Whose Fault Is It Anyway ?

Not getting all the business referrals you want? Then it’s all your fault!

I joined a close contact networking group many years ago, a group where we met regularly to pass business referrals to each other. I was the President of the group at the time and remember inducting a new member, we’ll call him Phillip. He attended the meetings regularly and when it came to the part of the meetings where we passed referrals to each other he would stand each week and say “Nought to report”.

After six months Phillip came to me and said “I’m not going to renew my membership as I’m not getting anything out of these meetings. I’ve got hardly any business from belonging to this group. This just doesn’t work!” In fact I’ve heard similar stories or variations on the same theme over and over. Phillip went on to say:

• This group is fickle, they used me once and never again
• I’ve bought something from every single person in this room, but they’ve never bought anything from me
• The members just don’t understand my business

What Phillip had missed in his membership of our group was that in order to get a referral sometimes you have to give a referral. It’s called the law of reciprocity, In order to receive, you must first give, or you get back what you give out.

Phillip was quick to blame anyone and everyone else in the room, except himself. If you belong to a networking group and aren’t getting referrals or if you pass referrals to other business people and aren’t getting any in return…whose fault is it?

I would suggest all you need to do is look in a mirror and you’ll see the culprit staring straight back at you.

If you are thinking along the same lines as Phillip, then you may want to consider the following:

This group is fickle, they used me once and never again
If you did business with a member of perhaps a new client, did you follow up to make sure they were happy with the goods or services you supplied? Did you go the extra mile to turn a customer into a regular client? Did you give them a reason to come back again and again to buy from you? Did you make sure the customer saw your best work first time?

I’ve bought something from every single person in this room, but they’ve never bought anything from me
Often people join networking groups thinking that it’s only the people in the immediate group that they are going to do business with. Raise your aim! Research by social scientists confirms that every business person knows at least 250 other business people. Why limit yourself to just doing business with the person in the room?

An astute networker will give outstanding service on the first engagement with a view to cementing a longer term relationship. Once trust is established, then you can begin to tap into those other 250 people that each person in your network knows. If you know ten other business people and they trust you, suddenly you can access 2,500 people. All that needs to happen next is for you to ask for a targeted referral to that network.

The members just don’t understand my business
Finally if the members don’t understand your business you will never get access to those potential 2,500 contacts. You must make the effort to educate your network. Take time to meet with people in your network. Organise to meet one on one with the people in your network and take the time to learn about their business. Then and only then, you can teach them about your business.

Here’s the Top Ten things to teach them:
1. Your products and services
2. The hours you are open for business
3. Where you are located and whether you are mobile or not
4. How can you be contacted, phone, email, website
5. Your target market
6. Your ideal referral
7. The kind of business you are looking for
8. What kind of business you aren’t looking for
9. How will other people know when to speak up and recommend you, give them words or phrases to listen for in everyday conversation
10. How to set up an appointment with their client to introduce you as a recommended and preferred supplier

The list goes on and on. The key here is to take time to educate the other people you want to bring you business referrals. If you aren’t getting all the referrals you need it’s probably your fault !

Article Contributed by Lindsay Adams, International Speaker with Training Edge International and President of Global Speakers Federation
Website : www.trainingedgeasia.com
Email : Lindsay.adams@trainingedgeasia.com

Nourish Your Relationship With Trust

TRUST is an integral part of the sales process.

Once your customers trust you, they will remember you and refer you to friends, family and colleagues.

“Go to this person, you can trust him”, is one of the most valuable endorsements someone can give you.

As trust becomes harder to earn, it becomes more important. And salesmen who can build trust are the business saviours in this new financial environment.

The best way to build trust is to demonstrate it — and in the current economic climate, it has become harder to do that.

You feel the right thing to do by your business is to be wary. Your default becomes “don’t trust”. And it’s this attitude that starves the sales relationship — depriving it of the nourishment of trust that it needs to grow.

Demonstrating trust — or the lack of it — sometimes takes just the tiniest thing, and sometimes involves very little actual risk. Here are two examples from my own experience.

In a café after a very satisfactory lunch, I went to the counter to pay and noticed an open bowl of mints. Now, this would normally be seen as a friendly gesture by the management. The difference this time was that in the bowl of mints was a piece of cardboard with a handwritten message: Free Mints — Take ONE only.

Now, I’m no handwriting expert, but the word “one” seemed to be written in a very aggressive way. Needless to say, I didn’t take one. I wondered what might happen if I dared to take two. Would I be accosted as I left the premises with a demand that I hand it over?

The clear message patrons took away was that the owners didn’t trust us. And if they didn’t trust me with their mints, I wasn’t inclined to want to continue the business relationship with them, and I made a mental note never to go back.

Just a few weeks ago, I wanted to purchase a piece of specialised computer equipment. I discovered one supplier who explained that he didn’t usually stock the model I wanted, but could show me another one.

When I visited and explained the usage, he agreed that the model I’d asked for was the right one for me.

It would have to be ordered in and would take three to four days. I asked how much deposit he required to confirm the order and he said, “Nothing. I trust you. Just pay for it when you pick it up.”

I was with a business colleague and we were both shocked at this. Neither of us could remember a recent occasion when someone whom we had met 10 minutes earlier would take such a risk.

We spoke about him to many people over the next few days. Four days later he called to say it had arrived and when I picked it up I also purchased a whole lot of consumables without even comparing prices — because I trusted him! I will now support and recommend him whenever possible.

Now, when you think about it, what was his real risk? He may have been left holding this item he didn’t usually stock — which he would have to sell to someone else or trade back to the distributor for credit or alternative stock.

Either way, his chances of an actual loss were minimal. So, a small risk he took left a lasting impression and created a loyal advocate of his products. This equals a great outcome!

I am not suggesting that you take unnecessary risks, but the alternative is to lose the ability to trust.

As Samuel Johnson said in the 18th century: “It is better to suffer wrong than to do it, and happier to be sometimes cheated than not to trust.”

While it didn’t take much risk to build trust, it took something as tiny as a mint to destroy it.

Take the effort to build trust, take the initiative to demonstrate it, and you will take the lead in customer loyalty and sales performance.

Article Contributed by Kevin Ryan, an international speaker , workshop leader and author with Training Edge International. He is a business communication expert specialising in the areas of employee and client engagement, sales, humour intelligence and presentation skills.
Email : kevin.ryan@trainingedgeasia.com
Website : www.trainingedgeasia.com