Some believe it is a status in business to achieve.  It provides a feeling of exclusivity and doing any sort of  marketing would be seen as tainting this “club” of sorts.  Members of this club focus most of their attention on going to networking meetings with the goal of building  a power circle that will refer to them on a regular basis.  In order to make a strategy like this successful, one must constantly be in front of those with the power to refer.  Referrals in this strategy can ebb and flow depending upon the whims of whichever networking groups the business professional belongs to.

There are others that believe the only way to achieve a by referral only business is to have a strategic marketing plan.  These business professionals build relationships with past clients and referral partners through various marketing methods such as newsletters, e-zines, cards, letters, small gifts, and more.  Through systematic means, they are able to obtain predictable and track able referral results.

Now, what about word of mouth marketing?  It can be a great tool, but I caution you that on its own it is very dangerous.  Why?  Because of the telephone factor.  What is the telephone factor?  The telephone factor is the result of every game of telephone we ever played as a children.

You remember how someone would start with one phrase and by the time it made its way around the circle it came out completely different? Well, when one depends upon word of mouth advertising as their only marketing tool they are in a sense tempting the fates of the telephone game.  Someone is bound to completely wreck your message.  It is the nature of humanity.

But is word of mouth advertising completely useless?  No, but it should be the by-product of your marketing and should be delivered in a carefully crafted message time after time so that the person trying to help you out knows exactly what to say about you.  Otherwise it can do a great deal more harm than aid.

Those who believe word of mouth advertising and being by referral only are a realistic alternative to a well thought out marketing plan that is strategically implemented are losing out on a great deal of potential profits.  Much like an ostrich sticking its head in the sand does not make it invisible, saying that you are by referral only does not make it so if you do not have a strategy to build those referrals.

Our conclusions?

1)  Well, I don’t know about you, but I tend to express myself a lot better on paper than I do in person.  So, at times while it might be difficult to know me in person it is fairly easy to get to know me via my writings.

2)  In marketing, you may disclose something about yourself that might never come up in a normal everyday conversation with a person.  For example, we have several people on our follow up marketing list that we touch monthly via different media.  We know many of these people from different business networking groups and see them about 2-3 hours every month.

Now, last fall we sent out a card to this list detailing the mission trip we had just taken to Panama and Costa Rica.  In this card we had pictures and included a lot of amusing quotes and captions.  We received more comments from that one card than all of the marketing pieces we sent to that list for the previous six months.  In fact, we made some great friends and referral partners because of it.

Now, while a few of the people on the list knew that we were going on the trip, most did not.  It simply had not come up in our 2-3 hours of seeing them each month.  So, had we not sent the card with our bit of personality that let them into our lives just a bit, they would not have realized that we had something in common and connected with us.  And we would still be seeing them every month for 2-3 hours and saying our polite greetings then moving on.

Am I saying that you spill every bit of your life to your database?

No.  Absolutely not.  And obviously the details that you tell all depend upon the type of relationship you already have with your list and the type of relationship you would like to have.  However, know that if you include these tid bits every once and a while, you can fastforward your relationships greatly.

People will trust you more if they feel like they know about you.  And people do business with those whom they like and whom they trust.

Now, on this particular day when he cornered me by the coffee stand I was feeling quite energetic despite the early hour.  It was a beautiful day and I was seeing everything in a positive light.  However, by the end of my interaction with him I found myself drained and ready to be done with networking for the day.

What did he do that caused such a drastic change in my mood and outlook?

Well, I pondered that very thing on my way to my next meeting for the day and I came up with 3 items.

1)  The first words out of his mouth were a sales pitch.  And not just any sales pitch, but the same sales pitch that he has spouted on our 3 previous interactions.

2)  He talked incessantly about himself for 5 minutes then flippantly asked how I had been.

3) Before I even had a chance to respond he launched into a long winded spout on a political topic that I happen to feel quite strongly about.

Now, you may be asking what is wrong with any of what he did.  If so, please refer to the headline of this post before proceeding.

Networking 101 says that the best way to build a relationship with a potential prospect is not to launch into your sales pitch the moment you corner them.  Think of it like the dating game.

How far do you think a guy is going to get if the moment he gets into a conversation with a girl he starts telling her how much she needs to go out on a date with him?  Considering that he would probably come across as desperate, not very far. That is because we as humans tend to hate being told what we should be doing.  In fact, if we have someone tell us what we should be doing, our tendency is to do the exact opposite.  However, if there is something that is difficult for us to achieve we are more likely to want it.  That is where the dating technique of playing hard to get came from and it works great in the networking arena as well.

Next, we as humans tend to love nothing more than talking about ourselves and yes, I realize that is exactly what he was doing, so what was wrong with that?  Well, the problem was that he was trying to prospect me, not the other way.  So he should have been asking me questions and getting me engaged in the conversation.  One of the keys to sales is to get the prospect talking about themselves because they will begin to slowly give you the information that you need in order to sell them.  In addition, if they are talking about themselves they will probably walk away from your conversation saying to themselves, “Wow, that was a really great discussion.  I really enjoyed talking to them.”   This is because it fulfills a fundamental human need to be heard and understood.

Finally, he brought up a very controversial political topic without first knowing my views.  Deals have been won and lost because of this very thing.  There is a reason that your mother always told you not to talk about politics and religion when company was over.  These topics tend to be very polarizing and if you are on the opposite sides of the issue can potentially do a lot of harm to your developing relationship.  Specifically in this instance, the gentleman was talking about something that he very obviously knew little about which caused him to look ignorant, not a good thing to have a potential prospect or referral partner think about you.

