15 Ways Other People
Can Promote Your Company
Put your networking circle to work for
you with these 15 guaranteed ways to generate new business.
By Ivan Misner
Has anyone ever said to you, "If
there's anything I can do to help you with your business, let me
know"? Did you respond, "Thank you. Now that you mention it,
there are a few things I need"? Or did you say, "Well, thanks,
I'll let you know"?
If you're like most of us, you aren't
prepared to accept help at the moment it's offered. You let opportunity
slip by because you haven't given enough thought to the kinds of help
you need. You haven't made the connection between specific items or
services you need and the people who can supply them. But when help is
offered, it's to your advantage to be prepared and to respond by stating
a specific need.
Systematic referral marketing requires
that you determine, as precisely as possible, the types of help you want
and need. There are many ways your sources can help you promote yourself
and your business and generate leads and referrals; we've chosen to
discuss fifteen of them. Some are simple, cheap and quick; others are
complex, costly and time-consuming.
1. Display your literature and
products. Your sources can exhibit your marketing materials and products
in their offices or homes. If these items are displayed well, such as on
a counter or a bulletin board, visitors will ask questions about them or
read the information. Some may take your promotional materials and
display them in other places, increasing your visibility.
2. Distribute information. Your sources
can help you distribute your marketing information and materials. For
example, they can include a flyer in their mailings or hand out flyers
at meetings they attend. A dry cleaner attaches a coupon from the hair
salon next door to each plastic bag he uses to cover his customers'
clothing; a grocery store includes other businesses' marketing
literature in or on its grocery bags or on the back of the printed
receipt.
3. Make an announcement. When attending
meetings or speaking to groups, your sources can increase your
visibility by announcing an event you are involved in or a sale your
business is conducting, or by setting up exhibits of your products or
services. They can also invite you to make an announcement yourself.
4. Invite you to attend events.
Workshops and seminars are opportunities to increase your skills,
knowledge, visibility and contacts. Members of personal or business
groups that you don't belong to can invite you to their events and
programs. This gives you an opportunity to meet prospective sources and
clients.
5. Endorse your products and services.
By telling others what they've gained from using your products or
services or by endorsing you in presentations or informal conversations,
your network sources can encourage others to use your products or
services. If they sing your praises on audiotape or videotape, so much
the better.
6. Nominate you for recognition and
awards. Business professionals and community members often are
recognized for outstanding service to their profession or community. If
you've donated time or materials to a worthy cause, your sources can
nominate you for service awards. You increase your visibility both by
serving and by receiving the award in a public expression of thanks.
Your sources can pass the word of your recognition by word of mouth or
in writing. They can even create an award, such as Vendor of the Month,
to honor your achievement.
7. Provide you with leads. A source can
help you by passing along information she hears about someone who needs
the kind of product or service you provide. Following through on such
leads--for example, a rumor about a new company moving into the area or
a news item about the troubles another business is having--could result
in new business.
8. Provide you with referrals. The kind
of support you'd most like to get from your sources is, of course,
referrals--names and contact information for specific individuals who
need your products and services. Sources can also help by giving
prospects your name and number. As the number of referrals you receive
increases, so does your potential for increasing the percentage of your
business generated through referrals.
9. Make initial contact with prospects
and sources. Rather than just giving you the telephone number and
address of an important prospect, a network member can phone or meet the
prospect first and tell him about you. When you make contact with the
prospect, he will be expecting to hear from you and will know something
about you.
10. Introduce you to prospects. Your
source can help you build new relationships faster by introducing you in
person. She can provide you with key information about the prospect. She
can also tell the prospect a few things about you, your business, how
the two of you met, some of the things you and the prospect have in
common, and the value of your products and services.
11. Arrange a meeting on your behalf.
When one of your sources tells you about a person you should meet,
someone you consider a key contact, she can help you immensely by
coordinating a meeting. Ideally, she will not only call the contact and
set a specific date, time and location for the meeting, but she will
also attend the meeting with you.
12. Follow up with referrals they have
given you. Your sources can contact prospects they referred to you to
see how things went after your first meeting, answer their questions or
concerns, and reassure them that you can be trusted. They can also give
you valuable feedback about yourself and your products or service,
information that you might not have been able to get on your own.
13. Publish information for you.
Network members may be able to get information about you and your
business printed in publications they subscribe to and in which they
have some input or influence. For example, a source who belongs to an
association that publishes a newsletter might help you get an article
published or persuade the editor to run a story about you.
14. Serve as a sponsor. Some of your
sources may be willing to fund or sponsor a program or event you are
hosting. They might let you use a meeting room, lend you equipment,
authorize you to use their organization's name, or donate money or other
resources.
15. Sell your products and services. Of
all the kinds of support that a source can offer, the one that has the
greatest immediate impact on your bottom line is selling your product or
service for you. Your network member could persuade a prospect to write
a check for your product, then have you mail or deliver the product to
your new customer. If you do so swiftly and cordially, you may gain a
new lifelong customer.
Suppose a customer you know well tells
you a friend of his wants to buy your product. How should you respond?
By telling him to have his friend contact you? By asking for information
about the friend? The correct answer is neither. While your interest is
still hot, let your friend, the customer, take your product and sell it
to his friend, the prospect (if he plans to see his friend in the near
future, of course).
Editor's note: This article is
excerpted from Business by Referral.
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Ivan Misner is Entrepreneur.com's "Networking" columnist and
the founder and CEO of BNI, the world's largest referral organization
with thousands of chapters in dozens of countries around the world.
Ivan's also a New York Times bestselling author--his latest book is
Masters of Success: Proven Techniques for Achieving Success in Business
and Life.
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