Body Shops, Panel Beaters and the International Language of Referrals

Translating Money on the Table into the Local Lingo Helps More BNI Members Make More Money

by Lee Abraham
Money talks. No translation needed. Currency exchange, yes, but translation, no. Anywhere you go around the world, people know how to trade money for goods and services.

Same with referrals. Regardless of culture, folks in every continent on the planet prefer to do business by word-of-mouth with people they know, like and trust.

And just like each country has its own currency, words and phrases can be as unique as the local cuisine.

For example, in the USA, an automobile collision repair business is commonly known as a “Body Shop.” However in Australia, the locals send referrals for wrecked cars to the “Panel Beater.”

Universal Message, Local Lingo, Global Network

As a trainer, speaking the local language is critical if you want students to achieve maximum results. More than just words, images can also be tailored for familiarity and maximum impact.

As publisher of Money on the Table, Referrals in the Bank along with my co-author Dr. Ivan Misner, FAST180 Press works with BNI National and Executive Directors from across the country and around the world to customize training material for the benefit of their local BNI members. We see this as an essential role in effectively serving BNI’s global network. Not to mention very rewarding and a lot of fun!

Thanks in part to our “Personalized Foreword” program, where local leaders can contribute to the book and get their name on the front cover and local branding on the back, FAST180 Press is honored to report that Money on the Table is quickly becoming an international sensation!

Since its release less than a year ago, the book has been published with local flavor in Malaysia, Canada, the USA and now Australia!

Check out the latest version of the cover, featuring Australian currency and a personalized foreword by BNI Australia National Director Frederick Marcoux on the front, and BNI Australia branding on the back!

In addition to the obvious changes to the front and back cover, the Australian version of Money on the Table talks about “panel beaters” not “body shops” and many other local terms and phrases to help local members of BNI Australia learn how to create Power Teams and as a result, make more money.

Just listen to the scuttlebutt around the BNI coffee dripper… “Members Making More Money” sounds good in any language!

For more information about how you can create a Personalized Foreword version of Money on the Table, please visit: http://moneyonthetablebook.com/YOUR_Namer_on_the_Cover.html

Referral Party: Are You Going Formal or Business Casual?

Any seasoned sales pro knows word-of-mouth referrals are the platinum standard of lead generation. Why? Let’s start with higher closing ratios. Then we look at a low cost per lead which pencils to only a fraction of traditional marketing and advertising expenses. Combine the two for a lucrative income stream whether you are selling real estate, massage therapy or cleaning services.

Ask the grizzled marketer how they go about generating referrals and you’ll get one of three very different responses. Among the most popular:

 “I do a great job for my customers and they tell people about me.” Translation: I do not have a referral system. Hope is my strategy. Let’s call this the “business casual” approach.

Another common answer is any number of variations on  an old, and ill-advised theme, “I do a lot of networking and always tell people that I’m never too busy for their referrals.” Translation: You ask people for referrals and sometimes you get one. Sorry to say this is not networking. Without giving an abundance of relevant value first, asking for referrals spirals downward over time into a doomed campaign of begging for dollars. After a while, even your strongest supporters will get tired of hearing from you. My advice: adopt a Givers Gain® philosophy before you further damage your most valuable asset, relationships with people who like you and trust you.

Finally, less common but indicative of someone whose networking activities are aligned with generating referrals, “I belong to BNI” (or some other referral group), is the response of a professional networker.  If creating referrals was a party, this black-tie formal approach to word-of-mouth networking would be the hottest ticket in town.

Givers Gain®

Let’s start with the basics. Generating referrals for yourself begins with you finding and creating referrals for others. So that’s the first step to referral marketing – building or joining a network of referral partners who you like, trust and send referrals to.

Next is consistently making your network visible to its targeted prospects. Best results come from systematic use of simple but powerful tools like a business card organizer, network directory flyer and website, as well as social media to promote the products and services of your networking partners to your clients and sphere-of-influence.

Finally, a networking group that meets regularly creates more referrals that those that do not. Statistics show that once a week is the optimal frequency for a group meeting of networking partners who have made a commitment to actively participate in a reciprocal, mutually beneficial relationship to maximize referral results.

Time Crunch

Unfortunately however, most people do not have the scheduling flexibility to belong to an existing referral group with a regularly scheduled meeting, or the knowledge, resources and experience to create and run one on their own.

