Posts filed under 'Word of Mouth'
April 22nd is also Administrative Professional (AKA Secretary’s) Day – Last year on Administrative Professionals Day a new customer called to order flowers for his two assistants and to thank me for welcoming him to the Chamber of Commerce. He is an attorney. When he was through placing his order, we were chatting a bit and he mentioned he was involved in a lot of organizations and did we work with events. I said yes and also mentioned that we have several attorneys we worked with and oftentimes they will call to order flowers to thank clients who refer their services to new clients. He said, what a great idea “I have this one condominium company who has referred several new clients and I have not yet properly thanked them.” He immediately gave me an order and said he would be calling back with others later this week.
Had I not mentioned some of the areas we serve, we would not have received another order, nor a new steady customer. So, be sure and let your clients and customers know what products and services you offer. Talk to customers and clients to find out what their other needs are that you might be able to serve.
To learn the History of Administrative Professionals Day visit the Tulips Talk Blog
Check out the Top Ways to Say Thank You to Your Assistant at Eden Florist
April 21st, 2009
My business hasn’t used formal advertising in years. Well, very little. And the advertising we do is mostly “traded” for products and services. Most of our new business is referral based. We have kept track over the years and at least 80% of our business comes from a referral.
In Part One I talked about creating a list of your CHAMPIONS – those who refer your company to others on a regular basis. Next, review your list every 3-6 months. When someone on the list hasn’t sent you business in a while, pick up the phone and call them. Just call to say HI. To see how she or he is doing and find out if there is anything you can do to help them. Don’t ask for business or a referral. Just listen.
Now that you have reviewed your list, focus on those FANS who love doing business with you but don’t think to refer others. Here’s a few tips to help you turn those FANS into World Class Champions:
1. Make it a habit to ask every customer why they chose your company. They will appreciate the opportunity to tell you and their trust and confidence in your company will increase.
2. Let them know you are building your business from referrals and that you appreciate and value any business you send their way.
3. Educate them about the products and services you offer. When you providing a product or service, give them a little more. When we send a floral arrangement or plant to a customer, we include care instructions. Our brochures and fliers tell customers about the value we provide our customers. Share these things with your FANS. Arm them with enough info so they can go out and “sell” for you.
4. Reward them. When they share their “circle of influence” with you, be very grateful. Tell them, show them. Make a referral to your FANS in return when possible and appropriate. Every time your FANS receive something of value from you it will remind them to send more referrals your way.
5. Follow up. The FAN may send customers your way or give you names to call. When they give you names, make sure you follow up. Call and introduce yourself and mention where you got their name. One of my biggest accounts came because a FAN told me to call a new hotel that was about to open. I called, offered to help with their Grand Opening Celebration and they are now one of my best customers. And they refer their patrons to us! That FAN became a CHAMPION because we rewarded her. What comes around, really does go around.
Remind your FANS that you value them. Provide impeccable service all the time and you will turn those fans into your greatest CHAMPIONS. Having CHAMPIONS on your team is like having an uncompensated sales force working for you all the time!
It’s Day Two of Make a Referral Week. The perfect time to go out and MAKE some REFERRALS and put your system in place to get referrals in return.
March 10th, 2009
Creating champions from your fans is all about creating a strong referral system for your business. And what better time to create a system than during MAKE A REFERRAL Week!
Although businesses benefit greatly from referrals how many of us actually have a SYSTEM to cultivate those referrals from your best sources? In my opinion, there are two kinds of referral sources. One comes from FANS. FANS are those who love your product and service and might occasionally tell someone about you. FANS like or love doing business with you but either don’t know that you want more business or think of sending business your way. They might refer someone if she or he asks for a referral.
The other type of referral comes from your CAMPIONS. Champions not only love what you do, they like to tell others about your products and services. They have either memorized your phone number or have it in their cell phone, PDA or speed dial. Close at hand to share with others.
How do you cultivate your champions? First identify who they are. Write down your top 20-25 best customers – those you know have referred you in the past. Then create a plan to stay in touch with them. Call them, email them, send them thank you notes, small gifts, flowers, tickets to events, buy them lunch, enter them in special drawings.
