However most peoples networking efforts are completely lost because of one simply mistake… they don’t follow up. Or they follow up in a very ineffective way that actually leads to resistance and loss of trust.

Based on my experience I would say that 90-95% never follow up and of the 5-10% that do follow up 8 out of ten don’t do it in an effective manner.

In my opinion networking is almost a complete waste of time if you don’t follow up. Why because networking is all about building trust and lets face it … you don’t really trust someone after meeting them just 1 time.

In most situations they won’t even remember you a few days after the meeting… that is unless you follow up.

Most people totally misunderstand the purpose of the follow process and of networking in general. Many people actually try to avoid following up because they don’t like it or they feel like they are “pushing” their contact. If it feels like you are pushing people… its probably because you are and you are doing it the wrong way.

I’m going to give you the right way to follow up. People always want me to give them a script or the words for following up, but a follow up script alone will not work.  Only  if you understand the true purpose behind the words you will be able to produce your own scripts for effectively following up.

So the purpose with the follow up is to:

1) Make them remember you. If they don’lt remember you will simply lose to the people they DO remember. You have to become part of their immediate memory.

2) Build trust in YOU as a person.

3) PROVE to them that you are a pro at what you do.

4) Ultimately get an order from them or even better… get them to refer leads ant d prospects to you or even do a joint venture with them. This should never be attempted until you have done the first 3 steps.

Almost everyone tries to jump to number 4 but this one of the worst things you can do in networking. If you skip the first 3 steps they will lose trust in you, because you will show yourself as someone just trying to sell to them and therefore not having their best interest at heart.

And I totally understand that you really may want the best for them, but the bottom-line is that you will not appear that way. Perception is everything and in business it’s your prospects perception that counts. Being the best person in the world will not give you the order or a referral. It’s how you are perceived that counts… never ever forget that.

Actually at the very first follow-up you should simply focus on the first 2 purposes of the follow up:

1) Make them remember you and
2) Create trust in You as a person.

Now that you understand the purpose of following up lets look at a few ways to do it.

Follow up strategy #1. Send them a card. Simply let them know it was great meeting them and that you will keep them in mind if you meet anyone that is in the market for what they offer. Do not try to sell your products or services at this point. In the early stages Your purpose is to sell YOU. Don’t have special offer of the week or anything like that. That will make you look like “just another salesperson”.

Follow up strategy #2. Send them a short letter. Same content as in #1.

Follow up strategy #3. Send them a personal video mail. This has been one of my most effective tools. I use a website for this called www.eyejot.com. You can get a free account which will allow you to send videos of up to 1 minute in length. 1 minute is enough for simply following up, but if you want to do videos up to 5 minutes in length the upgraded accounts are really cheap.

Do NOT just send them a regular e-mail. Well actually email is still better than NOT following up at all, but it’s the weakest way you can follow up. Email is better later when they know and like you.

Continuing to do these few simple when following up will separate you from the competition, get noticed and develop the trust in the relationship that will make it profitable for you.

I wish you happy and profitable follow ups.

Patrick Powers

There are at least six main reasons referral marketing is one of the most cost effective ways to build a small to medium sized business and level the playing field with the “big guys” or even tilt it in your favor.

1. Higher Closing Rate.
Prospects will almost always trust you more when a product or service is recommended by someone they know. Because of this you can achieve an amazing high closing rate.

2. Less “work”.
When trust is high you have to do less work and less “selling” and “pushing”. Usually it’s mostly a matter of simply going through what you offer is and asking them when they want to get started.

And it’s not only going to be less work with them it’s also going to be less stressful and more fun, because they have already been pre-sold they are less sceptical.

3. You will get more profits.
People that have been referred to you are often less sensitive to price, which make it easier to sell to them at full price. NOT having to haggle over price is a huge benefit of itself, but It’s also easier to sell them higher ticket items and/or upsells.

4. A good referral marketing system can go viral.
If your product or service is truly referral worthy and you combine it with a referral marketing system, you could have a runaway success on your hands.

5. Getting referrals typically doesn’t cost you anything.
There are of course referral systems that will have a cost, but in general it is FREE MARKETING.

6. Greater loyalty.
Referred clients will typically stay with you longer and be more forgiving
with hickups and mistakes.

