This article comes from a friend of mine, Frank DeRaffele Jr. As host of the the top Entrepreneurial Radio Show in the country, Frank was asked the following question on his blog.  I felt it was worth sharing with each of you.  Question:  How do you get people who don’t know you very well to feel comfortable with you, trust you a little, feel some confidence in you, before they every meet you?

Answer:  Testimonials.
We seem to all know this but we don’t use this powerful marketing tool enough. When used correctly, this can be one of the most effective marketing tools today both online and offline.

Testimonials are:
1.  Free.
2. Come from various demographics.
3.  Praise the various solutions that you can provide.
4.  Honor your professional ability and your character. Your integrity…..your
personal reputation as a business professional

6 Simple, Easy and Effortless Steps To Get Started:

1. Pick 5 people whom you know and would like testimonials from.

2. Write a testimonial for each of them. Not the same one five times with different names in the testimonial. Write from your heart what you think is wonderful about this person.

3. Send the testimonial to them. Send a note with it.

Often when I am networking I hear small business owners say things like “I really want to have Eli Lilly, AT&T or GE as one of my clients.” Whenever I hear this I cringe, because I know that it is not enough to want one of these giant companies as a client, you have to have a plan. Not just a plan to land the deal, but a plan to find it and then how are you going to maintain that client.

In her book, Whale Hunting, Barbara Weaver Smith and Tom Searcy, uses the analogy of how the Inuit of Alaska hunted Whales to feed their villages to how small companies can land the Whale of their own. This is an easy analogy follow and carries with it a powerful story of perseverance, commitment, strategy and success.

Barbara and Tom layout the strategy for researching which whale you want to hunt, how to research your whale, capturing your whale, and celebrating your whale. This is a book that you must read if you are really interested in landing your own whale.

Networking is great, but you cannot ask for a referral to a whale if you do not have a plan for landing and managing that whale.  There have been several occasions when I knew I could get a person in the door of their whale but I also knew once caught they would not be able to keep the whale.

I cannot recommend this book enough, it is an easy read, and not only will you learn how to land your own whale there is a lot of very interesting history in this book that holds your attention as you read in amazement what the Alaskan Inuit could do with a row boat and harpoon. The planning, the implementing and the celebration are inspiring.

As a bonus, Barbara will be doing a whale hunting women workshop here in Indianapolis. It is a program that you want to take advantage of, not only for the educational aspect but for the ability to network with other women whale hunters. See you there!

Referrals, leads, word of mouth, buzz marketing, viral marketing, networking, seven second introductions, elevator speeches, referral groups, business networking and social networking.  It all blends, causing confusion, misunderstanding and a muddied mess in the business world. 

You see it everyday, one networking event after another, business cards being passed, people shaking hands, and those ever so famous seven-second introductions being pitched.  It’s the same people at every event, giving out the same cards, same pitch hoping for a different outcome. 

We hear about networking as a way to grow our businesses, and everyone calls themselves networking experts. If you put the words “business networking” into Google, you will get 186,000,000 hits  So called experts teach classes and workshops on how to do better seven second pitches, how to hand out their cards, what to do after the event, how to give more, and do more. 

Recently I ask a young man how he got most of his business, “90% by Referral” he stated.  When I ask what kind of system he had to generate and track that level of referrals his answer was; “I have a great yellow page ad that generates a lot of referrals for us.”  While having a Yellow Page ad will create a lot of visibility for you it is not generating referrals.  

What’s missing here?  What is the plan?  Where is the system?  People who are networking have no idea where their business is coming from, who their referral sources are, what target market they are connecting with, or even if they are networking in the right place.  When asked what their ROI is on all of their networking activities they will say things like, “Great” or “I have made a lot of business contacts and friends while networking”.  Rarely if ever do they really know the ROI.   

If business professionals are going to build their business by referral, there has to be a plan that goes beyond, what most networking gurus are teaching. Word of mouth does not mean business by referral, and Networking does not mean you will get referrals. 

If you really want to build your business by referral, you have to develop a plan, a system.  Much the same way as you developed a Marketing Plan.   

Who are your customers, where do they live, what do they do, are they other businesses or are they consumers? Companies spend thousands of dollars every year identifying their target market, their customers.  How much time have you spent, is your customer anybody who needs or wants your product or services:?  What do you offer to your customers, and why do they come to you?  Have you asked them? Who are your Referral Sources and what system do you have for motivating and training them? 

Networking is very valuable, but learning how to develop a system is more important.  Once the system is in place, and you know whom you want to connect with and whom your referral sources are you will then be able to choose the right places to network.   

If you’re going to build a house you need to take some time and do your preparation, lay out the design, build the foundation, then build the building.  Every step must be followed in the proper order.  The same holds true when you are building your business by referral.  Where is your plan, how is the foundation, or did you forget all of that and just start networking, hoping for best.  

Here are 5 Tips for building a foundation before you start networking. 

1.  Narrow your focus, having a clear Target Market is one of the most important aspects to building a business by referral.  Anybody, everybody, and small business does not constitute a target market.  

2.  Who are your potential referral sources?    If your target market is “Any small business that needs health insurance”, you will find that all you are able to generate will be random unpredictable leads from the people that you network with. 

On the other hand, if your target market is; “Family owned businesses, with 3-50 employees, in the manufacturing industry.” You will have a better chance of building strategic referral partnerships with others working in the same target market.  

3.  Know where you want to spend your time and efforts.  Building a business by referral takes time.  You only have time and money to spend, you can make more money but you cannot make more time, spend it wisely.  When you are networking look for those people who would make great referral partners and begin the relationship process with them.  You do not need 2500 people in your database if you have 10-trained referral partners helping you connect with their clients and contacts. 

4.  Clean up your database.  Are there people in there you don’t even know?  When was the last time you contacted them?  Are clients, contacts, prospects, clearly identified?  Do you have other ways of sorting, like support, information, and referrals?   

5. Create a system for tracking your networking activities.  How many calls did you make? How many notes did you send?  How many hours did you spend out networking?  What events did you participate in?  Who did you give referrals or leads to?  What gets measured gets done, tracking is one of the most important things you can do, but often the most neglected. 

Don’t get caught up in the Networking madness until you have a plan.  Do some work first, build your foundation, identify who you want to network with and where you want to network, then get started. 

Hazel M Walker

Referral Strategist