REFERRAL NUGGETS

Sarah Owen - Master Franchisee United Kingdom

“It depends….”

So, would you kiss on a first date?  Well it depends!  Some of you may have met your partners when your eyes met across a crowded room.  It is a common way for people to meet, but to end up married to them for 35 years is all in the follow up!  We all know that this is the number one characteristic of a skilled networker!

In a business context how fast you get a return on investment depends on many complex things which are personal to us all as individuals. 

Get rich quick?

We hear consistently that referral marketing and networking should not be considered to be a get rich quick scheme?  But can it be?  Yes.  Is it always?  No!

Business relationships are just relationships and they work in the same way as all relationships.  Some develop faster than others!  Any relationship I have ever damaged or destroyed was as a result of something I did or didn’t do. 

A great piece of advice I heard years ago is that everyone you meet has three invisible words written on their foreheads – Handle with Care.

A clear understanding of some facts may help:

• Know what type of person you are.

• Know what type of person you are with.

• Understand that people move at different speeds.

Time

Time affects our relationships and it’s not only your perception of time that counts it is the other person’s too.  It will take us longer to be able to trust some people dependant upon our previous experience, the profession and the quality of the education we receive. 

All the time in the world will become crashingly irrelevant if there is one ingredient missing: trust.

Trust

Trust can build quickly.  I asked Marcus Cauchi the owner of the first London Sandler Sales Franchise in the UK recently how he gets potential clients to trust him early in the relationship and his response was simple.  “I ask the person to trust me and agree with them that if any stage either of us feels that we don’t want to do business that we have full permission to say so!”  If I have been recommended by someone they trust this is easier, if this is not the case I have to rely on my own credibility of over 20 years experience in sales, a track record of success with clients, I am nice, up front and honest.”

We can use our own system of measurement to decide if we trust someone.  How someone behaves, their appearance, the price of their product, their profession and what others have told us about them can all contribute to our ability or desire to build a relationship with them.

The mind works in mysterious ways, we have to like them too.  How many times have you heard the name of a new baby and instantly disliked it because you once met someone horrible with that name?!  We must keep ourselves in check that the decisions we are making are rational.

Expectation

In the same way that our definitions of time and trust vary we also have different expectations too.  Look at how not  sharing expectations can contribute to the success or failure of a relationship.

What if on the first date I was expecting a kiss and it didn’t happen?  Conversely what if I absolutely do not feel that this is appropriate?  Either way I could have just missed out on a life long happy marriage.

Conclusion: Simple but not easy!

I believe that the most enjoyable and most cost effective way of growing our businesses is to do so using referral marketing strategies.   Just like all relationships, they are simple but not easy. 

The regular activities required to develop and encourage relationships to flourish are simple it is not easy to keep doing them on a regular basis.  How many of us do things, they work and then we stop doing them?  How many of us get so caught up in the busy nature of life that we just don’t seem to have time to consistently do what is required.

With a better understanding of how time, trust and expectation can impact on our relationships in business there will be no need to try new techniques at every turn.  We have a choice, we can just keep doing the simple things, which done consistently over a period of time, will result in business success with our personal values intact - or we can make it more complicated!

Being aware of the status of the relationship at any one time and behaving appropriately creates remarkable results.

Dr Ivan Misner the founder of BNI and Referral Institute says “It’s not what you know, or who you know – it’s how well you know them that makes the difference.”