There is good news!

While a regularly scheduled meeting is the pinnacle of structured business networking, an individual “free agent” networker can create a more loosely structured semi-formal network and an abundance of referrals, both inbound and out, with systematic integration of an advanced power team process.

So here’s the question:If there is no meeting, what is the system? How does the network operate? Answer: There will be meetings, but they will NOT be regularly scheduled, ongoing meetings with the entire group.

You as the leader of your own free agent network will go to breakfast, lunch or coffee when you can with a few of your networking partners at a time to learn more about each others’ business and cross pollinate referral opportunities by discussing current projects, clients, haves/wants, etc.

Shift Activity from Meeting to Promoting

While the group meetings take a backseat based on scheduling, the primary focus shifts to systematic promotion and network visibility by all networking partners with a variety of tools, including: 

• business card organizer
• promotional information on contracts and paperwork
• directory flyer
• website
• social media
• email “signature”
• voice mail message

The free agent network fits somewhere between an informal, unstructured, “I go to mixers and just sort of know a few people who send me referrals” approach and the professional commitment of belonging to a structured networking group with a regularly scheduled meeting.

 To clarify this concept, here are the three levels of referral marketing:

1. Business Casual – No directory, no meetings
2. Semi-formal – Directory of trusted vendors, irregular meetings
3. Formal – Ongoing structured networking meeting

Whether you are already riding a wave of referrals from a structured networking group or an individual business person flopping around like a beached fish, frantically squirming to create referrals on your own, the secrets of free agent, semi-formal networking can dramatically improve your results. How? I will be happy to tell you at our next irregularly scheduled meeting of the minds, when our adventure in networking continues…

Target Market Clarity – Why the Six Key Situations Make it Easier to Give Referrals

Most transactions, regardless of industry or business category are the result of a consumer experiencing a life cycle event which requires the products or services of various vendors.

Successful business networkers are always on the lookout for these life cycle events to create referrals for their networking partners.

The problem however, at least on the surface, is the variety of life cycle events driving the economy seems enormous. How can anyone possibly remember all the connections between the products and services of their networking partners and the endless variety of challenges people experience in their daily lives?

Just think of all the different industries and business categories focusing on their slice of the marketing pie. From selling insurance or repairing automobiles to healing an aching back or remodeling a kitchen, it seems that every business is looking for its own, unique target market.

Six Key Situations = Six Easy Target Markets

In Money on the Table, we simplify the universe of potential target markets into “Six Key Situations” or life cycle events that are the underlying cause of the vast majority of referral opportunities in a structured business networking group.

1. Business Builder
2. Getting Healthy
3. Getting Married
4. Relocation
5. New Baby
6. Real Estate Construction, Remodel & Maintenance

By focusing on how each of your networking partners offers a product or service to a consumer experiencing one of the Six Key Situations, you will not only recognize more opportunities to create referrals, you will give stronger, relevant and more compelling testimonials that result in closed business for your networking partners.

Start with Your Product or Service

Many of the products and services from your networking partners will be obvious, others less clear but nonetheless powerful. For example, a Business Builder may know she needs the services of a promotional products person to build her brand but may be unaware of how an event planner can create a successful product launch, how the personal chef can save her money with healthy home-cooked food or the cleaning service can save time doing the housework, so she can spend more time building her business!

Understanding how different business categories from different industries provide a relevant product or service to each of the Six Key Situations starts with a review of your own business category and which of the Six Key Situations are the most productive referral circumstances for your business. More on this next time, when our adventure in networking continues…

Are YOU ready for a FAST180?

With the new release of Money on the Table, I look back in time and realize that my personal FAST180 began on April 10^th, 2008. That was the day Dr. Ivan Misner agreed to sit and listen to me ramble, hope and dream about my idea for a book on power teams.

The meeting had been prearranged. An old mentor of mine told me many moons ago that if you want to hunt for elephants, go to Africa. Wanna surf? Hit the beach. I got the point. Possessed with the notion of Dr. Misner co-authoring the book, I took advantage of his appearance at a Referral Institute event in Scottsdale, Arizona to schedule a few minutes of his time. To be perfectly honest, I had no idea what would happen after that.

