C.J. Hayden's Blog, page 2

Networking: More than Just Chatter

“I spend a lot of time networking, but I don’t see many results from it.” I hear this complaint frequently from independent professionals who are hoping that their networking activities will produce clients. It used to be that my clients and students would complain about unproductive networking in the form of attending mixers or scheduling coffee meetings. But now I often hear them voice the same dissatisfaction with social networking online.

At the same time, many experienced, successful professionals claim that networking is one of the primary ways they continually build their business. When you see successful people continue to network — online and off — you have to figure that they must get some value from it, or why keep doing it?

If I had to name one factor that I think makes the most difference between productive and unproductive networking, it would be the “chatter quotient.” People who are good at networking and produce results from it don’t just “chat” with their contacts. They have meaningful, relevant, focused exchanges. But people who network without much to show for it seem to spend a lot more time just chatting — in person, by phone, and online.

Chatting has its place in social interaction. Small talk about the weather, the traffic, or the local team’s last game can be a safe way to begin a conversation. Asking about your contacts’ family, hobby, or last vacation lets them know you remember them and shows your interest. But conversations that consist of nothing but this type of chat are unlikely to produce many clients.

Networking online follows the same pattern. If your social networking posts are limited to what movie you last saw, the new car you’re considering, and how you spent your Sunday afternoon, clients are not likely to result. Occasional posts about your personal life, just like small talk, have their place in letting people get to know you. But you’ve got to get beyond chatting to get business.

Productive networking consists of meaningful, relevant, focused conversations and online exchanges. Here are a few examples of what this sounds like.

Questions to ask others:

Tell me about your work/current goals/challenges you’re facing.
Who/what would be a good client/helpful resource for you?
What is exciting you in your business/career/life right now?
What can I do to help you?

Topics to discuss about your own work:

This is how I help my clients.
Here’s an example of someone I was able to assist.
This is who would be a good client for me.
Here’s how you will know when someone needs my help.

Topics to post about online:

Here’s a useful resource for you.
This is something I’m doing you might find valuable.
Here’s a success one of my clients had.
I need some assistance — can anyone help?

What topics like these allow you to do is demonstrate your expertise, showcase yourself as a competent professional, and let people know what you need so they can help. By asking others about their work and needs, you learn where you might fit in, and how to build an element of reciprocity with your networking contacts.

Before beginning any networking activity or conversation, pause for a moment and ask yourself what you are trying to accomplish. Would you like to meet potential clients at that mixer? If so, what do you need to ask to know if someone might be a client? Do you want to get referrals as a result of that coffee date? Then what does that person need to learn about you in order to refer appropriately?

When you’re networking online, what is the image you’re trying to project? If you want people to perceive you as competent, or savvy, or reliable, what could you post about that would reinforce those perceptions? What topics might allow potential clients or referral sources to learn more about how your work can benefit them or someone they know?

If you’re ready to make use of networking as the powerful tool it can be to meaningfully connect with others and build your business, it’s time to get beyond the chatter.

Attack of the Killer Copy

Killer copy frightens me. Some days I think if I see one more hype-laden email, web page, or direct mail piece promising to solve all my problems for only a small investment with a value of ten times its price, I’m going to run away screaming.

The truly scary ones arrive by email from complete strangers. There I am feeling safe and secure in my office, and all of a sudden someone I don’t even know is hitting me over the head with twenty-seven reasons to buy, buy, buy, now, now, now.

The scariest thing to me about these killer copy assaults is that I see independent professionals — consultants, business advisors, coaches, designers, freelancers, and others — adopting the over-the-top style of these messages to sell their professional services.

Have you ever chosen a financial advisor because she offered you a free set of steak knives? Or decided to work with a personal trainer because he promised to reveal the seven hidden secrets of how to lose weight with zero effort? Or hired a graphic designer who declared she would blow you away with the brilliance of her breakthrough work guaranteed to produce instant results?

Of course you haven’t, and neither has anyone else. Unrealistic promises, overblown claims, and bonus gifts that have nothing to do with what’s being sold are not what convince us to hire a professional service provider.

Copywriting come-ons like these may have their place. Marketing studies indicate this approach actually works to sell consumer products like nutritional supplements and kitchen gadgets. On the Internet, long, superlative-laden sales letters have (unfortunately) been proven quite successful in selling e-books and home-study courses. But convincing someone to hire you to do financial planning or personal training or graphic design is an entirely different affair.

