Four Categories of FEAR

by Sheldon Singleton

Have you ever walked into a room at a networking event, started to talk to someone and they immediately started to try to sell you on their service and themselves within one minute of meeting you.

What was your reaction?

Were there good thoughts going through your mind and you wanted to be around them or did you want to RUN AWAY QUICKLY?

Why is this so? Hmmm.

What if you could know what fears are in a person’s head before you even walked into a networking event or sat down with a potential client? How valuable would that information be to you and what advantage would you have over your competition if you knew this information?

Remember this, all things being equal, people do business with and refer business to people they know, like and trust. Whenever you meet anybody new, before you have established a relationship (Business and some of these can be personal) these fears will be racing through their mind. Try this on yourself.

Here are the Four Fear Categories

1. TRUST Fear

a. Fear of You (You a stranger to me.)

b. Fear of being lied to (I don’t know if you are telling me the truth.)

2. NEED Fear

a. Fear of Debt (Debt is a bad word. I lose my freedom when I go in bad debt.)

b. Fear of Losing Face (I don’t want to be embarrassment in front of loved ones or my friends.)

3. HELP Fear

a. Fear of making a mistake (I made mistakes in the past or I heard a story or I know someone who made a mistake.)

4. UNKNOWN Fears (I don’t understand what you do and it’s scary to me. I would rather do nothing or take it slow on something I know nothing or little about.)

Here are some other scary thoughts that are going through a person’s head when you first meet them.

1. I don’t know you.

2. I don’t know your reputation.

3. I don’t know your products.

4. I don’t know your industry.

5. I don’t know your company.

Wow! There is a lot of fears going through a person’s mind before you even approached them. They are looking at all strangers this way and it is nothing personal. It is the way we have been conditioned. No wonder people are afraid.

Now that you have this little known information, imagine how confident you will feel when you walk into a room in any situation and meet a new person. You already know what fears are on their mind, know how to respond to them, create immediate rapport because you responded to their fears in a very subtle manner and you know how to make someone feel comfortable around you and your friend “FASTER”.

Do you feel the power?!

3 Easy Tips to Get Users to Open and Read Your Emails

by: Eydie Stumpf

Follow these 3 easy tips to get users to open and read your email:

1) Asking a question gets your readers involved in your message because they automatically begin to answer the question in their minds. It generates curiosity because people want to find out the answer to the question. So, something like "Are you tired of not closing sales? Discover 3 secrets to closing all the sales you want" would automatically have your readers answering that question.

2) People love getting free tips and tricks, checklists and step by step instructions on how to do something. It's also smart to add a number, preferably an odd number. Researchers at Cornell University found that "odd numbers cause buyers momentary confusion. Confused, people fall back on associations. And people associate odd numbers with discounts. Hence, odd numbers in a listed price equal a discount". Go figure!

Try a subject line such as "How to effortlessly erase those fine lines and wrinkles in less than 7 days." I know I'd be interested!

3) Pump up your subject line with words like "simple" and "easy". In example No. 2 I used the word "effortlessly" - people like effortless! If your email suggests that what you are sharing will make your readers' day easier and simpler - they're going to open it up. Combine power words with odd numbers and you've got a winner.

Some other great power words are: Discover, learn, secrets of, do you, how to, imagine, protect, facts about, you, the truth about, and results. "Discover 3 secrets to boosting your energy in 7 days."

Stay away from: Amazing, revolutionary, great, all new, (when just "new" would suffice), guaranteed, FREE, and even special and important. These words will most definitely dump your email into the recipients spam folder. "Revolutionary new program guaranteed to increase your income 100% in 30 days"! Whew - that's a spam email if I ever saw one!

Basically, you want to solve your readers' problem. If you keep that in mind, and follow the tips I just gave you, then struggling with subject lines should become a thing of the past.

Getting to Kow your Networking Partners

Kelli C. Holmes

Once you have begun your journey of doing better, smarter business with Relationship Marketing, there will come a time when you need to take those relationships to the next level. You have worked on building relationships with your “Power Partners” and other members in your networking group and with the professionals in your local chamber of commerce, perhaps also a community service organization or in your own personal/social sphere. But do you really know them? Better question, do they really know you?

Getting together for a meeting once a week or once a month is good, but what would happen with your relationships if you invested the time to meet with your networking partners outside of the normal networking meeting, business mixer, committee or board meeting? At TEAM Referral Network we call these meetings “Coaching Sessions”.

“Coaching Sessions”

For your networking partners to refer business to you, they must first get to know who you are and what you have to offer. Meet for lunch or coffee with a different member of your group(s) each week. At this meeting, use the time so you can each share information about one another. Getting to know your networking partners will help you give more referrals and receive more and better referrals.

Here is a guideline to use when you get together:

• Share information about who your clients are, where they live, work, etc.
• Share with each other your background, education and any recognition/awards you’ve received.
• Tell each other about your family life, hobbies and interests.
• Talk about other organizations you participate in.
• Exchange literature and/or selling tools.
• Schedule a visit each others place of business.

