By Parag Prasad, on August 27th, 2010 So it’s clear that asking for referrals makes sense for any business, but are you maximising the potential of referrals? In most cases the answer is a definite no, so here’s my outline for how to change that… How to improve results from your referral strategy
I asked the bespoke tailor I was coaching whether she was getting referrals – the answer was a resounding yes. When I asked her how many, she was unable to tell or show me. So firstly we had to work that out, because we can’t determine the success of any marketing campaign unless we test and measure the results! So she calculated that she had 25 major clients in 2010, but only 3 referrals, because the requesting of referrals wasn’t systemised, it just happened sporadically. She actually estimated that given many of her customers were involved in weddings or from high paying professions where tailored suits were commonplace, she could have had 60 referrals from those customers. In other words 20 times more leads than she’d received!! However referrals don’t just come from customers. She’d not considered : · Her family · Her husband’s family · Her customers contacts (who fell into her target market ) · Her alterations clients · Her previous year clients · Her social media contacts · Her suppliers e.g. webdesigner, accountant, lawyer, business coach (who has a team of more than 50 in SE England, all needing a fancy suit) etc. etc. etc. Have you? By Parag Prasad, on August 20th, 2010 Many business owners protest that they never have the number of leads they need. There are many reasons why they’ve not been able to improve this: · High costs involved e.g. Advertising · Time and effort required e.g. Trade Shows, Networking, Strategic Partnerships · Fear e.g. Telemarketing (does anyone still do that?) · Lack of knowledge e.g. Social Media · Blaming others (competitors, economy etc.) and therefore doing nothing to improve their situation! Referrals are a well known strategy for attracting new leads, but in most cases it’s a hugely underutilised technique that’s delivering only a fraction of the results it could. Most ask for a referral at the end of the job if they feel like it – they do it sometimes, but not always. There is so much more that a systemised referral strategy can achieve. So much more you can do…
So much more fun you can have…
So many more people you can involve…
and so many more leads you can attract. My future posts over the next few weeks are going to explore how to achieve that. But for now, if you’re not regularly asking for referrals, you know what to do. By Parag Prasad, on August 13th, 2010 I’m guilty of jumping completely off topic today to express my views about health. Regrettably, so many business people choose to neglect their health to such a degree that it becomes inevitable that they will become seriously ill, which adversely affects their business and their relationships. Three members of my family have been seriously ill recently and for at least two of them, their bad health was largely avoidable. Business is like sport – you have to be at your best to perform. Just imagine if you were playing for your country at the last football world cup, but turned up lacking sleep or proper nutrition. You wouldn’t even be allowed to take the field. Your physical and mental condition will affect your ability to perform in business and in all aspects of your life. Screamingly obvious I hear you cry. So just a personal plea from me – please make sure you get enough sleep, eat properly and reduce those regular and avoidable journeys across London in rush hour traffic if at all possible. By Parag Prasad, on August 6th, 2010 Several of you have commented on how developing partnerships can be a real challenge, so I’m sharing a case study to explain how I’ve successfully grown an alliance. As I said in my previous post on this topic, approaching an alliance as a marriage really helped! There were 3 key elements I described – trust, liking and time. My partner is an SEO company whose goal is to improve the visibility of its clients’ websites by improving their Google rankings. They are very successful at helping businesses achieve this goal and their clients see increased numbers of leads via the web. However their clients were not converting those leads (incoming call/emails etc.) into customers as effectively as they would have wanted – which is where I could help. How did we built a successful alliance? There where 10 key steps: 1) Liking – my partner had already known me well for the past 2 years. There was mutual liking and respect already in place. 2) Understanding each other’s services – my partner knew exactly what I did and genuinely understood the value of the business coaching I do – because they had been coached themselves. This understanding was crucial to building trust. On the flip side, several of my contacts used their SEO services, so I understood the value of their service too. 3) The relationship evolved naturally over time – My partner approached me one day out of the blue to ask if I could help his clients with their sales conversion rate issues. He already understood how I could do that, based on his experiences over the past 2 years. At no time was our working together forced or contrived. 4) I adapted my personal working style – I recognised the differences in behavioural style between my partner and I. So I adapted my approach accordingly. This is a whole different topic, but in a nutshell, my style of working is open with fast decision making based on key facts only. Theirs was more cautious requiring more analysis of options, time to make decisions and discussion of issues. If I hadn’t recognised those behaviour traits, the relationship might not have worked. 5) We shared similar values – a passion for helping our clients, openness and honesty. 6) We offered complimentary and non-competing services – we understood that we each offered services that the other couldn’t provide and that they were highly complementary to each other. 7) We shared a mindset – We both shared the mindset of pro actively connecting our clients to high quality service providers 8) We made referring easy – Instead of just referring clients to each other verbally, we decided to run educational business seminars together. The referral was as simple as “would you like to come to a free seminar and see if these guys can be of value to your business?” 9) Living the Law of Reciprocation – The seminars represented a win:win opportunity for partners and attendees, but someone had to take the first step, so being the one with the experience of seminars I took that 1st step. I coached my partners on how to run and market seminars and offered them resources from my team to help market and manage the events. 