There are three things the typical buyer wants to know before choosing professionals to do business with:

Do they know what they are doing?
Can I trust them to deliver what they have promised?
Will working with them be a pleasant experience?

Can those questions be adequately answered by a page (or five pages) of overly enthusiastic, breathlessly-paced killer copy?

Not likely.

In fact, if you want to convince people that you are knowledgeable, trustworthy, and easy to work with, you’re probably going to have to employ much more than just marketing copy. To build the know-like-and-trust factor that makes people hire a professional, it’s likely you’ll need to spend time getting to know your prospects personally, visibly establish your expertise through writing, speaking, or volunteering, or initiate more referral relationships to bring you prospects who are pre-sold.

Your marketing copy alone isn’t going to do the whole job, no matter how good it is.

But that said, you do still need marketing copy to use in sales letters, on your website, in your brochure, etc. So if it shouldn’t be full of hype and questionable promises, what should it contain? Remembering the three questions above that your prospects want the answers to, here’s what your copy should address:

What is the source of your expertise? Refer to your professional education, specialized training, credentials you hold, and prior work experience. List former clients or describe completed projects.
What specific results do people get from working with you? Describe the tangible benefits clients receive from your work. Give examples, present your portfolio, share case studies, or cite statistics.
What has been the experience of former clients? Use testimonials to have them express this in their own words. Ask clients to describe in detail what working with you was like, not just praise you.

If you focus on clearly and honestly addressing these three points, speaking in your own authentic voice, your copy will ultimately result in more closed sales than any amount of hyped-up verbiage ever could.

So don’t let the prevalence of killer copy out there scare you into thinking you should be using it to market your professional services. Instead, every time you see it, let it be a reminder to run in the opposite direction.

From Conversation to Client in Four Simple Steps

Our lives as professionals marketing our own services would be much easier if clients would simply read our sales copy and decide to hire us. But in the real world, it rarely works that way. Instead, we must have conversations with our prospects before a sale takes place -– sometimes several conversations.

These selling conversations can seem difficult or intimidating, but they don’t have to be. Here are four simple steps to turn conversations into paying clients.

Step 1. What do you need?

Keys to success: Being curious. Listening. Letting go of assumptions.

Begin every sales conversation by asking prospects to tell you about their needs, and listen carefully to what they tell you. Forget about what you think they should want, and pay attention to what they really do want.

Common mistakes: Starting with Step 2 instead, or beginning Step 2 too soon.

Even when prospects start the conversation by asking you to describe your services, take a moment to find out more about them first. When prospects tell you their problems and goals, they are handing you the secrets of how to sell to them successfully.

Step 2. Here’s what I have.

Keys to success: Matching what you have to what they need as specifically as possible.

Describe your services in direct response to the needs your prospects tell you about. If they’re in a hurry, tell them how you can work quickly. If they want accuracy, describe your attention to detail. Use the same words and phrases they used, and speak to the same issues they did.

Common mistakes: Sharing features and processes instead of benefits and results.

When prospects ask how you work, what they really want to know is what results you produce, not the steps you follow to get there. They want to hear what benefits your services have for them, not an inventory of all the bells and whistles included in your service package.

Step 3. Is there a match?

Keys to success: Collaborating with your prospect. Consulting or coaching instead of persuading.

You’ll make more sales when you and your prospects are on the same side, instead of being adversaries. Act as if they have already hired you, and help them solve their problem. Don’t just talk about how you could help; show them what it’s like to work with you.

Common mistakes: Ignoring your prospects’ concerns. Becoming defensive. Trying to coax prospects to buy.

Every concern a prospect has is legitimate. Acknowledge each one and explore together what resolution might be possible. Stay focused on their needs instead of your own. Trying to convince prospects you know more about what’s right for them than they do will backfire.

Step 4. Will you hire me?

Keys to success: Asking a yes or no question, then waiting for an answer.

Once you’ve completed the first three steps, it’s time to ask your prospects if they are ready to work with you. Be sure you’ve resolved their concerns from Step 3. Ask a direct question; don’t wait for them to offer. Then stop talking until they reply.

Common mistakes: Asking too soon. Not asking at all. Giving them reasons not to buy.

Don’t talk yourself out of a sale by bringing up their concerns again when you ask if they’re ready to get started. For example, “Would you like to work with me? I know you said the price was higher than you planned, but…” Just ask, and wait.

