of you to send you a client? The point to consider is that when you acknowledge others through a note or card or show appreciation through a monetary gift, they are more inclined to refer you again. But if you ignore the referral and say or do nothing, more then likely they'll stop sending referrals.

Acknowledgement Enhances Business Relationships!

Perhaps it wasn't instilled in you to send an added thank you note or you might think it doesn't really matter, but let me assure you, it does. Saying thank you always conveys appreciation for what another has done for you and let's them know how you truly feel. I am often surprised at how few people realize what a little bit of acknowledgment can do for a business relationship. It's such a simple act, yet so many people forget to acknowledge others who have helped them along the way. And if you stop and realize it, most of us wouldn't be where we are without the assistance of others.

At the Cornerstone of Success!

Acknowledging another is in fact at the cornerstone of success and is an important element to both feeling good and conveying professionalism. But bear in mind a thank you should not be a canned expression of gratitude, but instead should be a genuine response to those who have made a difference in your life. By sincerely acknowledging a person who has sent you a referral you are in fact making a contribution to their happiness. How, you may ask? We all need to be acknowledged and when expressing gratitude and appreciation for an unsolicited act, you are showing that person that they matter. In turn, you feel good for making someone else feel good. Saying thank you to someone who has helped you in business is critical to your success because acknowledgment in some form or another is at the root of why we do things.

Don't take referrals for granted. The next time you receive a referral from someone, take the time to say thank you. Not only will you feel good when you extend yourself, but acknowledging and following up on referrals is in fact the number one trait of successful people. Show your appreciation to those who send you referrals in some tangible way. You can send a note, buy them a coffee card or give them a small percentage of what you earned through the referral. Remember every person that comes to your through a referral is helping your business grow. And showing your appreciation through a note or small monetary gift will go a long way in your efforts as a successful businessperson as well as a successful human being.

Copyright 2005

About the Author

Charlene Rashkow brings 15 years of experience as a Writing Stylist/Consultant to her creative efforts as a freelance writer. She has successfully helped companies and individuals reach their objectives by writing exceptional web site content, press releases, bios, and articles of interest, business plans and all other forms of marketing material. You may visit Charlene Rashkow at http://www.allyourwritingneeds.com

Networking For Solopreneurs Create Visibility For Yourself And Youll Attract Clients Galore

Writen by Leni Chauvin

Everybody in business has one thing in common. It doesn't matter whether you're a salesman, a coach, a dentist, an artist, a lawyer, running a nonprofit organization or a work-at-home-mom What we all need is to have people know about us. We can be the very best in all the world at what we do, but if we haven't got any customers, clients, or patients what good will it do us?

If you're just starting out or want to take your business to the next level, you're probably a lot like many others in the same boat. You've got a limited budget for promoting your endeavor and there are so many things you could easily spend it on. It's like being a kid in a candy store all over again. So many choices, each as enticing as the next. All the selections seem to be calling out, "Pick me." "Pick me." "Pick me."

I'm talking about logos, Web sites, graphic designers, brochures,1-800 numbers, business cards, advertisements, Yellow Pages listings, and memberships galore. They all cost money and they're all shouting, "Pick me."

What if you can't pick one, though? What if you need to bring in more business before you can spend money on bringing in more business?

The solution is very simple and it boils down to just one thing: networking. That is by far the least expensive and most effective method of marketing known to wo/ man.

If you're serious about becoming the success you know you were meant to be, I urge you to do two things now: 1) STEP AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER and 2) create visibility for yourself because that's where it all begins.

That means leaving the safety of the confines of your cubicle, office, or spare bedroom and getting out to see and be seen over and over again. After all, when people are in the market for your product or service who do you think they'll think of to help them: someone they met once at a party 18 months ago or someone they see and speak to repeatedly?

One way to get yourself noticed is to set a routine and stick with it. For example if you think the gym might be a good place to meet prospective clients, go regularly at the same times and days. You'll get to talk to far more people--and form relationships with them--than you would if you went on a drop-in basis, and it's relationships, after all, that are the crux of networking.

Check out the supermarket. It's an often overlooked, but excellent place to create one-on-one visibility. If you go at roughly the same time and stand in line for the same checker each time you go, you will find that you start chatting to the checker and before you know it, he/she will remember you and start calling you by name.

Over time, his or her memory will increase from the realm of "paper or plastic," to what you do for a living, the name of your company, etc. Supermarket checkers come in contact with an awful lot of people and they share a lot of information with their customers, too.

Wouldn't it be nice if this person, who has access to probably several hundred people a day, knew you, what you do, and even better yet, had a ready supply of your business cards in his/her pocket? It can happen and it all begins with starting a routine and forming a relationship.