10) No Commission – at no time have commissions for cross referrals ever been paid, or even discussed. If you haven’t already subscribed to the blog you can do so here. There’s also a Facebook group you can join with other business owners in your area. Perhaps there’s an opportunity for a strategic alliance in there somewhere? Next week’s blog is about something totally different – fitness. By Parag Prasad, on July 30th, 2010 My Sales & Marketing Techniques for SMEs blog provides resources and advice to business owners and entrepreneurs. However, I’m not the only source of practical, valuable information on the internet of course and I’m happy to direct you to other helpful websites. There are over 1 trillion websites on the internet (that’s one with 12 zeros on the end!). If you spent your entire life looking through them you still wouldn’t scratch the surface. Even if you concentrated only on the good quality, relevant ones you would still miss huge amounts of useful content. That’s why recommendations are valuable – to help filter out the noise and find the information that will give you a competitive advantage. After all, constant learning and self-improvement are the keys to being a successful business person. So click here or on the resources tab above to visit the new Free Resources Library for SMEs. This huge list of the best resources for SMEs is a continually evolving project, so be sure to check back regularly. If you have a recommendation for the list or if you’ve created a valuable resource (a blog, white paper, e-book etc.) that could be of value to a business owner, please leave a comment below or send me an email at blog@paragprasad.com and I will see if I can include your link. There’s more about strategic alliances next week. By Parag Prasad, on July 23rd, 2010 Why is it that some alliances work like a dream whereas others never even get off the ground? Well, having been recently married I love using the analogy of relationships and marriage to explain strategic alliances. If you want a relationship to work, there has to be a period where trust and attraction are built between the 2 people involved. This ‘dating period’ takes time and takes conscious effort. Emotions are involved and everything you do either builds trust, reduces it or even destroys it. Many relationships don’t work because the people aren’t compatible or the trust doesn’t exist. Time is important. If one person suddenly suggests marriage after 2 dates, the other will probably get scared and run a mile. It’s no different in business. What we’re talking about is building a relationship that will ultimately give both parties the biggest possible win. So what are the key elements to make it happen. Well just like a good marriage: 1) Trust – very often I meet business people and after a few minutes of positive conversation they suggest that we may be able to work together or even refer business to each other. Whilst they may genuinely believe that to be the case, it’s like asking someone to marry you on the 1st date. In your eagerness and excitement, you’ve jumped in far too soon. Trust and relationship have not been established. Credibility is crucial too. Both parties need to understand each other’s businesses fully – the service levels, vision, values, culture, customer testimonials and more. After all if there isn’t a fit, then it will never work. So you’ve got to do your homework on each other during the courting period, before you can announce that you’re in a relationship. 2) Liking – very simple. The partner could represent the best opportunity you’ve ever had, but if the 2 people dont like each other for whatever reason there is no way a partnership will work. 3) Time – Strategic alliances are not quick result strategies. Mine have taken months and sometimes years to develop. That’s because time is required to build that trust and credibility mentioned above. Too often business owners don’t invest their time to do this and then wonder why the partner has gone cold or isn’t co-operating. You must be prepared and committed to invest that time for a long term gain. Do you have any tips, opinions or stories to share about strategic alliances? Leave a comment below or get in touch via LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter. Next week I’ve got another free give-away for you – The Proven Sales & Marketing Techniques for SMEs Resource Library! By Parag Prasad, on July 16th, 2010 When I started my series of weekly blogs 3 months ago, I promised to share with you a variety of proven and practical techniques to help you improve the sales, marketing and financial performance of your business. How many of you are successfully using strategic alliances or strategic partnerships to improve your lead generation and conversion rate? This is without doubt one of the most powerful client acquisition strategies there are and one that I’ve used with great success in my business over the last 2 years. I am a huge advocate of this strategy. Some of you may be wondering exactly what I mean by a strategic alliance? My definition would be: 2 similar but non-competing businesses working together with the same customers from the same marketplace. A simple example would be a plumber and an electrician who work together on the same house. Whenever one gets a job or project, they simply bring the other partner in to work alongside them. Sounds simple – yes! Absolutely! So why do so many businesses fail to make it work for them? Next week I will be explaining the key things you need to do to make sure strategic partnerships work for you – but I’ll let you in on a secret now. A successful partnership requires high levels of trust between the partners and that trust must be earned and built over time, otherwise the relationship fails. I welcome your feedback and opinions in the comments section below. And don’t forget if you want the blog delivered direct to your inbox each week you can subscribe here. By Parag Prasad, on July 9th, 2010 So now that you’ve been bombarded by education, strategies and practical advice over the last 8 weeks on USPs and Guarantees its time to have a night off! We’re running a Charity Board Game night on Thursday 15th July, 6pm at the Irish Club in Blackfriars Central London. What’s that you may ask?… A unique chance to combine fun, business education, competition, networking and of course to support our chosen charity Children In Crisis. The Leverage Board Game teaches you how to apply our 5 Ways Marketing System & the proven strategies within that to your Business. Human beings learn best when they are participating in a game or simulation of a real life situation (think flight simulators for pilots) rather than just reading or hearing words. All we ask is a £25 charity donation which will cover the cost of some refreshments as well. More details about the night and the charity are available on my Facebook Page and also see www.childrenincrisis.org For those of you still digesting and applying my USP blog posts, please remember that the USP e-book is available to download free of charge here. Would you like to join the fun next week?