The good news is that once you arrive at Step 4, the answer is rarely “no.” If your services aren’t a good fit for your prospects’ needs, you’ll find that out by the time you get to Step 3. (And in that case, you won’t be asking for their business at all.) You’re more likely to hear a reason they wish to delay their decision. Help them determine a timeframe for making up their minds, and set a date to resume the conversation at Step 3.

If selling conversations are challenging for you, rehearse these steps with a friend, colleague, or coach playing the role of prospect. Once you become more comfortable with the process, you’ll find your prospects begin to relax also, and these conversations will become easier for both of you. And that will lead naturally to more sales.

If Your Marketing Works, Are You Prepared to Sell?

Most of the information and effort aimed at getting more clients focuses on promotion and attraction. You’ll find plenty of advice on how to tell the world about your business, make the phone ring, or get inquiries to arrive in your email inbox. But once you’ve been marketing yourself for a while, you discover that turning those prospects into paying clients can be pretty darned difficult. I find that many professionals are simply not prepared to sell to the prospects they attract.

When you’re selling a professional service, marketing doesn’t end at a sale; it ends in a sales conversation. People don’t buy accounting or coaching or graphic design or management consulting as the result of seeing your ad or getting your letter or visiting your website. They make their decision to hire you as the result of a conversation where you find out what they need, tell them what you have to offer, and the two of you see if there’s a match. That’s selling.

If you put all your effort into marketing, then aren’t prepared to sell when a prospective client gets in touch, you’ll waste good prospects and the work you did to get them to contact you. Here’s what you need to be ready to sell.

1. Get your basics together.

An essential element for successful selling is a clear, concise description of what you do, with an emphasis on the benefits of working with you and the results you can produce. This is not the same thing as simply citing your education and experience. Prospects don’t want to hear what you might be capable of; they want to know how you can solve the problem they have today.

Be prepared to discuss your rates. While you may need detailed information to quote a firm price, don’t stall prospects with a vague “we’ll need to talk about that” when they ask what you charge. Whether you work by the hour, day, month, or project, you can answer with a range of prices or examples of what you’ve charged in the past. Prospects don’t want to waste time in conversation if your services cost far more than their budget will allow, and neither do you.

2. Be prepared with qualifying questions.

Not everyone who contacts you will be a real prospect. You’ll need to ask questions to select in the prospects you want and select out the ones you don’t. What problem do they need to solve? How important is it to them? What made them contact you vs. a competitor? How much are they expecting to pay? How soon will they be making a decision? Their answers will reveal how appropriate they are to become your clients, and their readiness and willingness to hire you.

3. Determine what you want prospects to do.

What do you want your prospects to do when they first contact you? Schedule an appointment for an in-person presentation? Provide details for a quote or proposal? Review your offerings to choose options? Come in for an evaluation? Sign up for a sample session or introductory seminar? Whatever you determine this first step is, your entire response to their query should be focused on getting them to take it. Lead them through your sales process; don’t make them figure it out.

4. Be ready to follow up.

Most initial conversations end with a next step rather than a closed sale. Gain your prospects’ agreement to this step, and follow-up will be much easier. When they agree to schedule a presentation, evaluation, sample session, or introductory seminar, confirm the date on the spot and follow up with a reminder. When they agree to send details for a quote or make selections from your offerings, tell them how to do it and follow up with a form, list of questions, or link.

When it becomes clear your prospects aren’t ready to commit to a purchase, you’ll need to follow up as well. Capture all the details you’ll need in your first exchange with them, and ask their permission. For example, “May I call you next month?’ or “May I subscribe you to my newsletter/blog?” or “May I add you to my mailing list for future events or new offerings?” Be prepared to follow up repeatedly until they’re ready to act.

5. Have tools to support your strategy.

Each one of the steps above requires tools to perform it well. Everyone needs a clear description of services, fee schedule, and list of qualifying questions. Depending on your business, you may also need a presentation, sample session, or intro seminar outline, quote or request-for-proposal form, and/or online portfolio or catalog. For follow-up, you need some sort of contact management and calendaring system, and you may also need an email list management system.

Developing these steps and tools for effective selling will make it possible to convert more of your prospects into clients. An organized, well-considered sales process like this will also make you a more confident salesperson. So be prepared for your marketing to work by being ready to sell once it does.

The Art and Skill of Follow-Up

If I had to name one thing that causes more independent professionals to fail at marketing than any other, it would be lack of follow-up. Every day, I see entrepreneurs do a fabulous job at filling their marketing pipeline with prospective clients, and then fail miserably at following up with them.