The important thing here is to stay at the top of their minds. Show them how much you appreciate the referral. Doing so will encourage your CHAMPIONS to keep sending business your way. In part 2, we will share the steps to take to turn your FANS into CHAMPIONS. Happy Make a Referral Week!
March 8th, 2009
What if there was a system that could help you develop a continuous stream of solid referrals and all you had to do is set it up one time, add contacts as you receive them and few clicks of the mouse start your referral building process?
Continue Reading October 30th, 2008
On Thursday Oct 30 12:00 Eastern Diane Walker, Senior Executive with SendOutCards will be hosting a webinar on how to use the SendOutCards system to create residual income as well as how stay in touch with clients and customers – high touch marketing in a high tech world.
In addition to this event, on Friday November 7th at 11 AM Eastern you are also invited to attend, ”How to Create a Follow-up System to Save You Time AND Grow Your Business” featuring Heidi Caswell and Heidi Richards Mooney (The Follow-Up Divas).
In this teleseminar, the Follow-Up Divas will talk about the importance of staying in touch with your clients, and how to effectively stay in touch with them without spending a lot of money. They will talk about a variety of stay in touch mechanisms such as email, telephone and greeting/postcard and other direct marketing ideas. You will learn new strategies for following up with leads that can save you time and money and create loyal customers and clients for life.
Note: everyone who attends both events will receive a special gift in the mail!
To RSVP, email heidi@successandthensome.com with SOC Webinar in the subject line to receive webinar links and info to attend the teleseminar.
October 28th, 2008
Earlier this month I started a topic about how I gathered information to create a marketing plan for the Florida Speakers Association. I asked members how they would spread the word about FSA, who they suggest we connect with and contact (sharing their resources) and how they suggested we increase our membership base and meeting attendance.
Here are six more responses:
I find that word of mouth is great… and also the encouragement I give to others who are speakers but don’t know it yet. Also a brochure would be nice to hand out.
Contact clubs and hold a contest… have them submit club member names who would like to attend an FSA meeting to see what it is all about in helping them develop leadership and communication skills. Then, we could draw one name per month and COMP that person. This would also increase our notice data base.
We could even have a special annual day focused on local clubs and developing good speakers in clubs. We could even start a different membership category for local club member speakers who do not want to become professional, but do like to hang out with the pros.
TV and radio interviews from some of our top speakers about the FSA and what it has done for them.
Ask CEOs (with their own strong followings) to present — and encourage their own people to be part of our group. Have THEM send out notices to business media. Invite media people to discuss how public speaking skills helped them. Usually THEY will give our group free publicity if it involves them.
Do a charity fund-raiser using some of our speakers to improve skills of the people who GIVE the $$…not just get the benefit of dollars. Improve the image of us being part of an INTERNATIONAL – NOT JUST LOCAL OR NATIONAL – GROUP OF GIVING PEOPLE…THE VOICE OF THE WORLD.
October 15th, 2008
October is…
Right Brainers Rule! Month – goal of Right Brainers Rule Month is to bring awareness that although we may do things differently than most of the world (who are left-brain dominant) we are highly creative, exceptionally innovative and wonderful just the way we are. Sadly, right-brainers are often ridiculed and reprimanded for their unorthodox ways of doing things. The month of October is a chance to show how the right-brained person can survive and thrive in a very left-brained world. Check out http://www.creativelee.com/HTML/Free_Right_Brainers.htm for more information. And while you’re at it read: Daniel Pink’s book “A Whole New Mind- why right brainers will rule the world.”
National Cookie Month –Contact cookie bouquet and send a cookie bouquet to your favorite (best) clients. If you sell cookies, use your product to promote the month. You could host a cookie bake-off contest and ask the local city officials to come and judge the event. Award ribbons for various categories. Another great media draw.
National Go on a Field Trip Month – Invite the schools in your community to stop by your business for a field trip. Have refreshments and activities appropriate to the age of the kids present. Send a media release announcing the event after the fact – include pictures (with permission). The media loves a good human interest story and you could end up in the news when you least expect it.
