Pursuit of Happyness!

A few nights ago, I watched the movie called, "Pursuit of Happyness" starting Will Smith and his son. It's based on a true story of a man facing life's odds of making it big in this country. His odds were not good. Everything seemed to be against him. It took a great deal of persistance and determination to reach his dream of becoming a stock trader. Now, he's quite wealthy and living the "American Dream".

What's the dream for your business?

How determined are you to achieve your dream? What are you willing to do to meet your dream?

In word of mouth marketing, the more that you talk about your dream, the more likely it is to come true. The more people know about it, the more likely you can get some form of assistance to help you reach your dream. The more conviction in your voice, the more likely people will take you seriously.

In my opinion, we should all take control of the pursuit of our own happiness. Make it a reality. Tell 5 people tomorrow about the dream for your business! Then, see the movie!

Baby Robins!

Two days ago, the baby robins that have been living under my deck decided that the time had come to jump and spread their wings! Off the went into the wild forest and lawn below. Now that they've left the safety of their warm, dry nest they need to be cautious and ever aware of danger. They're parents are still looking out for them ... bringing them a morsel of food now and then and causing a stir if anything gets too close for comfort. If all goes well, in no time, these little baby birds will be self-reliant and able to fly safely away from danger.

Deciding to incorporate a referral marketing system into your business is like jumping from the nest. You might not be quite sure what you're committing to, however, the wonders of this new world are too inviting to pass up! Who wouldn't want to increase their referral business while making great lasting relationships at the same time? Like the baby robins, getting along in the referral marketing world may take some help. I would recommend that you recruit a referral accountability partner.

I have ... actually, I have three of them! One is a referral partner, one a business coach and the other is a mentor relationship. All work with me to help me keep on track with my referral marketing efforts, give me support, and hold me accountable to my activities. Without them, I would be like a baby robin without it's parents ... alone in the scary woods and lawn ... taking forever to find my first meal ... and making alot more mistakes.

Who provides you with the support you need to be successful?

Time Well Spent!

Today, I hosted a conference call for my Certified Networker graduates. The main discussion topic was focused on referral partners and what's working or not working.

Two common themes came out in the call ... TIME and ACCOUNTABILITY.

It takes time to not only develop a referral partner but also to maintain the relationship once it's formed. Those who are most successful right now are dedicating the time to their partners or to finding the right partner. This means meeting monthly on a regular basis if not more often. In addition, these are the same people who have built in accountability into their referral marketing system.

On person actually uses an accountability partner and another person uses their referral partner as an accountability partner. Still someone else uses the networking scorecard as an accountability tool. Another shared element of success seemed to be that the referral partner was a Certified Networker graduate.

The bottom line is this ... you can't get a high return on your investment if you don't even make an investment!

Even in Church!

Yesterday, I did something that I don't do too often ... I went to church. The church was Saints John & Paul Catholic church in Franklin Park. I was surprised to see so many people there at 7:30am!

Imagine my bigger surprise to observe referral marketing actually taking place in church! It seems the Catholic church has a shortage of priests (no big news there). I'm certainly not going to give my commentary on that one today! And, it seems that this church was trying to recruit more men & women to help teach in their "faith formation" program. I believe that's what used to be called CCD (or to some, Catholic Church Detention). Anyway, at the end of mass, the woman who runs the faith formation program got up and began talking about the benefits of the program. Then, she said, "instead of listening to me, listen to one of our current beneficiaries".

WOW! Here came a real life testimonial from a mother of 3 who spoke passionately about why she gives her time to this program. She spoke to the emotions of the audience and did quite a nice job. Although I was not moved into action (but not because of her message), I'm sure that plenty of other people probably were moved enough to at least inquire for more information.

There you have it. If referral marketing can happen in church ... you surely can make it happen for you too! When is the last time you had a satisfied client provide a live testimonial for you in front of an audience? It's truly powerful and it works ...even the church knows that!

The Thirsty Chipmunk

A few days ago, I sat in my kitchen and watched a chipmunk drink the dew drops off the leaves of the poppy plants I have in my garden. I knew I was observing something that not too many people ever see. But the question that came to my mind was, how did the chipmunk learn that poppy leaves hold a fair amount of water due to their fuzzy nature? As me and my cat watched the chipmunk, I found myself thinking about when we are thirsty for business, where do we look first?

I've found that many business owners turn to networking as a "reaction" to slow or no business. No doubt when this happens, the business owner gets fully caught up in "selling themselves" at the networking event. They appear to be desperate ... searching for someone, anyone who will buy their products. In reality, this approach will actually turn people away.

My suggestion is to begin to incorporate networking into how you do business ongoing. Networking should never become a reaction to slow business. Its intent is to become an ongoing marketing strategy for your business. Don't wait until you're thirsty like the chipmunk to seek out your "dew drops".

Become a proactive networker instead of a reactive networker. Incorporate networking into your weekly activities. Seek out a networking organization (like BNI) and become an active member ... not just a member on paper.

Secrets of Peonies

This is the first spring in our new house. It's so much fun for a gardener to watch all the surprises pop out of the ground. So far, some of what I've found include iris, daffodills, coral bells, ferns and many things I still have to identify! One of my favorite surprises are two patches of peonies.