Effective follow-up is both an art and a skill. The skill of follow-up consists of the mechanics — how to make contact, how often to do it, what to say when you follow up, and keeping track of it all.

The art of follow-up lies in the way you go about it — or don’t. You can avoid follow-up completely, do it only reluctantly, follow up in an insincere way… or you can follow up consistently, with respect for the buyer, and with an honest desire to build a relationship with your prospective clients.

Let’s examine first some essential follow-up skills:

Who to follow up with — Everyone who appears to match your target market description and with whom you have had some prior contact (whether you initiated the contact or they did). And, everyone who you have reason to believe could consistently refer people in your target market.
When to follow up — On a regular basis: more often for hot prospects, less often for warm or cool ones. You might contact a hot prospect weekly, a warm prospect every 2-4 weeks, and a cool prospect every 2-3 months. Don’t let hot and warm prospects languish! Always follow up your initial contact promptly.
How to make contact — Depends on the nature of your prior contact and the path you typically follow to a sale. Might be by phone, email, postal mail, social media, text message, or all of the above. Some communications may be generic (e.g., your ezine or a public social media post), but at least some contacts should be personally directed to each prospect.
What to say — With a hot or warm prospect, it can be perfectly okay to simply call or email, and ask if they are ready to act on your offer. When following up multiple times over a longer period, add value to your contacts by periodically providing helpful information or advice instead of just pitching business.
When to stop following up — Consider the value of the eventual sale. If your prospect is likely to spend only a small amount, only a few personal contacts may be appropriate. But when the possible sale is large, keep following up indefinitely.
Tracking your follow-up — Capture every prospect and potential referral source in some type of automated or manual contact management system, where you can record when and how you make each contact. That’s the only way you’ll know when it’s time to follow up again.

Working on developing your follow-up skills and tools will be time well spent, but it’s not the whole picture. You also need to pay attention to the art of follow-up in order for it to succeed.

Here’s how to make your follow-up more artful:

Find the right mindset — Before you pick up the phone or sit at the keyboard, get your head into a positive space. Gritting your teeth, envisioning failure, or stressing about your need to make a sale are not frames of mind that lead to success. Instead, think about how you can best be of service to the person you are about to contact.
Notice your attitude — When you notice you are avoiding or delaying follow-up activities, use this as a clue that you haven’t yet found the right mindset. Don’t make the mistake of just thinking you are “too busy” to get it done. Procrastination is a signal that fear, anxiety, or resentment is at work.
Focus on your prospects — The first goal of following up is to build a relationship with your prospective client. Closing the sale is a secondary goal that will follow much more easily once you’ve achieve the first one. Keep asking yourself not what you need, but what the prospect needs.
Show respect but not awe — Treat your prospects as peers, not as either lords or peons. Respect their time and concerns, and they will do the same for you.
Demonstrate consistency — Consistent, timely follow-up is professional, not pushy. Your prospects are expecting to hear from you; don’t disappoint them. Your performance as a potential service provider may be judged by how well you perform your follow-up… or don’t.

Pay attention to both the art and the skill of follow-up, and you’ll master this essential marketing capacity. And that will bring you the rewards due to such a multi-talented entrepreneur.

Not Enough Clients? What’s In Your Way?

What’s stopping you from getting all the clients you want? Do you know? The answer to this one question may be the key to making your marketing more successful.

It would seem from the questions people ask me about marketing that everyone is trying to fix just one type of problem — how to fill their marketing pipeline with more new prospects.

“What else should I be doing to attract potential clients?” they ask. “Where else can I go to find people who might hire me?” or “How can I be more visible online so people will contact me?” or “Should I be finding prospects by cold calling, using Twitter, running ads, giving talks, writing articles…?”

All their questions –- and it seems all their efforts –- are aimed at finding ways to make contact with new people who might become clients. And every time they identify another activity that might help their pipeline get fuller, they want to add it to their ever-growing to-do list.

But is this really what’s stopping them from getting more clients? Is this what’s stopping you? If you are already marketing yourself in four or five different ways, will increasing that to seven or eight different ways produce better results? Or alternatively, if you drop everything you’re doing now, and start using four or five brand new marketing approaches, will that do the trick?

In my experience, it probably won’t. Continuing to try new and different approaches to fill your marketing pipeline will more often result in overwhelm, wasted effort, and failure than it will in new clients.

Instead of trying to fix your marketing by just seeking out more ways to meet people or collect names, email addresses and phone numbers, stop for a moment. What is the problem you’re trying to solve? In other words, what’s really getting in the way of your marketing success?