The hotel’s large theater-style meeting room was packed. Presentations from the stage crackled with energy as one excellent Referral Institute speaker after another shared their networking and referral wisdom with the rest of us. Pulling me aside and telling me that he’d be swamped during the breaks, Dr. Misner suggested that we slip out of the meeting room to sit down and talk in a quiet corner of the hotel lobby.

The moment of opportunity I had been visualizing in my mind for months was happening… right now! We found a table, sat down, and Dr. Misner asked me to tell him about the book.

I explained that the book would be an easy-to-follow system for building a power team with a new twist on recognizing and converting commonly overlooked referral opportunities. He asked a few questions and told me that he liked the ideas. “Color me interested,” was his exact quote. That my friends, was the moment my personal FAST180 took a turn in the right direction.

Now, just over three years later, the power team book has evolved into Money on the Table, literally, figuratively, and any other way imaginable. This blog was used to flesh out the bulk of the material that ultimately made it into the book. With the book now complete, I’m on a mission to share its lessons, tools and strategies with business people from all industries who are interested in creating more, better quality referrals for their networking partners and of course, themselves.

Last point: If you spend a moment looking at this blog you will notice that other than this current post, it’s been over a year since any new content was featured here. During that time I made a transition from real estate broker to business referral guru and Senior Vice President of Consulting for MaxAvenue, an intellectual property and consulting firm specializing in real estate. Most of the material for the book had already been finished when I made the career switch, and as a result, the blog became a forgotten piece of my FAST180 puzzle.

Until now… That’s right – the Adventures in Networking blog is back! Sometimes you’ve gotta do a “slow 360” and come full circle to complete a FAST180. In other words, with Money on the Table finally in print, the blog has returned as a viable outlet for power team news, ideas, upcoming events and Money on the Table success stories.

Thank you for visiting! Please check back often or subscribe for updates. These are wild and wacky times and I am excited to find out what happens next, as our adventure in networking continues…

Retrospective Significance – Got Yours?

“Retrospective Significance” is the notion that some things you choose to do today potentially create an impact on your life that grows over time.

Here are a few examples of potentially positive retrospective significance: 

• meeting new people
• engaging in meaningful conversation with someone who needs help
• writing a book or a blog post
• having a baby
• starting a new business

 “Retrospective Insignificance” is the opposite, doing things today that have NO impact on the rest of your life: 

• watching TV
• complaining about the economy, or anything else
• playing video games
• wandering around the shopping mall
• listening to the radio while driving, rather than instructional CD’s or Audio Books

What are you choosing to do today? Will your actions today have any impact on tomorrow, next week or next year? If so, will the impact be positive and productive?

Race to Keep Pace – Business Networking Jump Start

 

The race to keep pace with society’s limited attention span is impacting more than just the book publishing industry.

Business networking is a perfect example. On a local level, go to a “Speed Networking” event where you have just a few short minutes to connect fact-to-face with a rapid fire parade of new prospects and potential referral partners. On the internet, the opportunity to build a personal brand with social media in virtually any industry has every hot blooded entrepreneur racing to create visibility online with more people in less time and as a result, make more money.  

As a business networker, our goal is to create referrals for our networking partners, in turn, they find business for us. Clearly, the most effective way to motivate someone to become a “Bragging Buddy” who tells other people why they should like, trust and do business with you, is to first send money making referrals to them.

But as the world spins faster and we seem to have less time to do more and more, being efficient is just as important as being effective. Got a pen and paper? Here is a powerful, yet deceptively simple tool to create business for someone you’ve just met, as well as your network of referral partners,  in less than a minute. Ask the following Trigger Question at networking events, chamber mixers, online messaging or anywhere else you interact with other business people: “How can I help find the type of customers you are looking for?”

This is a simple twist on the age old, direct question “How can I help you?” that cuts to the core of referral networking. The payoff is a result of active listening and recognizing which people and business categories in your network also serve the desired Target Market. Whenever there is a Target Market match, your networking partner is a potential Golden Goose referral source for this new contact, and vice versa. 

Proceed with caution. This Trigger Question is a powerful tool that will jump start your business networking results and create new referral opportunities. Pause for a moment once you’ve found a Target Market match. Take time to learn more about your new contact before sending business in their direction. Protecting your good name is a priority that cannot fall victim to the limited attention span syndrome.

Passion Is Everything – CRUSH IT!

