referral marketing plan | Dr. Ivan Misner®

24Jun2021

Three Questions About Your Networking Planstring(42) "Three Questions About Your Networking Plan"

June 24, 2021

3 Keys to Networking, Make a Plan, referral marketing plan Networking Prep, Online Networking 1

As a time-strapped businessperson, how do you figure out which networking events to attend and which you should let go by the wayside? A networking plan can help you decide which events are worth your time. Here are three questions for you to answer to create a networking plan that will work for you.

Who are my best prospects?

Many business professionals cannot clearly define their best prospects. This is why they find themselves running all over town trying to attend every networking event that comes down the pike. To determine who your “ideal prospects” are, ask these questions about your past clients:

Who are your very best customers?
What industries are they in?
How long have they been in business?
Are your customers businesses or consumers?

For example, the best prospect for an owner of a vacuum center is NOT anyone who needs a vacuum cleaner. Instead, their ideal customer is clearly defined with specifics:

A woman
- with children, pets, or both
Lives in a very nice neighborhood
Drives a Lexus, BMW, Mercedes-Benz, or Infiniti
Concerned with the health of her family
Purchases quality products
- not someone shopping for a bargain-basement deal.

Why is it important to be this specific? Because a particular person is more likely to pop into your head. Once you’ve put together a profile of your past clients, pick up the phone and run it by a few trusted friends and colleagues. Those who are close to you often have insights into patterns that you tend to overlook.

Where can I meet my best prospects?

If you’re trying to meet more small business owners:

You’ll want to spend time at your local Chamber of Commerce, a local business association, or with a referral group. Not only do these groups have exactly the type of audience you want to meet, but also with referral groups, there’s typically a system in place that helps you – help others to get more referrals for you.

If your business is geared more towards consumers:

Become involved with your kids’ events—Little League, Girl Scouts, or your church’s youth group—is another good way to meet the right people.

Who, exactly, do I want to meet?

The greater the number of networks you are connected to, the greater the chance that there’s a short chain of contacts between you and anyone you’d care to meet. All you have to do is recognize that fact and ask a few people a specific question or two. The answers will either put you in direct contact with a prospect or lead you in the direction of the networking events you need to attend. Even if you can’t name the specific people you want to meet, the better you can describe them, the greater the chance that you’ll get to meet your ideal contact. The secret ingredient in this principle is specificity.

The way to meet the unknown contact is to be as detailed as possible without being too exclusive. You can do this by starting your question with: “Who do you know who…”, then complete the sentence with specifics:

“Who do you know who is a new parent?”
“Who do you know who belongs to an organization that builds houses for the homeless?”

By asking for a particular kind of contact, you focus the other person’s attention on details that remind them of a specific person. Finally, remember that it’s important to surround yourself with quality business contacts since the best way to your ideal contact very often is through someone you already know.

Sample networking plan for a downtown realtor:

My best prospects are :
- First-time homebuyers
- People interested in buying a downtown condo or home
I can meet my best prospects at:
- Downtown networking events
- Young professionals’ networking events
I want to meet:
- Who do you know who is thinking about moving out of their apartment and into a house?
- Who do you know who is living in an apartment accumulating disposable income?

It’s just a matter of developing a networking plan that puts you in contact with the right people. That’s exactly what the three questions above will help you do. However, you must take action on your networking plan to achieve your goals.

18Nov2010

The Importance of Knowing Your Products and Servicesstring(52) "The Importance of Knowing Your Products and Services"

When your referral marketing plan is working well, prospective customers buy from you the first time because they have been referred by your sources. They may continue to buy from you because they trust you and develop a good relationship with you. But whatever the reasons they come and whatever the reasons they stay, they are your customers primarily because they need your products and services.

A clear idea of your range of products and services is something your sources need to communicate to prospects. For each product or service you plan to market during your referral marketing campaign, you must be able to articulate for your sources the answers to the following questions:

What is the purpose of your product or service?–What needs does it satisfy?
How would you describe it?–What are its shape, size, functions, key features, principal activities, benefits?
How is your product or service delivered to the customer?
How much does it cost and under what conditions?

There are other questions concerning your products or services that you should answer for your own strategic purposes. Is your product becoming obsolete? Is there a newer or better way to provide the same service? What are the social and environmental effects of your product or service? Will economic or regulatory trends force you to change your products or services or the conditions under which you provide them? In the long term, will you be satisfied to continue to offer these products or services?

Knowing the answers to the questions above will help you clearly communicate your products and/or services to your referral sources. This is extremely important because only when you’re able to do this will your referral sources be able to effectively refer business to you.

29Jul2010

What is the VCP Process?string(24) "What is the VCP Process?"

The key concept in referral marketing is relationships. The system of information, support and referrals that you assemble will be based on your relationships with other individuals and businesses. Referral marketing works because these relationships work both ways: They benefit both parties.

A referral marketing plan involves relationships of many different kinds. Among the most important are those with your referral sources, with prospects these referral sources bring you and with customers you recruit from the prospects. These relationships don’t just spring up full-grown; they must be nurtured. As they grow, fed by mutual trust and shared benefits, they evolve through three phases: visibility, credibility and profitability. We call this evolution the VCP Process(R).

Any successful relationship, whether a personal or a business relationship, is unique to every pair of individuals, and it evolves over time. It starts out tentative, fragile, full of unfulfilled possibilities and expectations. It grows stronger with experience and familiarity. It matures into trust and commitment. The VCP Process describes the process of creation, growth and strengthening of business, professional and personal relationships; it is useful for assessing the status of a relationship and where it fits in the process of getting referrals. It can be used to nurture the growth of an effective and rewarding relationship with a prospective friend, client, co-worker, vendor, colleague or family member. When fully realized, such a relationship is mutually rewarding and, thus, self-perpetuating.

This simple concept has made a bigger difference in more people’s networking efforts than any other single idea I’ve discussed. For this reason, I’m going to devote the next few blogs I write to explaining each step of the VCP Process individually. Come back on Monday to learn why it all starts with visibility . . . I guarantee you you’ll want to read this one!