Join and become active in your professional association, a service club, your Chamber of Commerce, Attend networking meetings. Go for a walk in your neighborhood. Coach a Little League team. Become a member of a professional leads exchange group like my own BRE Business Referral Exchange. Lead a Brownie troop. Join a book club. Take up a new sport. Start a new hobby. Pick up the phone just to say "hello." Go to seminars where your customers go. Invite your customers or prospects to attend a workshop with you.

BOTTOM LINE: It doesn't matter what you decided to do to get yourself noticed. Just do it, and do it consistently. You'll find it's a low cost way to build your business; you'll learn a lot from others and have fun at the same time.

© Copyright 2003, 2006 Leni Chauvin

Leni Chauvin, The Client Attraction Coach,™ is a leading authority on business networking and client attraction marketing. She helps self-employed and commissioned professionals attract more clients and make more money without them having to spend a fortune to do it. For tons of F-R-E-E networking and marketing resources, including the e-course, "7 Key Client Attraction Strategies for Solo Professionals" visit http://www.attractclientsgalore.com.

Network Marketing Secret On Becoming The Goto Guy

Writen by Andrea Goodsaid

For years we've been taught to identify ourselves as reps for one XYZ company or another.

~We have our fancy business cards printed, some letterhead,
maybe an address stamp.

~We use the company logo and replicated websites as points
of first impression.

~We market ourselves as being associated with that company
with abandon … heck, we even have the T-shirts to prove it!

Sounds okay on the surface, right?

Not right.

Think Like the CEO That You Are

Dedicating your personal image might be okay (or even required!) when you're on salary with some company. After all, when you trade your time for money, they do get to call the shots when you're on the clock, don't they.

Sometimes a job can even have a say in how you're dressing or acting in your off hours … not uncommon.

But what I don't get is why people, who join Network Marketing companies as independent distributors, feel the need to associate their very being a an XYZ distributor.

Why the rush to be labeled as a part of that company?! Are we not CEO and chief bottle washer of our own businesses?

If you think about it, it's really only to the company's benefit for you to parade around in company promotional garb and pay for your 'official' business documents to be printed.

Learn To Brand Yourself

~Become the 'GoTo' guy for your chosen product or service type.

~Promote an image of expertise in a field rather than just
another distributor among many.

~Don't marry yourself to any one company … leave your options
open.

~Make every marketing effort that you put forth something that
you can benefit from for a lifetime.

By branding yourself, you build that needed 'know, like and trust' that makes sales easiest and you become associated in the minds of the people you are working with as THE person to 'go to' when they're wanting what you've got.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
About the Author

Andrea Goodsaid was first attracted to the NWM industry in 1996. Since 1997, she has been unravelling the mysteries of marketing & relationship building online. Visit her blog and see what's new:
http://AndreaGoodsaid.com

The Five Step Formula For Getting Prospects To Call You

Writen by David Frey

Are you tired of prospecting for new business?

Are you sick of networking, begging for referrals, or spending a small fortune on advertisements that produce little results?

Wouldn't it be nice if you could just sit down at your desk and have the phone ring knowing that new business is on the other end of the line?

Who wouldn't, right...? _________________________________________

The Secret Formula for Getting People to Call You _________________________________________

No matter what product or service you sell, there is a formula for getting people to call you (instead of the other way around.)

Let me take a moment and explain each step in this formula and give you a few examples of how it works... _________________________________

Step 1. Interrupt Their Train of Thought _________________________________

People are busy, busy, busy. At any one moment you and I have a thousand things going on. So the first step to effectively market to someone is to interrupt them and grab their attention.

You can do this with...

a. Bold, compelling headlines

b. Unusual graphics or photos

c. Unique opening statements

I run an ad in a trade mag in the most competitive section of the publication. But my ad sticks out like a sore thumb because I place it UPSIDE DOWN!

That ad pulls as much as a quarter page ad does and it's only a tiny little 2' x 2' ad.

(By the way, if you want to see that ad and you have in interest in coaching you can find it in my ttp://www.CoachesMarketingBootcamp.com package.

________________________________________

Step 2. Engage Their Mind With Relevant Content ________________________________________

Once you have your prospects attention, the next step is to pull them into your message. The best way to do that is to use relevant content.

By that I mean, say something that they would be keenly interested in. For instance, I have no interest in cats so I would skip right over the headline, "How to Stop Your Cat from Ripping Your Couch and Carpet Apart."

It's not relevant to me.

But if I saw a headline that said, "The Deal Is Sealed...Shaq Gets Traded," that would stop me in my tracks (I'm a basketball nut).

Your message must be relevant to your prospect.

