I went out into my backyard today to look at my crop of Indiana Tomatoes.  I was quite disappointed to find that they still have not ripened.  The weather has been very cool this year and that means the tomatoes ripen more slowly.    I am losing my patience because I want vine ripe tomatoes NOW!

Ironically,  I came into my office to open an email from one of our newest clients.  He and I are meeting for some one to one coaching around his DISC profile, he is a high D and likes results, NOW.   In his email he stated “Please send me the roster of current and past participants, so that I may have 2 referral partners identified by the time we meet.” Oh if it were only that easy!

Unfortunately,  the key to developing strong strategic relationships with a referral partner is patience.  Like my tomato plants there is more  involved than just sticking the plant in the ground and telling it to produce.   Your referral network must be nurtured, tended to, and supported.

Here are four keys to developing a strong referral network and growing good tomatoes

1. Identify the right kind of person to build the relationship with.  Just as choosing  the right kind of tomato plant is important,  you need to know what kind of referral relationship you want.  You can have contact sphere relationships that will yield lots of little incidental leads that can keep you very busy, kind of like the little cherry tomato plant that will give you bowls full of tomatoes quickly, or you can have a full fledged referral partnership that will yield larger, proactive,  high value referrals.  Similar to the the Big Boy tomato plant.  They take longer to grow, but well worth the wait.

2. Understand that time and consistent nurturing is required.  You can’t  just throw the plant in the ground and expect tomatoes to spring forth.  The same holds true for your referral relationships.  The relationship has to be built on a foundation of trust, understanding, collaboration and educations.

3. There has to be give and take in the process.  The tomato plant needs care, water, and plant food in return you get juicy red ripe tomatoes for all of your efforts.  When you give to your referral network they will in return give to you, if you consistently take with out giving eventually your network will wither and little or no fruit will be provided.

4. Diversity is important, this year I planted one kind of tomato, so of course I am still waiting.  If you plant a variety of tomatoes; plant some cherry tomatoes who will yield great flavor quickly,  as well as the slow growing variety that give your the bigger more flavorful fruit later in the year.  Your referral network can be built with a variety of relationships.  Those who will give you leads to follow up on while you are waiting for those that will give you the quality of referrals that will allow you to work smarter not harder.    Those little tomatoes will keep you fed until the big ones are ready!

Over time and with the right work, you can have  consistent quality referrals coming into your pipeline from a well nurtured network.  Remember, like the tomato plant, it takes time and work before you realize the fruit of your labor.  Be patient and don’t try to rush the process!

Hazel M Walker, owns three award winning franchise’s. She is a 10 year owner of two BNI Franchises where she teaches members how to leverage their time and network to build each others businesses. She is also a Referral Institute franchise owner and teaches Business Owners how to harness the Science of Referrals to develop Referrals for Life. Hazel is a published author in New York Times best sellers Masters of Networking and Masters of Sales. As a member of the National Speakers Association she travels the world speaking to businesses and women’s organizations on the topics of networking to create a life you love.

Have you taken a look at the goals you set for your business?  More precisely have you reviewed your referral goals?

Most people don’t set goals, at least not in writing. I would encourage you to take this time to write down what you expect to achieve for the second half of the year. 

For those of you who did take the time to set your goals at the beginning of the year, now is a time to take a hard look at those goals and ask yourself, based on your current activities;

1.  Are you on track to achieve those goals?
2.  Were they realistic referral goals?
3.  Have you identified and developed your Referral Partners?
4.  Have you shared your goals with your Referral Partners?
5.  Do you need more help?
6.  Who can help you & when will you ask them?

For most of us, staying on task and focused on our goals requires a little extra help.  If you are behind ask for help, find an accountability partner, get a referral coach, and get your Referral Partners trained so you can help each other.

Hazel M Walker, owns three award winning franchise’s. She is a 10 year owner of two BNI Franchises where she teaches members how to leverage their time and network to build each others businesses. She is also a Referral Institute franchise owner and teaches Business Owners how to harness the Science of Referrals to develop Referrals for Life. Hazel is a published author in New York Times best sellers Masters of Networking and Masters of Sales. As a member of the National Speakers Association she travels the world speaking to businesses and women’s organizations on the topics of networking to create a life you love.

This is a Question that I got on Linkedin, I thought it was very appropriate for this blog.

 In my coaching practice, clients (especially new entrepreneurs) often tell me they don’t want to nail down a specific target market because “everyone is a potential client” and/or they feel like they are missing out on business opportunities in other markets.

Have you nailed down one target market? If so, how did you go about making your choice? Did your target market choose you? How long after starting your business did it take for you to choose your target market?    Do you target more than one market? How do you balance your marketing?  Do you even believe that choosing a target market is essential to your marketing success? If not, please tell us why.