Listed below are the five most common marketing problems, and questions to ask yourself to see which ones might be yours. They’re presented in order of priority -– problem #1 needs to be fixed before tackling problem #2, and so on. Consider whether making changes in one of these areas might be exactly the fix your marketing needs.

1. HANDS-ON TIME: Are you spending enough time proactively marketing? Not just getting ready to market, or thinking about how to market, or feeling resistant to marketing, but actually taking steps that will lead directly to landing clients?

If you’re not spending enough time marketing your business, fixing other problem areas won’t help much. Start keeping track of how much time you spend actively marketing each week. Most independent professionals find they need to spend from 4-16 hours weekly -– less when you’re busy with paying work; more when you’re not.

2. TARGET MARKET: Do you have a clearly defined target market which you can describe in five words or less? Does this market already know they need your services? And are you spending most of your time marketing to exactly that group?

Once you feel confident you are dedicating enough time to marketing, the next hurdle is making sure you’re marketing to the right people. Focusing your efforts on a specific target group with a defined need for your services will make everything you do more effective.

3. MARKETING MESSAGE: Do your descriptions of your services name the benefits you offer and results you produce for your target market? And are these benefits and results that this market is looking for? Do you deliver your message every time you make contact?

Letting prospective clients know exactly how you can help them will make the most of the time you spend marketing to a defined audience. Your message needs to be clear, focused on the client’s needs, and typically delivered multiple times to the same prospects.

4. FOLLOW-THROUGH: Do you have a system for following up with every prospect until they say either yes or no? Are you able to complete all the steps for each marketing approach you are using to make it pay off?

Without follow-through, much of your marketing effort is wasted. The typical prospect will need to hear from you (or about you) 5-7 times before deciding to work with you. And most marketing approaches need a follow-through element to succeed. For example, attending networking events requires post-event follow-up with the people you meet. Online networking requires regular participation, not just posting when you have something to promote.

5. MARKETING APPROACH: Are the strategies and tactics you are using to reach your market the most effective approaches available to you? Are they appropriate for your target market, and a good match for your skills and personality?

Only after addressing the first four problem areas above should you think about changing how you market. Because in truth, your tactics may not need to change. Whether you’ve been marketing yourself with cold calling, public speaking, or social networking, once you are spending enough time, marketing to the right people, delivering a targeted message, and following through on all your efforts, your results will improve dramatically.

So finding new or different marketing approaches –- the place where most people start to fix their marketing -– is actually the last area to consider. The most effective approaches are those that include personal contact with your prospects, increase your credibility, and lend themselves to building relationships over time. And, approaches that match your skills and personality are more likely to succeed because you will actually use them instead of resisting them.

Once you know what might be stopping your marketing from being successful, make a commitment to fix what’s really wrong. Resist the temptation (and hype) to keep trying new “silver bullet” marketing tactics or overloading yourself with endless possibilities. Finding the right answers will be much easier when you’re trying to solve the right problem.

In Marketing, the Internet Is Not the Universe

“I have a great website and publish a regular blog,” my client complained, “but I’m not getting any clients from it. The only new client I got this month was a referral from a friend. What am I doing wrong?”

It’s a common complaint of self-employed professionals that they spend a great deal of time and money on Internet marketing and social media with minimal results. You build an attractive website, launch an ezine or blog, set up a couple of social media profiles, and maybe try a Google AdWords campaign. But for all that effort, not much seems to come of it. What’s going on?

There’s so much hype about online marketing that it’s easy to lose sight of some of the basic marketing principles for professional services. To begin with, much of the marketing online is nothing more than advertising, and advertising is, overall, the least effective marketing strategy an independent professional can use.

A website that says simply, “hire me,” with no educational or interactive content included, is just a large, expensive ad. Unless you put even more effort into attracting people to visit, this ad doesn’t even have much circulation.

Other forms of online marketing that fall into the category of advertising are any post or broadcast that contains little helpful content for the reader (these could be ezines, blog posts, social media posts, or broadcast emails), online directory listings, and of course, banner or text ads that you pay for.

If advertising is at the bottom of the list as far as effectiveness, what’s at the top? For self-employed professionals, the three most effective marketing strategies, in this order, are:

Direct personal contact with prospects
Networking and referral building
Public speaking

Of course all three of these strategies can be employed online. You can send personal emails to prospects and referral sources, make networking contacts via email or social media, and speak via webinars and teleclasses advertised online. But why limit those strategies to the Internet?