So now that we know that referral marketing is the best thing since sliced bread let us look at some ways to get referrals.

The first thing you should have in place is A SYSTEM. This sound almost silly to mention, but most businesses actually don’t have a system in place when it comes to getting referrals.

A system should include: A script that outlines exactly how to ask for referrals in person, when to ask for them, how to award customers that give you referrals, how to track and test the effectiveness different programs and incentives etc. etc.

Number 1 overall strategy for getting referrals is being referral worthy. This is not necessarily achieved easily and quick, but it will truly be worth it and something you should be striving for your whole business life.

Here are a few ideas on how to become referral worthy:

a) Over-deliver on what you do.
Give new clients people something unexpected. The more unexpected and valuable
the more they will feel comfortable in referring their contacts to you.

b) Be different.
Being different shows that you have confidence in yourself and give people reasons to chose you instead of someone else. This principle shouldn’t just be used in your referral marketing strategy but in al marketing you do.

Obviosly being the best is also one of the best strategies but it’s getting harder and harder to achieve today. Standing out will get you noticed AND more importantly remembered which of course is necessary to be recommended by anyone.

Sometimes just being different will create the perception that you are the best and
that will get the clients in the door the first time but remember that they won’t come
back if you can’t deliver on your promises( and they wont recommend you).

c) Always keep your word.
When people see that you have integrity and always keep your word they will trust you to deliver on your promises with their referrals.

These are just few ideas and principles to get you going and help you get more referrals.

Happy Hunting For Referrals - Patrick Powers

1. Set A clear Target:

2. Track and Measure.
Unbelievably few companies actually measure the effectiveness of their referral marketing strategies.

But how are you going to to improve your results if you don’t know what works best? WELL ..YOU CAN’T. You can only improve what you can measure.

3. Define who your best referral is.
Define specifically who is your perfect referral to get. What gender are they… how old, how much money do they make, interest, where do theu live etc etc They more precisely you know who you are looking for the easier it is to find them and attract them.

Remember: Clarity Equals Cash.

4. Timing:
The time you ask for a referral can be crucial. Traditionally salespeople have been taught that the best time to ask is immediately after the close, but this might NOT be the best time to ask for a referral today.

Understand that when they have just bought from you the first time, your relationship is not that strong yet and therefore trust in you is not very high.

If they don’t feel “ready” to refer their contacts to you they will feel you are too aggressive. Many times its better to wait to ask for the referral until they have tried your service or product and are happy with it.

5. Identify the best:
Not all of your customers are created equal and not all of them are equally likely to give you referrals. To be effective with your time and resources you need to identify who is the most likely to refer you clients. Focus on the top 10-15% that are the most happy with your company. When it comes to referral marketing quality is king, not quantity.

6. Give to Receive:
Over-deliver and give your clients something extra they didn’t expect. If you exceed their expectations they are usually very happy to recommend you to their contacts.

Also if you tell your clients that you are offering THEIR referrals a free taster/consultation/etc just for taking a look with no strings attached it become very easy for them to make the decision to help you out with a referral. When you over-deliver on value, they will return the favor.

7. Communicate expectations clearly:
When you ask for referrals Inform your clients of the ideal type of customers you are looking for and exactly what you can do for them. Doing this makes it easier for people to jog their memory and find the best referrals for you.

8. Have a Rewards Program:
Even though people are really happy with your company sometimes they need a little incentive to “remember” giving you referrals. By giving your referring customers special rewards they will be even more inclined to recommend you to their clients/customers.

9. Show them you love them:
Simply showing your appreciation for getting a referral can work wonders.
People are usually “appreciation-deficient” and they will love you for it. The more
they love you the more likely they are to recommend you.

Start putting one or more of these simple strategies into action today and be consistent. You will find as with most marketing strategies they will work better and better over time.

Happy Referral Hunting

Patrick Powers

One of the areas that are experiencing a big shift is in Business Networking vs Selling.

In my humble opinion networking is becoming THE way of building business In today’s world for many different reasons. At the same time traditional selling is becoming less and less effective.

Why? Mostly because our trust in sales people is eroding, and for good reasons. We have all experienced slick salespeople sell us (meaning push us to buy) something that we didn’t need or worse … they simply lied about the features or price etc.