This is one of the toughest questions that I tackle with my students in the Referral Dynamics Program.  Generally business people think with a scarcity mindset, always afraid that they are going to miss out on some business regardless of the quality of the business.

For instance if I am an Insurance agent who writes insurance on anyone who has a business, then I am always running around trying to find anyone!  From the small one person business who has very little money to the multi-million dollar business.  It’s like shooting in the air and hoping that a bird will fly over.

On the other hand if I am the insurance agent who is an expert in working with Attorney Firms who have one or more partners in the Central Indiana area, I know exactly where to spend my time and my money marketing.  IF a CPA Firm calls my office and ask me to write a policy for them would I say NO?  Heck no, I would do business with them.

Declaring a target market does not mean that you cannot or may not do business with anyone else, it just means that you will have a target to aim your message to and spend your money on.  When the time comes to recruit Referral Partners they will be easy to find and easy to train.

It allows you to develop yourself as an expert so that your target market seeks you out instead of you searching for them.  It allows your customers to create a buzz about you!  Take a moment and ask yourself the following questions……..

1.  Who do I like to work with?

2.  What makes me the most money?

3.  What market do you have the greatest experiece in?

4.  Is there a market less served?

Building yourself a strong target market will allow you to work less and make more money!

Hazel M Walker, owns three award winning franchise’s. She is a 10 year owner of two BNI Franchises where she teaches members how to leverage their time and network to build each others businesses. She is also a Referral Institute franchise owner and teaches Business Owners how to harness the Science of Referrals to develop Referrals for Life. Hazel is a published author in New York Times best sellers Masters of Networking and Masters of Sales. As a member of the National Speakers Association she travels the world speaking to businesses and women’s organizations on the topics of networking to create a life you love.

Have you ever ask a referral partner to introduce you to a contact they have only to be put off or not introduced at all? Did you wonder why? You might be surprised to know, that your referral partner did not have the same level credibility as the level referral you were asking for.

I once had a referral partner who boasted a very large database, we decided to sit down and do a little identifying out of each other’s databases. He had great contacts in his database but when I began to rate the level of referral I was looking for against the level of relationship he had with the contact, there was great disparity.

He quickly realized that his network was wide, but not very deep and he had some work to do to build higher levels of credibility with some of the people in his database. You see he spent most of his time networking, very little time working his network. Once, he had done some of that work, he became a much better referral partner.

Having a very wide network that is only an inch deep does not make you a solid referral partner. If you spend time, working your network instead of being out there networking you will create a much deeper network. One that will produce results for both you and your referral partners.

Hazel M Walker, owns three award winning franchise’s. She is a 10 year owner of two BNI Franchises where she teaches members how to leverage their time and network to build each others businesses. She is also a Referral Institute franchise owner and teaches Business Owners how to harness the Science of Referrals to develop Referrals for Life. Hazel is a published author in New York Times best sellers Masters of Networking and Masters of Sales. As a member of the National Speakers Association she travels the world speaking to businesses and women’s organizations on the topics of networking to create a life you love.

Do you have an Advisory Board for your business?  Have you considered it but you don’t know where to start?  An Advisory Board can be one of the best things that you can do for your business if you use it correctly.  It take work and it take commitment from everyone, done right everyone benefits.  Here are some steps to creating your Advisory Board.

1.  Select 3-10 people you believe can bring valuable assistance to your business.  I asked people who are in my network and  who new my products and services, they were raving fans. I had a high level of respect for each of them and their business success and I knew that they would hold me accountable.

2.  Ask each person if they would be willing to serve on your advisory board. You cannot get to yes if you do not open yourself to the possible no.  Let them know you value their opinion and would like to have them on your board.

3.  Let your board know how often you would meet, when you would meet, what you would like to achieve, and why you chose them to help you.

4. Set your first meeting and be prepared.  Start your meeting on time and have an agenda.  Let your board know what your goals are, what you are currently doing and what kind of things you want to do.  Let them ask you questions and get to know your board.  Above all, be completely prepared to work each time you meet.

5.  Thank your board, ask how you can help them.  I ask my board the last time we met, what it was that I could do for them.  Their response, “Keep doing what you are doing, be prepared and do what you say you will.”  I was very surprised, I am always prepared and always do what I say.  I also take great pains to find referrals for my board members.

A Board of Advisors is a great way to help you focus on your business and build strong relationships, it is a great way to strengthen your network.

are you working your Network.  I asked this question of several of the students in our Referral Dynamics Class last week and I later asked the same question of several BNI members.  In every case they said that they spent a great deal of time working their networks.  They attended the regular meeting, connecting with their fellow members, and they indeed did work their network.