Take the opportunity to make these “Coaching Sessions” part of your marketing plans for the next year. The investment of time will pay off in growth for your business!

Power Partners

By Kelli C. Holmes

Power Partners are business professionals who are in the same industry who want to develop a mutually beneficial relationship with each one striving to share referrals, ideas, clients and information with one another.

Who Are Your Top Power Partners?

Let’s think a minute - who do you refer your clients, your family, your friends to? People you know and trust! When does the opportunity to refer your clients to a Power Partner come about? When they need professional services that are related to your business. These professions are natural referral centers for you, they are in your “center of influence”. They are whom you want to develop a Power Partner relationship with.

Where Do You Find Power Partners?

Look in your PDA: follow your money, who do you give your business to. They are benefiting from you. You should be benefiting from them! Look to your “networks” whether it is a referral network, the Chamber of Commerce, a charity or service group, church, PTA, trade or social group, seek out the professionals that match your list of Power Partners.

What Do You Do With Power Partners Once You’ve Found Them?

Reach out to them. Contact them and tell them what you want to do. Ask to develop a Power Partner relationship with them, explain how mutually beneficial sharing referrals, ideas, information, and resources can be. If this is not the type of relationship they are willing to commit to, find someone else in their profession who is!

When To Utilize Your Power Partners ?

What are you hoping to gain from your relationships with your Power Partners? Referrals, ideas, information, resources, be prepared to first give these things. Send them business, share a great idea with them and let them know about information that can help their business. Once they see your efforts producing for them, they will strive to give back to you.

How Will Power Partners Impact Your Business?

Once you have established these important relationships you will start reaping the benefits of receiving referrals, ideas, information and clients from them. Because you will be giving to them as well, you are establishing relationships that will last for years. Relationship marketing with your Power Partners can definitely impact your bottom line.

Developing relationships with Power Partners will not only help you generate more and better business for you, it will also reward you with satisfying personal and professional relationships to continue to build upon.

The Business Mom's (Person's) Creed

Give Yourself Permission...

to that time out to take care of yourself for you are vital to your business and your family...
to not be perfect at EVERYTHING...
to do what you do best...
to delegate tasks that can and should be done by someone else...
to ask for help when you need it -in your business and in your family...
to take risk and to make courageous choices as it's the only way you can stretch and grow...
to use paper plates when necessary or to buy cupcakes for the school party instead of making them yourself...
to spend an afternoon just playing with your children...
to build a successful business that will leave a lasting legacy for your family...
to succeed far beyond your wildest dreams...

by Terilee Harrison

5 Things that Make a TEAM Member Successful

by Cory Newman, Director Los Angeles/South Bay

1. ATTENDANCE – It is crucial to be at every meeting (on time) to develop relationships with members and get the referrals you need. Out of sight is out of mind.

2. WELL PREPARED 1 MINUTE COMMERCIAL – You must communicate effectively to your networking partners what your needs are so you can get the referrals you need.

3. WELL PREPARED 10 MINUTE PRESENTATION – An awesome, well thought out and targeted presentation will educate your networking “sales team” to get the referrals you need to grow your business.

4 COACHING SESSIONS – You should do a “Coaching Session” with every member of your chapter. If you have, then do it again! Businesses change, families change, our focus changes. Successful referral partners know, understand and like one another. This can only be achieved by meeting outside of the structured meeting.

5. COMMITMENT – Each member must commit to the success of every member and in turn, the success of the chapter. This means showing up, getting involved, being specific about your referral needs and assisting members with their referral needs.

How to "Nail" Your One Minute Business Commercial

One of the benefits of being part of TEAM is the ability to deliver 50+ commercials to your Sales TEAM each year. You can instruct them exactly what type of business you want them to go look for!

Do you have difficulty fitting in everything you wish to say in 60 seconds? Here are some tips for you.

One of the places most entrepreneurs get side tracked on is their description of what they do. Do you have a “set the stage” sentence? This is a “brief overview” of all your business has to offer. The sentence I use for TEAM is:

I bring together entrepreneurs, small business owners, independent contractors of larger companies – those responsible for their own success – and I teach them how to become a “sales team” in their community so they can learn to help grow each others’ business through referrals.

You may wish to write out or sit at your computer and type out all the soundbytes you usually say to describe your business and then weed out from there what is most important. A template you should model is: I help __________________ with ________________________________.

Our goal is to greet your TEAM, give your “set the stage” sentence and tell the address of your office or the area/territory that you cover in about 20-25 seconds so you have the remainder of your 1 minute to share with the TEAM what you need for the week.

We are here to help each other, but we need to know HOW you truly need help this week:
Think BIG.
Be specific.
No anybodys, everybodys or somebodys.
Ask for a Power Partner – someone who shares your rolodex of clients but it’s not competition.
Name a Company you are dying to have an introduction to.

And when you “nail” your “set the stage” sentence, you allow yourself almost 30 seconds to tell us.

Written By:Terilee Harrison, Director for TEAM Referral Network