Positive Attitude Month – to be a good marketer you have to have a positive attitude – and believe that your efforts will achieve the results you desire.
October 8th, 2008
October 6-12 is Customer Service Week is – Make appointments to visit customers this week and make sure you call and confirm those appointments. No matter what service business you are in, if you are not confirming appointments you may be losing business. Busy customers and clients often double book (they don’t have their calendar handy) or they have to rush off to another meeting. Confirming your appointments at least the day before you will notice less wasted time, more productivity –and increased sales.
If you haven’t yet read The Celebrity Experience: Insider Secrets to Delivering Red Carpet Customer Service by Donna Cutting, I highly recommend you check it out.
October 6th, 2008
October is….
Diversity Awareness Month – if you don’t have the opportunity to travel to far off lands, get involved in a community organization where the participants are ethnically or spiritually different from you. Join an organization such as sister cities and get to know about our world.
National Book Month - Host a book fair, invite a local author to do a book signing, collect books for a local school or library. Read a good book in your industry and write about it in your newsletter. Have a recommended reading section of your newsletter and on your website and announce your picks for the latest books. Or you can do what my friend Susan does and be a volunteer reader for a book critic for a local newspaper. You get to write a brief summary of what the book is about and rate it.
National Breast Cancer Awareness Month – Volunteer with the American Cancer Society (ACS) or Gilda’s Club (or other similar organization whose purpose it to raise awareness of and to help women with breast cancer). How does this help you market your company? Well, I have been a volunteer with ACS for 17+ years now and started out in fundraising, moved on to programs and services and then began teaching their “triple touch” program to women in my community. I am now a “Triple Touch Training Instructor” and teach the teachers. Although it is not meant to be a marketing ploy – by being involved in a community organization that appeals to many, not only do we make lifelong friends – people learn about my company and quite often become my customers.
Women’s Small Business Month - Do what the WECAI Network™ did and host an event in celebration of Women. It was “How to Grow a Million Dollar Business (with pre and post events too). The event features wealth experts in prosperity, million dollar marketing to the affluent, million dollar networking, million dollar publicity and more! You can check it out at WHEREWOMENPROSPER.com. Contact experts you know (or have heard of) and invite them to participate.
October 4th, 2008
In keeping with the theme started yesterday, I thought I’d share some excerpts from an interview I participated in.
Recently I was interviewed by Teresa Morrow of Key Business Partners (during the Product Sellers Seminar) and she asked several great questions about how to market in a slow economy. Over the next few days I am going to post my replies here.
Q. What is the biggest challenge for product sellers in a slow economy?
A. Cash flow… or lack of… when we have little income coming in we panic and try to think of quick fixes and ways to get “easy money such as offering discounts on our products. Which may be okay short term but could backfire on us down the road. Because when you discount people start expecting it and then demanding it. call it the flea market mentality. Nothing wrong with it as long as you recognize it for what it is and that you also know it WILL change the perception of your company.
Q. What are some tips you have for staying a float in a slow economy?
A. Focus on the long term…. Things that are important today….may not be a year or six months from now. Look at the news as an example. See what interests you today and if you can look into your crystal ball see what will even have an affect on you in six months. The same is true for business. While we need to market quickly in a down economy we need to think strategically about how our marketing today will affect our business in the future. Discounting is a perfect example. I suggest that instead of discounting your services you offer a “gift certificate” to your to clients as a thank you for their business and or a thank you for referring others to you. Or send them your product as a thank you. When they get a “gift” they will feel a stronger need to repay the favor. Its quid pro quo – something for something.
In business today it’s all about relationships. I recently reconnected with a customer who made a nice sized purchase and when I was finished taking her order said “Please tell your friends about Eden Florist.” 15 minutes later the phone rang and a friend of hers called to place a floral order too….
Ask for the Business – I was invited by a Local Newspaper to an event they were hosting and called and asked for the event planner. I offered her my services. She said “send me a bid” and I did. We ended up doing the décor for that event and two more events they hosted over the next 6 weeks.
BTW, you can also listen to the full interview live at SpeakingWithSpirit.com.
September 30th, 2008
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