The reality is that for most independent professionals, direct contact with prospects is more effective in person and on the phone than it is by email. Networking and referral building, even though it may begin with an online contact, gets its power from the personal relationships you build by interacting with people one-on-one. And virtual public speaking is great for reaching people outside your area, but when most of your clients are local, speaking to them in person has much more impact.

Notice that my client who complained online marketing wasn’t working for him stepped right over what was working. A friend had referred him business. Further questioning uncovered that he had lunch with that friend shortly before the referral. So if that produced a client, and his website hasn’t, why not schedule more lunches instead of doing more online?

The online world can be a useful setting for marketing, but it’s not the whole universe. As recently as fifteen years ago, millions of professionals were successfully marketing their services without using the web at all. They called people on the phone, sent letters, met with prospects in person, had coffee with referral sources, and spoke to live audiences. If you think about it, it’s obvious that none of those techniques have stopped working just because the Internet now exists.

So the one remaining question is whether online marketing is somehow more effective than traditional forms of marketing. The answer lies in recognizing that the Internet is not a marketing strategy; it’s a marketing medium, like the telephone, for example, or postal mail. Its power depends on how you use it, not on whether you use it or not.

The same basic principles of professional services marketing still apply, regardless of what medium you use. The most effective strategies are those that include personal contact and build trust and credibility, like the three I mentioned above. If you can do those things better or more efficiently online than on the phone or in person, by all means use the web for marketing. But before choosing to rely on the Internet as your sole source of clients, think twice.

Marketing your business exclusively online often serves as a handy excuse for not talking to people. It’s all too easy to hide out behind a website, email, and social media, and never experience rejection or step outside your comfort zone. Marketing done the old-fashioned way — calling prospects on the phone, attending networking events, asking people to lunch == may be much more confronting. Those live, personal conversations, though, may be just what your marketing needs to take off.

So if you’ve been feeling stuck about getting clients, try getting off the web for a while. Instead, get on the phone, and get out of your office. There’s a whole world out there of people eager to talk to a live person. You may just find that marketing in person turns out to be not only more effective, but more enjoyable, than marketing online.

Saying Thanks Is Good Marketing

Never underestimate the power of a thank you. Recently, I thanked someone for helping me solve a technical problem. She replied to my note of thanks by inviting me as a guest speaker for a group she chairs. I didn’t even know she chaired this group and I had never considered speaking there. This speaking opportunity would never have occurred if I hadn’t taken a moment to say thanks. It started me thinking about how often saying thank you turns into paying business.

Here in the U.S., it’s Thanksgiving week, when we often pause to reflect on our gratitude. So it’s an excellent time to consider seven ways of saying thank you that can bring you more clients.

1. Thank those who refer clients. When you thank people for sending referrals your way, several positive results ensue. Being thanked encourages them to send more referrals, as they know you appreciate them. Expressing thanks gives you a reason to get in touch with them, find out what they are up to, and let them know what you’re doing these days, which is always good for business. It also shows them that you are a professional who follows up and follows through.

2. Thank those who refer prospects who never become clients. Referrals that don’t result in business may seem as if they don’t warrant thanks. But it’s essential that you thank people every time they refer. When a referral doesn’t turn into a client because he or she chooses someone else, the two of you aren’t a good fit, or you’re too busy, the prospect frequently tells the referrer that “it didn’t work out.” As a result, that referrer is unlikely to send you any more business.

Instead, say thanks for every prospect, no matter what happens. It you end up not working with that person, tell the referrer why. If the referral wasn’t on target for your business, say more about who would be a good client for you. If you’re too busy, explain that it’s only temporary and future referrals would be welcome. And if the prospect chose someone else, express thanks for the great opportunity and that you’d appreciate more just like it.

3. Thank your clients. Even when you are interacting with clients daily, taking a moment to thank them for their continued trust will increase their respect for you, boost their loyalty, and encourage them to refer others. Thanking past clients for the work you did together is often a much more powerful and gracious way to stimulate repeat business or new referrals than asking for those outcomes directly.

4. Thank the leaders of groups you belong to. Association officers, program and membership chairs, and special interest group leaders deserve your thanks for the hard work they do. And, these high-profile individuals are often asked to refer someone with a particular specialty for an interview, speaking engagement, or business opportunity. Expressing your thanks gives you a chance to get better acquainted with them so they’ll think of you first.