Because of these reasons and more, business networking is now becoming a force to be reckoned with, but most people approach it with a sales-like behavior and mindset. To really make business networking work you have to understand some fundamental differences from selling.

Here are just a few of them:

Selling is about communicating.
Business Networking is about connecting.

Selling is about finding triggers that will get people to buy now.
Business Networking is about finding commonalities and bonding.

In selling you focus on the short term goal of closing the deal.
Business Networking is about long term real relationships

Selling creates customers.
Business Networking creates lifelong friends.

Selling creates a sale.
Business Networking creates a never ending stream of warm and
often presold leads.

Selling is mostly about win-lose
Business Networking is about win-win

Selling is about Little or No Trust
Business Networking is about Trust and Integrity

Selling is about making the fast sale.
Business Networking is about: Long term CARING Relationships

Selling is about Competition.
Business Networking is about Co-operation

Selling is a JOB
Business Networking is a LIFE Style

Selling is about Manipulation
Business Networking is about tell it as it is/Respect/Honor.

Selling is about Debate/Argue
Business Networking is about Understanding/Acceptance

Selling is about Convincing.
Business Networking is about Sharing honestly

I think the main difference can be summarized in the following sentence:

“To succeed in the 21^st century you need to totally change your mindset from being focused on making the sale, to come from a place of true serving and giving value.”

And that is in essence what business networking is all about.

Happy networking – Patrick Powers

Networking really is one of the most powerful ways to generate lots of hot leads, create powerful connections that can open closed doors and simply get what you want in life, and not just in business, but in any situation.

Why is networking so powerful? Well… basically we tend to buy from and recommend people that we know like and trust. Trust has become a bigger and bigger factor because people have experienced so many ads, marketing messages and salespeople that have been overpromising and underdelivering. Our trust in traditional marketing methods have eroded.

Tadaaa …Networking to the rescue.

Business networking succeeds where traditional selling and marketing fails. It’s the perfect way to build trust and it’s my strong conviction that because of the reasons we just talked about it will become a more and more effective way of generating leads and marketing a small to medium sized business.

A network can be like a sales force working for you, referring hot leads to you and talking about how great you are and in most cases they will do it for free.

A network is almost like a website: The bigger and older it gets the better it becomes. If you have a big network you will obviously become influential and then suddenly you will find that people will come running after you to offer you profitable business deals.

But networking has a weakness and you have to know and understand this to have any chance of succeeding at it.

So here it is: IT TAKES TIME. And In two different ways.

First of all it takes time because you can really only do it one by one.

Second: networking takes time because trust will not magically be created after a couple of meetings and trust is what it’s all about.

Hopefully you will not be scared by that fact. You should be concerned about your return on your effort, not about how much effort you put into it.

If someone goes to the gym 2-3 times and expect to suddenly have a body like an athlete you would probably agree that they are delusional, right? Yet people go to networking events a couple of times and expect to have the orders and referrals pouring in.

The return on you business networking efforts can be dramatic if you do it the right way and you do it consistently. When you have created a strong connection and trust to someone who open you up to their network of thousands, tens of thoussands or more.

Or if they just introduce and recommend you to a few very influential and connected people it will be worth the effort many times.

You will get out of networking as much as you put in IF and only IF you do it consistently, but If you expect results NOW you will be disappointed.

One of the greatest things are that you don’t have to be a great sales person , you dont have to do any hard closing, because it’s all about building trust and when people trust you they don’t have to be “SOLD”.

So even if you think you are lousy at selling, networking can give you great results if you are simply consistent and provide value for your connections. In time they will become fans of you and refer tons of prospects and clients to you.

happy networking  – Patrick Powers

I get these question all the time: “What do I say when I meet people the first time?
How do I break the ice?”

People think the perfect opening will solve everything, but I’m sorry to break
the bad news: There are no perfect openings and even if there were they
wouldn’t work without the ingredients I’m about to share with you.

Whether you become a master at breaking the ice will not depend as much on the words you use as your attitude and ability to be present and observant.

Your opening lines are simply a way to find out whether they want to connect with you.

I want you to imagine that your opening lines are like fishing bait. You are just throwing
them around to see if someone is interested in taking your bait and connecting.
You will almost instantly find out if someone wants to connect or not.

