The Potential
The Difference
Test the Web
With Us
Advertising Available on Idea Site Starting September 15, 1997
Nobody to Somebody in 63 Days or Less: The Ultimate How-To Guide To Business Networking & Word of Mouth Advertising
by Joe Ilvento and Arnold SanowLeverage Your Leads
The use of this technique alone could double or triple your referral business in a matter of weeks. Even savvy business people who have been successfully networking for years rarely employ this secret and very successful technique. Most business people we know tend to develop relationships with a limited number of business people in various professions. They tend to cultivate and pass leads to one stockbroker they know, or one real estate agent they know or one florist they know. As a result, the amount of leads they will receive (or are owed) from these people will be in a one-to-one ratio. For example, if you know someone who wants to sell their house you pass that info to a real estate contact. In theory, that real estate person now owes you a lead.
However, the key to maximizing the number of leads you receive can be easily doubled or tripled overnight through the concept of leverage. Rather than pass that real estate lead to one real estate contact you have, pass it to three. If you do not have three real estate contacts, being in possession of a hot lead is a great way to introduce yourself and your company. Ask a business associate to give you the names of a couple of agents they know to be competent. The information they provide to you is in turn a lead they can pass to their real estate friend.
By leveraging each lead you receive into two or three leads, instead of one favor being owed to you, you now have three. Remember, most professional salespeople are only interested in the lead itself. If it doesn't pan out, that is their problem. However, they will still want to keep you on the lookout for them and the way to do that is to pass you leads of people they know who are interested in your product or services.
This approach also has a couple of ancillary benefits built into it. First, it makes you look good almost all of the time. It is not uncommon to tout the benefits, experience and responsiveness of a business contact, only to pass the lead and for whatever reason, that person never contacts your lead source. Shame on that business person, but more importantly it makes you look bad in your contact's eyes. By passing the lead to three people, you can be assured that one, two or maybe all three will contact the person. Now, the contact is impressed with the calls - and you look good.
The second benefit is that it eliminates the need for you to recommend any one individual. Take it from first hand experience, the last thing you need is to recommend someone to one of your contacts and the person turns out to be a flop. Bad service, inferior products or just unprofessional behavior in general can all be reasons why a contact would end up blaming you for their bad dealings. Again, by recommending three, you leave it up to the prospect to choose among competing businesses. Should the transaction go sour, you are far less likely to be blamed for the outcome.
return: Nobody to Somebody in 63 Days or Less
return: idea site for business main menu