As many of you know, I’m a big fan of Joanne Black and her book, “No More Cold Calling™” because so much of what she writes is the foundation on what Inquisix is built upon. When Dave and I were first sharing the referral exchange idea that became Inquisix, we were introduced to Joanne by Philippe Lavie, sales trainer from Chicago. Joanne and I talked a few times and then agreed to meet at the first Sales 2.0 conference in San Francisco. I had a chance to pick up Joanne’s book and read it before meeting her in Chicago. I felt like I was in college again because when I was done reading her book, it was filled with my yellow highlighting. I’ve now met Joanne a few times while I’m in San Francisco and her advice on building a better Inquisix has proven invaluable.
Joanne has now extended her website’s offerings to include a blog, Facebook page and Twitter account. It’s now even easier to get her good advice.
No we’re not talking about recently passed stimulus bill. Or even a bailout. We’re talking about something more tactile, more visceral– more like an A+B=C.
John Jantsch, of Duct Tape Marketing, and Inquisix have joined forces (with some other amazing sponsors) to promote Make a Referral Week, this March 9-13th. The goal is to generate 1000 referred leads to 1000 deserving small businesses.
It’s tough times. Everywhere you turn negative economic indicators are released, reports on recessionary fears, and opinons on the impact of the economic stimulus package crowd the news. Overwhelming problems and few solutions.
It is time for small businesses to take matters into their own hands. Positive changes in small business can have a positive impact on the economy. Hey, it’s no biggie surprise to the rest of us that small businesses basically drive the economy.
As a class, small business:
represent over 99.7% of employers;
employ over half of all private sector employees;
generate between 60%-80% of new jobs in the last decade; and
produce more than 50% of non-farm private gross domestic product, or a GDP of roughly $6 trillion.
As John Jantsch sees it, “Make a Referral Week is an entrepreneurial approach to stimulating the small busienss economy one referred business at a time. The goal is to generate 1000 referred leads to 1000 deserving small businesses in an effort to highlight the impact of a simple action that could blossom into millions of dollars of new business. Small business is the lifeblood and job-creating engine of the economy and merits the positive attention saved for corporate bailout stories.”
It’s Inquisix’s hope is that this one week further highlights the power of the referral. Referral prospects are less price sensitive, and, as Joanne Black, author of “No More Cold Calling,” points out “[a] referral is pre-sold on you … and [you] get a new client over 70 percent of the time.” We believe that by highlighting the high ROI benefits of referral networking, more businesses will permanently adopt this as a new strategic marketing tool, which will translate into healthier bottom lines. Good for them. Good for you. Good for the U.S. economy.
And for the social media savvy, follow the action on twitter and connect to tweeps partaking in Make a Referral Week (Add the hashtag”#MARW09″ to the end of your tweets!)
Everyone agrees that getting referrals to new prospects is so much better than cold calling down that long list that your company provided you. But how do you get started? John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing fame has put together a brief video primer on just this very topic. He focuses on
- defining your value proposition
- who you tell this to
- why you are asking for the referral
In principle I agree with how John suggests you get started even if it seems a bit pushy and low-tech. A vital part of any networking program is to ensure the people you want referrals from understand exactly what you do – ie your value proposition. Sure, your customers probably know that already but what about your friends, family and colleagues? Don’t bore them with a feature/benefit pitch – think of your elevator pitch that gets makes them chuckle and excited about telling other people about you. What do I tell people we do at Inquisix? “We’re matchmakers [pause] for salespeople!” Joanne Black, author of “No More Cold Calling” announces, “I’m the Referral Queen!”What do you tell people so they’re remember you?