Peonies are wonderful garden plants! They live a long time in the garden, combine well with other plants and show off with beautiful flowers. But like most garden plants, they do need some special care. If they don't flower, often it's because they're overcrowded. And they ususally need some physical support to keep their large flowers from toppling over.

Peonies kind of remind me of referral marketing. When you're choosing your referral partners, it's important that you find people who combine well with you. In order to have a profitable system, your referral partners will need some special care. If they don't produce "showy flowers" (referrals) for you, it might be because they're overcrowded and you're not giving them what they need.

Peonies and referral marketing ... they're both worth all the effort you put into them!

29% Solution!

A few weeks ago, I found out that the publisher has changed the title of my soon to be released book (8 months & counting!).

The new title is "The 29% Solution: 52 Weekly Successful Networking Strategies".

So, you might ask yourself, 29% solution to WHAT? Exactly. I'm so glad you asked.

Did you know that in the studies that produced the six degrees of separation theory, only 29% of the participants ever made it to their final destination in 2-10 degrees? And these were the BEST results ... in one study, only 5% made it within 2-10 degrees. That means that on average, 71-95% of the participants never completed the task at all!! These studies actually proved that we are not ALL separated by six degrees ... in fact, only a few of us are!! What's the difference between the 29% and the 71%?

The difference is education, training, knowledge, and skill. The difference is that the 29% of the people who actually ARE separated by six degrees possessed the skill and knowledge of how to work and leverage their network! Our book, "The 29% Solution" provides 52 strategies to help you get into that 29%! It's that simple.

Stay tuned ... soon, we hope to be able to share the cover!

Patience-It's Musky Season!

I spent the weekend fishing ... probably my ulimate of favorite past times!

The first weekend of May is always the opening weekend of musky season. (this is a musky ... I don't know this person, but I liked the picture!) Muskies are the biggest, baddest freshwater fish in PA (in my opinion). They need to be 40 inches to be legal!

We joined my parents at our small fishing trailer outside of Meadville, PA. We spent several hours on Saturday and Sunday patiently fishing our favorite lake for muskies just like this one ... you really didn't think I'd tell you WHERE did you?! Although, Alyssa and I caught nothing ... my dad (musky man himself) caught 3 and my mom caught her first one ever!! Four elusive muskies in one weekend is not bad at all! These fish require a lot of patience! (some say muskies are the fish of 10,000 casts)

How many casts do you need to make into your referral network in order to catch one big one?

Referral marketing takes alot of patience. It actually takes more patience than some are willing to give. Some people think that referrals should come quickly ... especially after you've done nice work for someone. The truth is ... referrals are the direct result of a relationship and relationships take time to develop. Referral marketing is the human way of doing business. Just like the muskies, we humans are very complex ... sometimes fickle ... and many times, we need you to be very patient with us. However, the most patient fisherman gets the big one!

If you're patient with your referral marketing system ... you too will catch the big one!

Sieze the Referral!

Most of us have heard the phrase, "Carpe Diem" or "Sieze the Day". I'm suggesting that you do exactly that when it comes to generating referral business. Pick a day, any day and sieze the day! Here's an exercise to try on that day:

How many times do you talk to people in one day? Seriously ... how many? 20 ... 30 ... 35 ... more?

How many of these people know that you're looking for business?

Imagine if in one day, you said these words to absolutely every person you spoke to:

"I'm expanding my business and I need your help. Who do you know who ... __"

Of course, you have to fill in the rest of the statement with something very specific like:

Who do you know who rents an apartment and just had a baby.
Who do you know who is planning to relocate their business.

Who do you know who just hired new sales reps.

This one statement that you see here has been proven to generate referrals. Give it a try!

Sieze the referral!!

Lost in Virginia

Have you ever been lost? I sure have! It's a scary thing ... not knowing where you are or how to get where you need to go.

I have a very vivid memory of getting lost in the hills of Virginia while riding mountain bikes with my friend, David. We didn't intend to get lost, obviously. We started off following two other avid moutain bikers who very quickly smoked us and left us to fend for ourselves. This being David's first time on a mountain bike we took things slowly for a bit (or maybe that was because we were totally out of shape). Somehow, we ended up in the middle of the movie Deliverance!! Scary ... isolated ... damp woods ... dirt & mud roads ... dogs chasing us ... no cell coverage ... kinda place. We did not want to stay there for any length of time, so we SHIFTED GEARS, literally! We kept on going FORWARD since we knew life behind us was NOT where we wanted to be. Eventually, the road became paved! Signs of civilization. At the fork, we made a CHOICE to go left ... hoping that if we made a few left turns, we would go in a circle.

We finally made it home ... back to the conference center ... alive, exhausted, relieved and with a GREAT story.

Consider this ... is your referral system lost? Do you need to shift gears? You probably needed to shift gears some time ago. Take a good look at your surroundings. Are you generating all the business that you can by word of mouth? Find your most profitable relationship and begin to move forward by further developing that relationship. You have choices to make and possible turns in the road ahead. Regardless, moving forward with your profitable relationships is much better than what you left behind.