Unfortunately that is not the network I was speaking of.  That is one of the places that you go to network, I was speaking to “Your” Network.  Those people whom you have in your database, those people who have met when you have been out networking.  How much time do you put into working your network, calling them up to reconnect, sending articles to them, meeting them for coffee, inviting them to events, or publishing them in your newsletter.  Do you track your activities and whom you are spending your time on?

The Referral Institute has a very handy tool called the “Networking Scorecard”.  This tool allows you to track the activities that you are spending on your network.  Creating a proactive process for nurturing your network, so when you have a need there is no problem picking up the phone and calling someone in your network and asking for help.  After all, you have spent quality time working your network.  Sometimes it is more important that you spend time developing what you have then adding more to the mix.  Once you have developed your network, then you can spend time adding more to the mix.

There is a great deal of pride in the size of a man’s, er, uhm well, you know, their network or at least the number of people in their database.  But, isn’t there an old saying about it’s not about how big it is but more about how…….um, well how well you know the people in your network?

Quality of quantity, visibility networking over credibility networking.  When you work in your network, building relationships, following up with people finding ways that you can help them and connect them you are building a stronger, more credible network. 

Recently, I wanted to meet a certain person who’s name will not be mentioned.  I began to ask my network, who had this person in their network and could they connect me.  Keep in mind, for me a connection is either a face to face introduction or a conference phone call where all three parties are on the call.  More than half my network had his name and number in their network, but only 2 people were able to pick up the phone and arrange a meeting and introduction and both of those people were willing to make that happen for me.    Only 2 people really knew the person I was looking for………so what good were the others?  What value is there in having a name and phone number in your network if you have not done anything to turn it into a relationship. 

Take time to develop your network, not just grow your network.  Take the time to build Credibility, in so doing, it will lead to Profitability! 

I had taken the time to build strong relationships with the 2 people who were willing to connect me, they were in my highly credible network and I was in theirs, so they did not hesitate to make the connection for me.   By the way, the 2 people who were able to connect me, theirs were not the biggest.

Ok, we know that the economy has gone south, credit is practically unavailable, businesses are drawing their spending back and so is the consumer, so what are you going to do as a business owner or sales manager to make sure that your business is not one of those that will be gone tomorrow?

The two places that most business want to cut back are not the wisest choices:

Training - A successful sales team or business owner stays involved with continuous training, keeping their prospecting, and sales skills sharp. This is the one place that the small business owner pinches their pennies, finding no value in quality training. It is important to keep new material in front of both the business owner and the sales teams.  Now is not the time to stop learning more about how to be a more effective sales person, how to implement referral systems that will generate higher referred prospects and how to close more deals.

Memberships -  Business Owners and Sales Managers alike begin to pull back on the networking groups and organizations where their teams have been spending time. A better result would be to diversify the organizations and make sure that you and your team are spending time in the right places with the right people and measure their results. 

After completing our course many of our clients are amazed at how much time they have invested in  networking activities that are not productive or effective.  If you and your people are out there networking then it is impotant that they be trained to do more than create visibility.  They must be able to effectively leverage their networks that become profitable for both parties.

Now is not the time to pull back, now is the time to become more strategic and more effective. 

This is a Question that I got on Linkedin, I thought it was very appropriate for this blog.

 In my coaching practice, clients (especially new entrepreneurs) often tell me they don’t want to nail down a specific target market because “everyone is a potential client” and/or they feel like they are missing out on business opportunities in other markets.

Have you nailed down one target market? If so, how did you go about making your choice? Did your target market choose you? How long after starting your business did it take for you to choose your target market?    Do you target more than one market? How do you balance your marketing?  Do you even believe that choosing a target market is essential to your marketing success? If not, please tell us why.

This is one of the toughest questions that I tackle with my students in the Referral Dynamics Program.  Generally business people think with a scarcity mindset, always afraid that they are going to miss out on some business regardless of the quality of the business.

For instance if I am an Insurance agent who writes insurance on anyone who has a business, then I am always running around trying to find anyone!  From the small one person business who has very little money to the multi-million dollar business.  It’s like shooting in the air and hoping that a bird will fly over.

On the other hand if I am the insurance agent who is an expert in working with Attorney Firms who have one or more partners in the Central Indiana area, I know exactly where to spend my time and my money marketing.  IF a CPA Firm calls my office and ask me to write a policy for them would I say NO?  Heck no, I would do business with them.

Declaring a target market does not mean that you cannot or may not do business with anyone else, it just means that you will have a target to aim your message to and spend your money on.  When the time comes to recruit Referral Partners they will be easy to find and easy to train.

It allows you to develop yourself as an expert so that your target market seeks you out instead of you searching for them.  It allows your customers to create a buzz about you!  Take a moment and ask yourself the following questions……..

1.  Who do I like to work with?

2.  What makes me the most money?

3.  What market do you have the greatest experiece in?

4.  Is there a market less served?

Building yourself a strong target market will allow you to work less and make more money!