5. Thank people who mention you in articles, blogs, and social networks. It has happened to me more times than I can count that I have thanked people for mentioning me or my work in an article, blog post, or on Facebook, Google+, or Twitter, and they have replied by asking me to speak for their group, be interviewed for an article, or contribute to their blog. Saying thank you increases the affinity between you and those you thank. It makes them want to find other ways to engage with you.

6. Thank those who provide good service. A lovely way to thank people who serve you and your business is to offer a testimonial they can use in their own marketing. Making your thanks public can result in higher name recognition for you and your business, inbound links to your website or social networking profile, and sometimes even gains you priority service because the recipient of your testimonial wants to keep your goodwill.

7. Thank prominent people whose work inspires you. Those who generously give of their time to help and inspire others are seldom thanked enough for their efforts. When you go out of your way to give thanks, you’ll stand out and be remembered, adding influential people like these to your personal network.

So many ways to give thanks may suggest that you could spend your whole day thanking people, and that’s not a bad thought. Saying thank you isn’t just a nice thing to do, it’s a practical approach to strengthening relationships, encouraging referrals, staying in touch with your network, and reminding people what your business is about. With thank yous leading to business in so many ways, perhaps they should become a significant part of your marketing strategy.

And by the way, thank you for reading this article, subscribing to my newsletter or blog, buying my book, and sending referrals my way! I appreciate your trust and look forward to serving you for another year.

44 Ways to Follow Up with Your Prospects

You know you need to follow up with prospective clients, but you often find yourself putting it off. “I already called them three times,” you think. Or, “They never answer the phone anyway.” Or, “I hate hearing no.” Or, “I don’t want to bug them.” Or, “What do I say that’s new?”

It’s only natural to resist placing phone calls to prospects who didn’t return your last call, never seem to be there, may not be ready to buy, or might say they’re not interested. But here’s the good news. Calling prospects on the phone and asking them to hire you is not the only way to follow up!

Yes, you can call your prospects on the phone, but you can also email them, send a letter or note by postal mail, fax them, overnight them a package, send a text message, or instant message them online. And those are just the different communication channels you might use. The type of messages you deliver can be much more varied than simply asking prospects to do business.

Consider the following 44 ways that you can follow up with your prospects via any communication channel you choose, in order to build a relationship, remind them of what you do, and present yourself as a valuable resource and expert in your field. Many of these follow-up approaches can also be used with potential referral sources and networking contacts.

Ask if they have new questions about what you last discussed.
Tell them about a book, article, video, or website that might help with what you talked about.
Send a personal note with a copy of your brochure or fact sheet.
Point them to a vendor who can solve one of their issues you don’t address.
Prepare a personalized marketing kit for them focused on their unique issues.
Tell them about an upcoming event that addresses an issue you think they have.
Invite them to an event where you are a speaker, organizer, or sponsor.
Attend an event where you are likely to run into them.
Send a nice-to-meet-you or good-to-see-you note with your business card.
Call or email to ask what’s new in their world.
Leave a brief benefits-oriented commercial on their voice mail.
Ask them to meet you for coffee, a drink, or lunch.
Invite them for golf, tennis, a bike ride, or a walk in the park.
Invite them to a concert, play, reading, or art opening.
Offer to stop by their place of business.
Send a letter summarizing what you last talked about and suggesting next steps.
Ask for a meeting so you can prepare a detailed proposal for them.
Send them an article (or link to one) that you have written.
Send them an article someone else has written about a topic relevant to them.
Send them a present — chocolate, cookies, flowers, a plant, a bottle of wine, or a book.
Send them a birthday card.
Send them a joke or cartoon about their industry or your field.
Send a postcard reminding them what you do.
Tell them about a special offer available if they act now.
Offer them a free sample of what you can do for them.
Send an announcement about a new development in your business.
Send a copy of your newsletter or post from your blog and invite them to subscribe.
Send a link to a print, audio, or video interview with you about your work.
Send a link to a video where you share helpful tips or a client success story.
Refer them a prospect for their own business.
Watch for their posts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Google + and comment on them.
Post something useful to an online community where they are members.
Post a comment on their blog.
Invite them to visit your updated website.
Make them a free offer that will subscribe them to an autoresponder series.
Give a free teleclass or webinar and invite all your prospects.
Invite them to an open house, reception, demonstration, or free workshop.
Host a networking breakfast or brown bag lunch and invite several prospects.
Offer to give a talk or brown bag lunch for their organization at no charge.
Write a white paper or case study and send it to all your prospects.
Ask the person who introduced you to contact them and mention you again.
Introduce them to a colleague of yours they might like to know.
Volunteer for an organization where they also serve.
And of course, you can always ask if they are ready to start working with you.