____________________________________________

Step 3. Educate Them On How to Solve Their Problem ____________________________________________

Now it's time to educate your prospect. Education-Based Marketing is one of the most powerful marketing strategies available today and does a number of positive things for you:

a. It gives your prospect the REASON WHY they should care about what you're saying.

b. It appeals to the prospect's emotional need to solve their problem. (People buy with their emotions)

c. It positions you as the expert and someone to be trusted.

For instance, why do you think you find all those long, long salesletters on the net? Because they work! The more you tell the more you sell.

_______________________________________

Step 4. Prove That Your Solution Actually Works _______________________________________

People today are so SKEPTICAL. No one believes anybody anymore. Every marketing message is taken with a grain of salt.

That's why you MUST PROVE what you're saying is true. Proof can come through customer success stories, study findings, quotes from experts, before and after photos etc.

You have to consider yourself as being on trial and your prospects are sitting in the jury box. You've got to prove to them what you're saying is true.

Are you proving your solution in your marketing efforts?

___________________________________________

Step 5. Offer Them Additional Help For their Problem ___________________________________________

The last step is to naturally offer your prospect additional help. Up to this point you've only teased them. Now you must lead them to the next step.

The next step should be some offer for help. This could be a free report, a video, an audio program (notice that I like low cost information products) or a free catalog, or even access to a free question and answer help line.

If you want to decrease your response and increase the quality of prospects that come to you, you can charge a small fee to make the next step.

_________________

A Live Case Study _________________

I used to do a lot of direct response advertising to generate leads for potential hot tub buyers.

I offered a free video to the respondents. We were getting a lot of leads, but many of them were from people who already owned a hot tub (if you can believe that).

So we simply asked for a shipping fee of $2.95 for the video and it cut down our leads but dramatically increased our closing rate.

___________________________________________

How to Use this Process for Your Own Purposes ___________________________________________

You might be thinking, thanks David, but "how" do I use this information for my own business.

It's simple...take each step and ask yourself these questions...

Step 1 - "What headline, photo, or gimmick can I use that would stop my unique prospect and make them pause for a moment?"

Step 2 - "What problem does my prospect have that is painful, ugly, dirty, and smelly?" When you have the answer to that question, use it in a headline, sub headline or opening statement to engage them in your message.

Step 3 - "How can I make the problem in Step 2 sound even worse and then how can I explain to them how my solution solves it."

Step 4 - "What proof can I come up with that my solution actually works and has worked for many companies (or people)?"

Step 5 - "What offer can I come up with that would be so irresistible that my prospects would have to pick up the phone and call me immediately?"

If you ask yourself these five questions and can come up with some good answers then you're well on your way to getting people to chase you down instead of you begging to steal a moment of their time. (Yuck!)

Copyright 2005 David Frey

David Frey is the Author of the Small Business Marketing Bible and the Senior Editor of the Small Business Marketing Best Practices Newsletter. To get your free lifetime subscription, visit http://www.MarketingBestPractices.com

51 Thoughts On Networking

Writen by Scott Ginsberg

1. The Federal Bureau of Labor did a study a few years back indicating that 70% of all new business comes from some form of networking. I think it's higher.

2. So, no matter where you go – the Mall, church, out to dinner, the gym – you better have at least five business cards with you.

3. And be able to give an UNFORGETTABLE personal introduction in 10 seconds, 30 seconds and 6o seconds.

4. When someone on the phone says, "May I ask who's calling?" get excited. Say something unique that makes that person say, "Um, okay…please hold." Be unexpected. Be cool. Be memorable.

5. Get Google alerts on yourself, your company, your area of expertise and your competition. If you don't know what a Google alert is, just Google it.

6. Networking isn't selling, marketing or cold calling. It's the development and maintenance of mutually valuable relationships. Don't mix those things up.

7. The most important four letters in the word NETWORKING are W-O-R-K, because that's exactly what it takes.

8. If you give your business card to somebody and they don't reply, "Hey, cool card!" get a new card. (Thank you, Jeffrey Gitomer.)

9. When attending networking events, come early. Check out the nametags. See if you know anybody, or find people you'd like to meet.

10. Sit in the back so you can scan the room for specific people you'd like to connect with.

11. Email articles of interest, links or other cool stuff OF VALUE (not spam) to people you've met.

12. Publish a newsletter or ezine. Interview people from your network and feature them as experts. They will take ownership of their inclusion and spread that publication to everyone they know.

13. Spend an hour a week reading and commenting on other people's blogs. If you don't know what a blog is, you're in trouble.

14. When you read an article you like, email the author. Tell him what you liked about it and introduce yourself. He'll usually write back.

15. Have an awesome email signature that gives people a reason to click over to your website. Just be careful not to have TOO much information included.

