Grow Your Business: Friends & Strategic Partners

 

Your marketing strategy will be more powerful when you build a network of trusted friends. This is a very different category than personal friends. Many women who get involved with a direct marketing line – as well as many marketing pros – will tell you that the fastest way to grow your business is to make a list of all your friends and family, and then start marketing to them first. But have you noticed that when you try that approach, they rarely seem to want to buy from you? It’s frustrating, isn’t it?

So a trusted friend is different. A trusted friend is someone you hold a business relationship with—and with all the advertising we get every day, this is an important strategy. Think about it! Are you more likely to read that SPAMMED email sent to you anonymously, or an e-mail a trusted friend sent, saying they thought you would be interested? Then imagine your trusted friends forwarding e-mail from you to others. Powerful concept!

Trusted friends are business partners who:

• Know your business and respect what you do

• Understand and value the small business owner

• Believe in relationships and referrals

• See potential clients for you in their own daily business

• Will, if the opportunity presents itself, refer business to you

• Are often willing to advertise you on their web site

• Over time, may package and bundle with you

Another way to describe a trusted friend is as a “strategic partner.” Strategic partners are people who are in alignment with your business, and are not in competition; their customers often need what you offer.

Entrepreneurs struggle with this concept. At networking events where I ask, “Who are your strategic partners?” I often hear, “Everyone who wants to be healthy.” Or: “All women are my strategic partners.” No, “everyone” is a lead or someone who might buy from you. A trusted friend mayNEVER buy from you, but is committed to growing your business in alternative ways.

The key is to build a network of trusted friends. How do you do that?

First, determine who they are, and then you will be able to network by asking to meet them.

Once you have met them, it is time to build and nurture a relationship that will turn into a partnership:

• Show interest and care about what your trusted friends do. You must remember to give!

• Keep in touch on a regular basis. Remember birthdays, and milestones. Don’t forget to send things that they will find informative or interesting.

• Be willing to reciprocate. As you meet people, keep them in your mind, can refer to them!

In late 2007, my coaching and speaking business started to feel the effects of the economy. Many clients were canceling business dates, and contracts were not getting renewed. Then, in January 2008, one regular client, who had over 20 days of business already booked in the coming months, slowly started cancelling them all. Suddenly I had no revenue, and I was worried about paying my team – let alone paying myself.

I reached out to my network of trusted friends. Through working my relationships with them, my business is now better than what it was projected to be.

I commonly hear small business owners say, “I just do not have time for it, Ann.” I am glad I took the time to build a network of trusted friends, because the payoff is tremendous! So make time for it, and you too will benefit!

Source: excelle.monster.com

Try to Find Good in All

by: Malik Mirza
 

Here is an inspiring story with a strong message: Do not underestimate yourself by comparing yourself with others. It’s our differences that make us unique & Beautiful.

We might have heard of water bearers i.e. people who move water from one place to another.
This is story of two large pots which were carried on by a water bearer  / a lady in India.
Each pot hung on each end of a pole which she carried across her neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, and while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water at the end of the long walk from the stream to the master’s house. However, the cracked pot arrived only half full.
For a full two years this went on daily, with the lady delivering only one and a half pots full of water in his master’s house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments.
But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After two years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream.
The cracked pot said: “I am ashamed of myself, and I want to apologize to you.”
“Why?” asked the lady. “What are you ashamed of?”
“I have been able, for these past two years, to deliver only half my load because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your master’s house. Because of my flaws, you have to do all of this work, and you don’t get full value from your efforts,” the pot said.
The lady felt sorry for the old cracked pot, and in his compassion he said, “As we return to the master’s house, I want you to notice the beautiful flowers along the path.”
Indeed, as they went up the hill, the old cracked pot took notice of the sun warming the beautiful wild flowers on the side of the path, and this cheered it some. But at the end of the trail, it still felt bad because it had leaked out half its load, and so again the pot apologized to the bearer for its failure.
The lady said to the pot, “Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of your path, but not on the other pot’s side? That’s because I have always known about your flaw, and I took advantage of it. I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back from the stream, you’ve watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate my master’s table. Without you being just the way you are, he would not have this beauty to grace his house.”