Children in Crisis OUR MISSION Children in Crisis exists to improve the lives of children around the world affected by conflict, deprivation, poverty or other hidden crises, by working in partnership with local communities to provide education, healthcare and protection. By Parag Prasad, on July 2nd, 2010 This week I have a gift for you. I’ve been working on The USP Marketing Master Class e-book for the past few weeks and am very pleased with the result. This 20 page guide turns all the ideas about USPs and guarantees I’ve been discussing into a step-by-step system and adds some quotes and examples. I’m giving this away completely free to my blog readers. 
All I ask you to do in return is join my Facebook page here. Here’s the first few pages to give you a taste of what’s included…
“The best approach to take in our overcommunicated society is the oversimplified message. You have to sharpen your message to cut into the mind.” Al Ries and Jack Trout, Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
Contents 1 – What’s the big idea?
2 – The 6 Step process to defining powerful USPs
Step 1 – Thinking time
Step 2 – Involve others
Step 3 – Put yourself in your customers shoes
Step 4 – Brainstorming
Step 5 – Be specific!
Step 6 – Shout about it
3 – Inspiring examples of powerful USPs
4 – Guarantees are the ultimate USPs
5 – Do you suffer from fear of guarantees? What’s the big idea? As a business owner or entrepreneur I’m sure you’ve come across the concept of USPs – Unique Selling Points before. They are the attributes of your service or product that differentiate you from your competitors. You might see ‘USP’ as a marketing buzzword that doesn’t mean a whole lot. Because you know what it means you think you must already have it covered in your marketing strategy. But there’s a difference between knowing the definition of a word and truly understanding the big idea behind a word. There’s yet another difference in actually applying that to your business… …Truly unique USPs aren’t just for big brands or companies selling innovative new solutions – they’re essential to every single marketing campaign. In this e-book I’m going to explain this concept in more detail and give you a step-by-step system to come up with your own USPs that will massively improve your conversion rate To download a free copy visit my Facebook page and click on the  button. By Parag Prasad, on June 25th, 2010 Last week I gave my opinions on why offering guarantees is so important. This week my question is why would a business owner consciously choose not to offer guarantees, a strategy proven to increase sales conversion rate? Many believe they can’t guarantee anything. For example a doctor couldn’t guarantee to make someone feel well, because there’s too many factors outside of their control. Some might say a guarantee “isn’t appropriate” for their industry, or they might worry that offering guarantees could lead to financial loss if they had to honour them. Essentially these beliefs are driven by fear – fear of financial loss and fear of not being able to deliver the guarantee. These fears can paralyse and restrict your thinking process, meaning you don’t explore other ways around the challenge. For example the doctor may not be able to guarantee you good health, but he/she might be able to offer confidentiality, experience or even a nice cup of tea on arrival. Each fear can be mitigated through thought and action. If there’s a fear of loss, then what can you do to reduce that? Can you control the rules of the guarantee? Do you have clearly written terms and conditions? – Of course! Each question leads to a potential mitigating action. Could you apply this same rationale in your business and introduce a new guarantee that you felt comfortable offering? Very often at my Seminars I’ve had business owners in a certain industry exclaim “we couldn’t do that!” only for another person from the same industry to tell us that’s exactly what they did! Sometimes all it takes is a different way of thinking about the problem and you come to a totally different conclusion. Next week I’m going to be giving away my first free ebook – it’s a detailed marketing system for small and medium businesses built around my ideas about guarantees and USPs. Also if you use linkedIn, Facebook or Twitter why not connect with me via the icons on the right? | |
