Bare Bones Biz Teleseminar

Well, the link is up and active now for the teleseminar Ellen Rohr and I conducted last week. This was a great conversation with lots of ideas about how to incorporate a client or customer appreciation program into your marketing.

We discussed

• what customer appreciation really is
• the main mistakes people make when it comes to developing client relationships
• how you can use customer appreciation to, as Ellen phrased it, “beat the pants off your competition,” and
• creating a process for putting a client appreciation program on auto pilot.

We also answered some good questions from listeners. To listen at your convenience, click here:

The Secret to a Referral Based Business

Almost everyone you talk to these days claims his or her business comes primarily from referrals. It’s true that clients who come to you at the recommendation of someone else are the best type. After all, they’re proactively coming to you because they need what you offer and they’re usually already sold on working with you. So do you have a program in place to proactively encourage and collect referrals?If your answer to that question is “no” and you want your business to continue growing, here’s what you need to do.Shortly after delivering your product or service, ask for a testimonial letter along with three referrals. This is presumably the time when your client is most happy with you and therefore most willing to recommend you to others. To reach out to existing clients, send a special letter asking for those things and introducing your NEW Referral Program.Acknowledge in writing any referral you get, whether you think it will be a “good” referral or not.

If it falls to you to proactively call on the referral, DO IT. Too many times referrals fall through the cracks because you’re “too busy” to follow through.

Keep the person who sent you the referral in the loop. Let him or her know how it turns out and why or why not it was a good referral. Feedback helps them send you better referrals next time.

Provide a reward for referrals. Zen Rabbit cookies make a great referral gift. J You can also credit your client’s account for the products or services you provide or give a discount to both the client and the accompanying friend.

Once again, it all comes down to having a SYSTEM for asking for, collecting and acknowledging referrals. Hmmm, guess it’s not a secret anymore.

Listen & Learn on September 19

My friend and colleague Ellen Rohr is an expert at helping small businesses make more money. She runs a monthly teleseminar series and she is interviewing ME for her September 19^th installment. Of course we’ll be talking about the importance of client and referral source appreciation and how to do it properly. Participate in this FUN & FREE one-hour call by going to www.BareBonesBiz.com and clicking on “Teleseminar Series” at the top of the page to sign up.

Want to Get There Fast?

Where ever you’re going, in your career, on vacation, etc., you probably want to get there quickly. Sure there are some people who like to enjoy the long, drawn out journey, but personally I want to BE there already. Slow travelers, get out of my way!

The challenge to getting where you’re going is that slow travelers and obstacles are everywhere. Sometimes it can feel like you’re stuck in a time warp, like in that movie “Clockstoppers“. The good news is that there are steps you can take to get over, around and past all that. The additional good news is that most people are not willing to take these steps, so when you do, the road is all the more wide open in front of you.

Procrastination is a very big challenge for many people. The only known antidote is action. And if you want to move really fast, MASSIVE action. That means doing lots of things at one time. Not necessarily in the same minute, but in conjunction and coordination.

If you want more clients, you have to use multiple marketing techniques – post cards, newsletters, public relations, online marketing, seminars, client appreciation, etc all at once. Throw as much out there to reach your audience as you can. (Of course you’re not throwing blindly, you have to target the right market with the right message or else you might as well just send all your money to me and I’ll happily spend it for you.) The slow travelers are going to do one thing at a time, see if it works and then decide what to do next. If you want to move fast, you do it all together and make adjustments as you go. As Mike Litman says, “you don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going.”