 

All entrepreneurs dream. Successful entrepreneurs take action. Lot’s of it. Some are calculated, carefully plotting and planning every move. A rare few bring an artistic approach to business. Guided by passion and intuition, these natural born empire builders always know what to do, how to do it and when to make it happen. One more thing. They really enjoy what they do!

Meet Gary Vaynerchuk, New York Times best selling author of CRUSH IT! Why NOW is the time to cash in on your passion. Grab a cup of coffee my friend and settle in for a good read. The guy has an interesting story to tell.

At the tender age of eight years old, Gary V. operated multiple lemonade stands and hired other kids to actually sell the lemonade. In the eighth grade he ran a successful, money making baseball card business and at age 15 began working part time as a clerk at the family liquor store. Within a few years of going full time, Vaynerchuk grew annual sales at the store from $4 million to over $50 million!

How? By parlaying self taught sales and marketing skills learned as a childhood business mogul. Oh yeah, he also took the family business online with his wildly popular internet program Wine Library TV.

There are several core elements to Gary V’s success. Passion, fun, commitment to family, hard work and being the best in the world at something are a few of the biggies.

But there’s more to CRUSH IT! than philosophy. A master of personal branding, social media and video blogging, Vaynerchuk serves up an easy to follow blueprint for success. That’s right, your success!

I said easy to follow, not easy to implement. One of Gary V’s principals is to identify your passion. So go ahead, ask yourself, are you passionate about something? Do you have an all consuming, burning desire to achieve a specific goal or manifest a life long dream? Yes? Now is the time to get started. Read the book. CRUSH IT!

Take a Moment: #Dream Tweet

 

The Rock and Roll Guru, aka Joe Heuer

Everyone knows society has a limited attention span. And if we took a moment to think about it, we would agree the collective consciousness is shrinking. But who has time to think?

Let’s change the subject. Short, easy to read books are the rage. Especially if they are brilliant and well written.

Okay, enough of that. Let’s talk. Are you among the millions of self respecting baby boomers who struggle to balance real life responsibilities with a burning desire to “live the dream?”

Is your inner rock star tired of waiting to take center stage as a headliner on the concert tour of life?  

Meet the Rock and Roll Guru. He has the answers. And a short, brilliant and well written new book, #Dream Tweet, Enlightened Inspiration from a Rock and Roll Guru. Read it. Rock on!

Society’s Limited Attention Span – Blame Seth Godin!

 

Video didn’t kill the radio star. Neither did TV. And digital media hasn’t buried ink and paper books. Never will. Sure, the latest and greatest digital delivery systems like Kindle, the IPad and whatever’s next, continue to morph the publishing industry with mind melting speed. But regardless of where change takes our old friend the book, ink and paper will always have a role to play in the marketplace of ideas. 

Standing firm in my belief that ink and paper survives, changes are fast and furious. Not only the vehicle of delivery, but content itself. Face it, society is suffering an intellectual crisis and publishers are scrambling to adapt to our increasingly limited attention span. 

Blame it on Seth Godin. Godin’s brilliant series of short, smart and wildly popular best selling books like “Tribes” and his current gem, “Linchpin,” have set the standard for every aspiring New Times best selling author and thought leader wannabe.    

Got something to say? Say it clearly and quickly. Be authentic, clever and lead a tribe of passionate, like minded people who resonate with you and your message. Become irreplaceable by being as much of you as you can be. Of course, it helps to be a genius with valuable insight and a meaningful perspective, but there’s only one Seth Godin. That would make him a ”Linchpin” of media transition and trusted tour guide on our collective adventure to whatever’s next.

Be a Linchpin yourself! Just don’t take too long to show us what you’ve got! Right? Write!

Networking Story of the Week: “Gifts of Gratitude”

by Lee Abraham

Jenifer Anseth – M.R. Designs & Gifts: Commercial Furniture and a Grand Opening Two-fer

“I have a Power Team partner who is in Commercial Furniture Sales and after he finishes furnishing an office he likes to send one of our Gift Baskets for the office’s Grand Opening. From my standpoint, he not only does something to promote his company, but he creates an in for me with the new company.

He also promotes me to the other sales people who he works with for their Grand Openings and a different way to show client appreciation. I can’t begin to tell you how many great referrals he has given me!”

AZ Gift Baskets