We can derive certain lessons from this story including the following:
1. People are not perfect. Therefore, we should try to achieve the best we can and not compare ourselves with others.
2. There are good qualities in every one. It is said that even a clock which is not in a working condition will give you correct time twice in twenty four hours. Therefore, find good in everyone including yourself and nurture those good attributes.
3. Focus on strengths of people and utlize them.


Source: http://wisdomfrombooks.com/

Out of Sight is Out of Mind

By Kelli C. Holmes

I REALY want to share this message with you. I have been involved in, and/or working in the “Referral Group/Network Group” industry for over 25 years. I have been a member of a referral organization, spent 10 years as an executive with this large referral organization, and my company, TEAM Referral Network, has been around for 10 years. I have also networked across the country and with people in the international market as well. I am recognized as an expert in the industry and many companies and groups have paid me to speak on this topic.

So…have I qualified myself as a person who knows what she’s talking about yet? Because I could go on…ok, I’ll stop. But the bold statement I am about to make will be questioned by many of you reading this, but here goes anyway… out of sight is out of mind. Yes, it is.

Many (and I do mean many) people operate on the assumption that once they have established a business relationships with people that little to no “continuing nurturing” is needed. I cannot tell you how many people have told me directly or indicated to me that they do not need TEAM anymore because they have already established their relationships with the members. Their thought process is…I’m not going to get anything NEW and I will continue to get their referrals anyway.  (Never mind the fact that chapters have new members and visitors on a regular basis that they could meet.) But, what they also forget about is… out of sight is out of mind. 

Once you are no longer part of a group, your networking partners can (and will) forget about you. Yes, occasionally former members will continue to get referrals but not nearly as much as when they were a part of the group. And if (or should I say when) another person joins who does what you do, and they are at the meeting each week sharing their commercials, listening to everybody else's commercials, bringing referrals….guess who they are going to give their referrals to? Yup! The new person! Out of sight really is out of mind!!!

Kelli C. Holmes, author of “Effective Networking”,  shows you a better, smarter way to grow your business through powerful business relationships.  Kelli is the Founder of TEAM Referral Network, a professional referral organization that turns success-oriented business people into a strong team of networking professionals who work together to build their business by referral.  TEAM’s motto is Together Everyone Achieves More.  For more information visit their website www.teamreferralnetwork.com or call (866)311-TEAM.     

Giving Back

By Kelli Holmes

Not sure how to fit "giving back" into your everyday life? That's okay. You can define service and giving in any way that works for you. Possible next steps could be:

• Volunteer one day per month to assist a non-profit in your community
• Mentor a new employee at work
• Become a Big Brother or Big Sister
• Donate blood through the American Red Cross
• Help an elderly neighbor with some of their shopping needs
• Cook a meal for a family in need
• Join Habitat for Humanity and help build a home for a family in need
• Teach someone how to read
• Take the extra step "above and beyond" to provide services to a customer or find a solution to a problem outside your job description
• Make a phone call to someone who needs cheering up
• Sign up for a committee at your child's school or in your community
• Mentor a teenage girl who needs help
• Commit yourself to reaching out today. When we give to others, we are the greatest recipients. As physician and writer John Andrew Holmes said, "There is no experience better for the heart than reaching down and lifting people up."

Here is What a Team Can Do for You...

• It can make you better than you are
• It multiples your value to others
• It enables you to do what you do best
• It allows you to help others do their best
• It gives you more time
• It provides you with companionship
• It helps you fulfill the desires of your heart
• It makes everyone on the team a winner

Teams are incredible things. No task is too great, no accomplishment too grand, no dream too far-fetched for a team. It takes teamwork to make the dream work.

- John C. Maxwell (Teamwork Makes the Dream Work)