Following up consistently is one of the most productive marketing activities there is, but it won’t work if you don’t do it. The next time you realize you are avoiding follow-up, pull out your prospect list and choose an approach at random from the suggestions above. It matters much less how you follow up than it does that you follow up.

Getting Smart About Getting Referrals

Savvy independent professionals know that referrals are the best way to land new clients. But getting those referrals can sometimes be a challenge. When referrals don’t come easily — or the ones you get seem to be off track — it’s tempting to forget about building referrals and spend time on cold calling, boilerplate letters and emails, or advertising, even though you know those approaches aren’t as effective in the long run.

Instead, try getting smarter about getting referrals. Here are the five most common sources of referrals for independent professionals, and keys to making them work for you.

1. Current or former clients.

Keys to more referrals: Clients must be satisfied with your value, find you easy to work with, and not mind “sharing” you.

Common mistakes: Focusing on clients as your main source of referrals.

Of course no one will refer you if you don’t do quality work. But they also won’t refer if they find you difficult to work with or think they could do better elsewhere. Clients often stay even when dissatisfied, just out of inertia. If you’ve ever been asked for a referral yourself and replied, “Well, I work with so-and-so, but I wouldn’t really recommend him,” you understand this phenomenon.

Before you start asking your clients for referrals, ask them instead, “What else can I do to improve my service to you?” Take action on their requests, and then ask if they might know someone to refer to you. Another good moment to ask for referrals is any time a client thanks you for a job well done.

Recognize that you probably have fewer people in your pool of current and former clients than in any of the other four groups listed below. So don’t focus on getting referrals from clients while ignoring other possibilities. Keep in mind, too, that sometimes existing clients don’t want to “share” you. They may be afraid you won’t be as available for their projects. Or if your work is of a personal nature, they may not want people who they know to work with you also.

2. Fellow members of networking groups.

Keys to more referrals: They must get to know, like, and trust you.

Common mistakes: Expecting referrals just by joining a group.

A member of a networking group I was managing once complained to me, “I was told I would get referrals from this group. Well, where are they?” When I asked if she had been coming to our events to meet other members, she replied, “No, I only joined for the referrals.” She truly believed that just by joining this group, somehow referrals would mysteriously appear.

Networking groups can be an extremely productive source of referrals, but you need to not only meet other members, you must get to know them. People rarely refer based on a business card or 30-second introduction. Instead, use groups as a springboard to initiate coffee, lunch, or phone conversations to get better acquainted with group members and begin building a relationship.

3. Colleagues in your field.

Keys to more referrals: Their clients or specialties must be different from yours or they must be overbooked.

Common mistakes: Spending all your networking time with people who do exactly what you do.

The most common type of networking is participating in your own professional association. This is valuable for building credibility and keeping up in your field, but isn’t always the best avenue to increase referrals. Focus your referral-building activities within your profession on identifying colleagues whose target market or specialty is different than your own. Or, seek out those people who always seem to have more business than they can handle, and could send some your way.

4. Others who share your target market.

Keys to more referrals: They must know what you do, who you do it

for, and when someone might need you.

Common mistakes: Networking just to meet people without telling them

enough to refer to you.

Seeking out people in different professions than your own who happen to share your target market is an often neglected — but very fruitful — source of referrals. But because these folks aren’t in your field, it’s crucial to inform them about who would be a good client for you and the benefits of your work. Set up a meeting or call to educate them about what you do, and be sure to also ask how you can assist with referrals or resources they need.

5. Friends, family, and personal acquaintances.

Keys to more referrals: They must know enough about your business.

Common mistakes: Not talking about your business to people in your

personal life.

It’s a frequent failing of new entrepreneurs to avoid telling those in their personal life about their business. It seems they are waiting to become successful before letting people know what they’re doing now. But holding back in this way can actually prevent you from succeeding.

Friends, family, neighbors, and acquaintances from school, church, sports, or hobbies can be excellent referral sources because they already know and trust you. Take the time to describe your business, and let them know what type of clients you’re seeking. You may be pleasantly surprised by their willingness to help.

So if you’re ready to get more referrals, get smart about it. Expand your thinking about who might refer to you, and put in place some of these essential keys to make referrals more likely. It’s said that good things come to those who wait, but better things often come to those who go out looking for them.