It’s really important to understand that you should NOT be trying to “sell” your
product/business in the opening lines or even the first few minutes. Instead you
should be “selling” the chat/talk.

What I mean by that is that your opening lines should simply be selling them on
having a chat with you – nothing more.

Breaking the ice is easy. It’s taking it to the next level of connecting with people that
takes a bit more understanding and practice. You see… even though there are opening
lines that work really well they are not going to create a real connection and
lasting impact by themselves.

We will look at how to create that deep connection in a moment, but let’s first look
at some ice-breakers that work really well.

Top 6 ways to break the Ice with a complete stranger.

These can be used literally ANYWHERE. I’ve used them on the streets of London,
in cafe’s, airplanes, trains etc.

1) I’m new to the area….. ( then ask for help)

When you say you are new to the area it triggers some kind of automatic helping
response. People are usually more than willing to help you. I’m not sure why this works
so well but I’ve used it over and over with success.

“I’m new to the area” can be followed up with almost any request for
help or information.

- Can you tell me the best Italian restaurant in the area?
- Can you tell me the way to the station?
Etc etc.

2) Ask for help.

It’s almost the same as number one, but you are not limited to situations that just apply to a newcomer.

Again this is just like a bait you are throwing out to see if they are open to connect.
If they are, you will be taking it to the next level (typically with a question).

3) Ask for an opinion on something or offer yours.

4) Compliment them, then ask a question.

Everybody likes a compliment, but watch out not to lay it on too thick and I’ve found
that if you immediately follow a compliment with a question it will work better.

An example could be: “That’s a really cool hat, where did you buy that?

5) Notice something 3rd party.

What I mean by 3^rd party is something not directly related to them.
I could be what they eat in a restaurant etc.

6) Notice something about them and comment or ask about it.

Example: That’s an interesting accent you have where are you from?

I use this one constantly and it works extremely well.

You can also be combined these icebreakers to create even more impact.
For example you could combine number 1 and 5 in the following way;

Sorry to bother you …I’m new to the area would you happen to know
if there is a pet shop nearby.

Then when you notice something about them you would comment on it
(hey that’s interesting accent where are you from?)

This may seem weird, but the less I “edit” my thoughts and simply state what I
think at that moment, the better results I get at connecting with strangers. When I
see something really cool or really weird I simply say it to the person it applies to.

Let me give you two real life examples of how I used this principle.

1^st situation:
One day I’m in a cafe walking by a table where there is a woman sitting next to a laptop
with a crazy/cool mouse with lots of bling on it – it looked almost like it had diamonds
all over it.

SO I simply said to her: “Wow that’s a really cool Mouse… is it yours?”

She looked up and simply said very in a very dry tone “No”. I didn’t get any good vibrations
from her and she obviously didn’t want to connect so I just said “Ok” and moved on.

2^nd Situation.
I’m in a Starbucks at Canary Wharf(London) and I notice a girl reading the book
“The 4 hour work week”.

I happen to have read that book. I really liked it and I’m wondering what she is
thinking about it, so I simply state my thoughts and say to her: Hey excuse me, but I
see you are reading the 4 hour work week. I’ve read it and I was just wondering what
you think of it?

She looked up with a big smile and gave her opinion. This was a totally different
situation. She was very willing to connect and I was lucky that she had an accent
so I could use one of my favorite lines: “That’s an interesting accent you have, where
are you from?”

I took only about 2 minute to find out where she was born, that she had lived
in the States, what she was looking for in the book and that she wanted
to start a business.

Within 4 minutes I had asked her a basic qualifying question (will be explained later)
and she was very interested in hearing more about my services.

I hope that you by these two examples now understand what I mean by not “editing”
my thoughts. In these two examples I was simply stating my thoughts to the person.

Also these examples demonstrate what I mean when I say that the opening lines are like
fishing bait. Sometimes they are not interested in the “bait” and sometimes they are.

These ice-breakers are of course not all applicable to situations like networking events.
When you are at an event where people want to meet other people it’s even easier to
break the ice and we will look at how to do that in a moment.

Are you ready to finally get the results you are looking for? Get ready to get
my new book in a few days.

Happy prospecting – Patrick Powers