In this short interaction the gentleman succeeded in causing me to change my neutral opinion of him to a negative one, ensuring that I will probably avoid him at future meetings.  And will I send him business?  Probably not, as I have no guarantee that he will treat the people I send to him any differently than he just treated me.

You sigh in frustration as you once again try to get someone who has absolutely no clue to understand the ins and outs of the widget business.  Ten minutes later Aunt Mildred politely pats your hand and says, “That’s nice, honey.”  She then trudges away, walker in hand to find the dessert table.

What happened?  Is it that Aunt Mildred is just dense and doesn’t understand anything about business?  While that may very well be the case, more than likely you just bored her stiff with all the details of the widget industry and through her boredom she became overwhelmed and didn’t understand a word you said.

Now, let’s change the scenario and the question a bit.

You walk into a networking event.  Right away Joe Salesman walks up and introduces himself.  He then asks, “So, what do you do?”

Now, before you start launching into your 10 minutes shpeel again, let’s think back to Aunt Mildred.  Aunt Mildred loves you dearly and has a reason to listen to you…but you still bored her out of her mind, so maybe we should change the approach, because no offense, but no one really cares what year your company was founded or any of that crap unless they ask.

So, back to the networking scenario…what are you going to say?

Let’s dissect it.

1) What is a common need or pain that the majority of your clients have and that you fulfill?

Now this should be fairly easy.  Just ask yourself why people need your product.  Does it get them out of debt?  Does it provide safety to their family?  What is the pain or fear that drives your customer?  When you discover that you are 9/10 of the way there.

2)  What makes you different than other companies that address the same need?

Okay, before we get into this I need to bring up one of Matt’s biggest pet peeves.  Platitudes.  A platitude is something that should be obvious or expected.  For example, almost every business out there says that they are honest and on time.  Well, I should hope so.  That is like saying, “Congratulations, you didn’t steal from me today.  That means you are a great company in my book!”  Come on!  Really?!? Do you really want your customers saying that about you?  Then don’t put it in their minds!

So, again I pose the question, “What makes you different from other companies?”  Maybe it is that you use only natural materials, that everything is hand made, or that you only use your own staff- not contractors like the rest of your type of companies.  Now, those will set you apart.  Why?  Because by saying these things you have not only stuck out in your customer or prospect’s mind, but you have made it seem as if anyone who doesn’t do it that way is wrong.  So you have set the new buying criteria.

3) Who traditionally buys your product?

This will help you in networking especially, because that person will know who you are looking for.  It will also help in the sales process, because it is a form of “social proof” which will need to be a post in and of itself.  Keep it short and sweet, maybe 1 or 2 different niches.  This will enable the prospect or referral source to remember what you are saying and won’t confuse the message.

4) Now put it all together in 30 seconds or less.

Do you like it when someone stands there and talks at you for 5 minutes?  No!  So don’t do it!  I know you are saying, but what if I am missing an opportunity to sell to this person?  I guarantee you that if you stop talking at people you will increase your sales, not decrease them.

If you just stand there and spill your guts to them for God knows how long, you have done nothing more than talked to a brick wall.  Where if you give them just a few tasty morsels of what you have to offer, they will want more, and they will walk away actually understanding what you do.

My guess is that it was a walk off the beaten path, as most people barely send a thank you email, let alone taking the time to hand write a card or note.  Being in the relationship marketing business, if there is one concern that I hear from business people who have spent their career networking, it is that they rarely ever get a thank you for the referrals they provide to their business contacts.  Many have said that if a person would have just sent them a thank you card and acknowledged their help in the sale they would feel much better about referring to that person again.  In fact, they have actually gone out of their way to look through their contact lists and find referrals for those contacts that do send thank you cards or notes.

One excuse that I hear for not sending a thank you card is the time involved in buying cards, handwriting them, stuffing, stamping, and mailing them.  However, I have to ask this one question.  How much is that one referral worth to you? What about if you get multiple referrals?  Seriously, think back to the last referral you received.  How much was the new customer worth?  Did you meet anyone else through that referral?  Or maybe it wasn’t a customer, but a strategic partner that will lead to multiple customers.   Did you ever tell the person who gave you what happened?

Staying in touch with people and building relationships is one of the most profitable things you can do for your business career. Maintaining these relationships and strengthening them will ensure that you get connected to the people you need to get connected to. After all, would you be more likely to introduce someone you’ve built a friendship with or someone you’ve met once at a networking event?

If you are among the avid networkers you might have a business card scanner or a secretary that inputs the data for you.  What then?  Do you send an email, make a phone call, or go so far as to send a thank you card?  In my experience, the average business person might follow-up with an email 1 or 2 days later.  They may or may not get a response.  The lead or prospect then goes to the bottom of the stack, never to be thought of again.

But surely some people are getting business from networking…otherwise they wouldn’t be doing it, right?  But how?

The answer is they have a system.  They have sat down and thought about who their ideal client is and who might have access to that ideal client.  With this in mind they go into a meeting looking for these specific people.  After the meeting they have a system for dealing with their new contacts, whether they do it themselves or they outsource it.  The new contacts are sent follow-up emails within 12-24 hours and thank you/it was great meeting you cards withing 24-48 hours.  If it makes sense, they then continue to follow-up and build a relationship with that contact.

Why all this follow-up? Doesn’t a good sales person make a sale on the first or second contact?  Not usually.

48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect

25% of sales people make a second contact and stop

12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop

Only 10% of sales people make more than three contacts

2% of sales are made on the first contact

3% of sales are made on the second contact

5% of sales are made on the third contact

10% of sales are made on the fourth contact

80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact

So, if you just follow-up on a continual basis, you are getting that much closer to a sale or a referral.  And that is how people are able to make money from networking.