Networking - A True Story

By Jeff Seeley, CEO, Carew International, Inc.

How many times do we retreat from asking customers who love us to tell people about us? Networking is truly one of the lost arts in the business world. Think about it for a moment, LINKEDIN is a networking dream because you can do it from the comfort of your computer. Embarrassingly, I have found that I am linking with people I should have stayed connected to for years. These are folks who are just not Rolodex fillers, but real substantial relationships that were developed over years of working together.

When sales are strong, as they were prior to September 2008 for almost all of us, networking and referrals were afterthoughts in all areas of our companies. As we try to expand our networks it is similar to doing dental surgery without anesthetic; not very enjoyable for either party. Asking for referrals is like asking people to help you network when you are job searching, it seems a little embarrassing and that you are not capable of keeping yourself busy with your lead generation or prospecting skills.

The reality is that every individual inside of an organization knows people, who know people. The internet and social networking tools have made tremendous strides in our marketing approach but for a lot us the networking and referral world has had less emphasis. Now is the time to dust off your contacts and more importantly the customers who love you and leverage them to help you. If you have customers who absolutely love you, have them spread your word. The reality is that once you start the process, one contact can turn into ten and expand dramatically. If they don’t love you it is time to change your product or service.

I have a friend, Chris, who works for Northwestern Mutual (life insurance and financial planning, yikes! and we think we have it tough). He has built a multi-million dollar business, one and then three at a time. Every customer he meets with he asks for three names he can contact about his offering, at his customer’s recommendation and only to the extent that he is a trusted advisor to his customer, THAT’S IT. Heck they do business with him so they must trust him. He makes prospecting calls everyday, but not one of them is cold, they are all at least lukewarm as he has gotten them as a referral from another customer or prospect. He does all of the work, and will even give suggestions to the customer on the type of referral he is looking for (doctor, lawyer, people with children or businesses, etc).

I know Chris is making at least 5-10 calls a day, even when his business is doing well, just to make sure that he keeps his skills sharp for times like now. Referral business is the life blood of all organizations and for small companies it is everything, often accounting for as much as 80% of new business.

Ultimately, we need to leverage our fans and leverage our systems to create a tidal wave of connections. Your business grows and you are no longer marketing to people anonymously or making the dreaded cold call. In reality, it is in every job description to help build and sustain your business. This is not about spending marketing dollars to spread the word about your company, it is about spreading the word virally. Social Networking can provide you with the contacts – but only you can leverage that opportunity, turning contacts into connections, connections into referrals and referrals into new business.