4 Effective Business Building Strategies

I was at a sales ideas event this week and would like to share four points.

1. Network one group to the best of your ability
Whether it’s a charity, service club, professional association or car enthusiasts club, this group must contain many prospects that will make good clients for you. And, (shock!) it is not a quick fix. I was reminded of how effective this strategy is this week. I was listening to a speaker talk about a charity he had volunteered with for ten years. Every so often he puts together a list of the 25 people who are most influential to his business (either as clients or referral sources). What he noticed was that 17 of them he had met through his charity work.

As I looked around the room of 150 people, I realized that in four years of networking and serving within one organization, I had had similar results. I then recalled a banker at an Optimist Club meeting telling me once that he had never knowingly pursued business from his group, but that when he attended meetings, he couldn’t help but notice that the vast majority of them patronized his bank. I am sure he asked more than he claimed for opportunities to do business with them but the point remains the same.

How do you get these results? Attend 80% of the meetings, serve on committees and be visible. Your commitment to the group must be sincere as people can smell it when you’re there only to get business. If you are an associate member of a trade association (something I would highly recommend and have done myself), you explain your presence by saying: “Many of my clients are in this profession and the best way I can meet their needs is by really knowing what’s going in the industry.”
OH – and ask people when the opportunity presents itself!

2. Ask clients if you can do a presentation to their company
Specifically this idea is to get a warm introduction to others just like your very good client such as the other partners of a law firm or medical practice or other nurses/union members at an organization. Often we forget to ask for opportunities like this. I recommend you make it a weekly habit to pre-plan what you want to ask for before your week starts with the people that you’re scheduled to meet with that week. I find making such a request can be easier than targeting a specific person to be introduced to.

In the above example, you could consider paying for lunch if you thought that would make or break your chances.

3. When you are explaining to people how you help others, be sure to use examples of people either just like them OR of the people you want to be introduced to.

This sounds rather obvious but when I think about the times that people tell me what they do, it is clear they are saying something they have used hundreds of times and they are rarely putting any special thought into it.

This point can go hand in hand with point two. When you are presenting to a group, it makes excellent sense to give them examples that memory jog the audience so that some people think to themselves: “Huh. That sounds like Mark and his family. Hmmn. Maybe I should say something to him. This presenter could probably help out.”

The takeaway is this: when you are talking to someone about your work, be more strategic about the stories you share. I understand that total strangers are unlikely to recommend you, but you never know.  They might be able to help you. And if either if you have a network, you may well have mutual connections which will build trust quickly. And if they look hopelessly bored, it’s your cue to find someone else to talk to (or change the subject!).

4. Just occasionally a customized gimmick can work.
I don’t get too excited when I see the word gimmick either; let me call it ‘highly creative marketing’. One speaker shared a story about a large $25 toy he bought to make a point to a procrastinating prospect. He taped two checks to it: one payable to himself for his services and an enormous one payable to the IRS for the taxes he would owe if he did not get this advisor’s help! The he drove to his prospect’s house on a Friday evening and hand-delivered it without waiting for him for him to make a decision.

It was a bold move and on the Sunday the prospect called saying that he would have the check and the paperwork for him by the next day. It reminds me of a story about advertising executive Donny Deutsch. In a bid to retain one of the car companies as a client, he mailed them the rear bumper of a car and wrote on it: “Keep us and I promise we’ll protect your a** and make you look great all year long!”

What I get from this is not to mail out cheesy trinkets to all your clients but that one personally meaningful clever idea targeting one person can hit home by saying: I put a lot of thought and effort into this as a symbol of how much I’d like to do business with you. It’s also a show of confidence. That’s one reason why sending people books on topics that are near and dear to their hearts can make an impact.

Who else might appreciate these suggestions and reminders? Please share the wealth and forward it on.