16. Get involved with social networking sites like LinkdIn, MySpace and Squidoo.

17. Remember that networking doesn't have to be in person. The Internet is a great place to connect with people just like you! It's called Internetworking. (Yep, I made that word up.)

18. Make your own words up. It's really fun.

19. Have business lunches at least once a week.

20. Attend local events once a month.

21. Figure out where your target market hangs out (online and offline). Then hang out there.

22. Or, create your own regular "business hangout," like a copy or coffee shop where you can regularly be found working, networking, reading or connecting with other professionals.

23. Talk to everybody. Don't sell them; don't probe them, just make friends. Make friends with everybody. Because people buy people first.

24. Take volunteer positions with organizations that are relevant to your industry. Be a visible leader to whom others can come for help.

25. Every time you meet someone, write the letters HICH on their business card: how I can help. Then think of five ways to do so.

26. Go to Borders and spend one day a month reading books on networking, interpersonal communication and marketing. I highly recommend The Power of Approachability and How to be That Guy. (I hear the author is super cool.)

27. Publish articles or a blog or both based around your expertise. Use titles such as "Top Ten Ways," "Essential Elements" and "Success Secrets," that grab the reader's attention. Publish them on www.blogger.com and www.ezinearticles.com

28. Be funny, but don't tell jokes.

29. Discover the CPI, or Common Point of Interest with everyone you meet.

30. Carry blank business cards with you in case someone forgot theirs. They'll thank you for saving their butt!

31. Never leave the house without a pen and paper. Sounds dumb, right? It isn't. It's genius. Nobody keeps napkins with scribblings on them.

32. Every week, introduce two people you know who need to know each other.

33. Wear your nametag above your breastbone and make sure it's visible from 10 feet away. Nobody cares what side of your chest it's on. Just make it big. And if you don't like wearing nametags, then you probably don't like people knowing who you are, either.

34. Oh, and it's not who you know – it's who knows you. (Thanks again, Jeffrey Gitomer.)

35. And people will like you the minute they figure out how much they ARE like you.

36. Fear not to entertain strangers for by so doing some may have entertained angels unaware. (Hebrews, 13:2)

37. If you don't have www.yourname.com, get it. It's ten bucks.

38. Find local professionals with whom you share common interests, customers, ideas and products. Introduce yourself to them, get together, share ideas and find ways to help each other.

39. Form a mastermind group. No more than four people. Meet regularly to set goals, keep each other accountable and brainstorm.

40. Also, set your own networking goals each month for:

o Events to attend
o People to meet
o Emails to write
o Calls to make
o Articles/physical mail to send

41. Go onto Google and type in "articles on networking." Read on!

42. Speaking of Google, Google yourself regularly. Find out what people are saying about you. If you don't show up, you're in trouble.

43. If you think you don't need to network, you right. You don't need to network: you MUST network!

44. And stop calling it networking. Ignore the title of this post. I only used that word in the title because my client made me. Networking – as a word – is tired and old and cliché and it makes people think you're throwing around a bunch of cards trying to sell, sell, sell. No. All you're doing is making friends. Not schmoozing, mingling or any of those stupid catch phrases. You're making friends. That's it. Friends. Make them every day.

45. If you think you suck at networking, don't worry. You're not alone. But also remember that anyone can develop their networking skills. That's right, skills. Because it's not something you're born with or just plain "good at." Anyone can do it effectively. You simply need:

o To develop attitude of approachability
o To read books on the subject
o To practice

46. So, when strangers ask, "How are you?" don't say fine. You're not fine. Nobody's fine. Give a real answer that's memorable and magnetic. I suggest, "Business is kicking ass!" or "Everything is beautiful!"

47. Come to every networking event with three great questions ready to go. Be sure they begin with, "What's the one thing?" "What's your favorite?" and "What was the best part about?"

48. When someone asks where you're from, don't just say "Austin." Use the H.O.T technique: "Oh, I'm from Austin, home of the best college football team in the country." Get creative. Get unique. Watch what happens.

49. Put your person before your profession. Your personality before your position. Your individual before your industry.

50. Don't be different – be unique. Don't be friendly – be approachable. And don't be memorable – be unforgettable.

51. Think about the last five "luckiest" business contacts you encountered. Figure out what you did right, realize that there IS NO SUCH THING AS LUCK, then repeat as often as possible.

© 2006 All Rights Reserved. Scott Ginsberg, aka "The Nametag Guy," is the author of three books and a professional speaker who helps people maximize approachability, become unforgettable and make a name for themselves. To book Scott for your next association meeting, conference or corporate event, contact Front Porch Productions at 314/256-1800 or email scott@hellomynameisscott.com