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Referrals: Now They\'re Asking and You\'re Making
As entrepreneurs and salespeople, referrals are our lifeblood because they jumpstart the trust-building with potential customers, partners and suppliers. In my last column I wrote about the oft-forgotten sales and networking tactic of asking our customers for referrals. Now, let's switch hats for a moment. What happens when we're the ones receiving the request? It's certainly a familiar situation, because we're as well-connected as they come.
No Fear of Referrals
People are often worried about being put in an uncomfortable situation in which someone they just met is asking them for a business referral -- particularly if their new acquaintance is a salesman asking for a referral to one of their friends who could be a potential client.

100 Ways to Succeed #83
Don't Forget Why You're Here!
How to Surpass 95% of your Competition with One Simple Gesture
I’ve learned that a great meeting means nothing – it may as well have never happened – until you do the one thing that few successful people manage well: Follow up!
Publicity...Everything Changes But the Tool
As the world turns so does the hot and not communications tools. We jump from print, online news; websites, blogs, microblogs. Proponents of each will swear that "this is the source, the tool that will rise to the top and become the news source of choice." But when you want to be informed (or better yet when YOU want to inform) you think of the lowly, maligned press release. It's not dead. It's just that so few can do the darn thing right. Let's look at the facts and do it right...

Sell More Now
You can sell more in this economy...really!
Stop Wasting Your Time Chasing Network Marketing Prospects-Have Them Come To You
Learn the secret of getting an endless supply of network marketing prospects. Stop chasing your friends and family and start attracting quality people to your business.
There's Always Another Option
If you have doubts and an undefined destiny, I encourage you to take some time, find a quiet place where you can be alone to think, and describe on paper the kind of person you choose to be and the kind of life you choose to live. Create your own options! Write it like anything is possible, because it is! When you have a clear vision and clear intentions, then your brain can go to work to make the picture that you have imagined a reality.

3 Critical Franchisee Skills
Whether you are a franchiser attempting to find the candidates that will be both profitable and a brand asset or you are a franchisee attempting to create a thriving new enterprise, without these 3 components you will be challenged every day in your business.

Marketing and Sales Approaches - Hunting vs. Fishing.
A brief visual comparing two very different approaches to sales and marketing.
Writing Skills Atrophy Among Copycats, And Do-It-Yourself Business Communication Marketing
One of the best business communication marketing moves I ever made was sending out a monthly newsletter to current and prospective clients. I say that because it's a natural form of self-promotion minus obnoxious hype. You get your name out there -- with a lot of the keywords that attract search engines -- and you give readers an inkling of what you can do for them. Its value lies in an almost nonexistent "nag quotient." Far too often, I get insistent, "look at me!," "have I got an introductory offer for you!" emails from search engine optimization firms, online degree factories, "experts" in attracting government contracts, weight loss specialists, you name it. Not a one adds an iota to my knowledge of what they offer. Hype is what it is. But a newsletter that gives practical advice is truly effective business communication.

Everything Starts With A Conversation (Including Your Next Sale!)
Picture this. You're out having a coffee with a friend. An acquaintance of your friend happens to walk in and sits down for a few minutes to chat. After you finish talking about the weather and last night's sports scores, the inevitable question comes up: "So, what do you do?" You've got 60 seconds. What do you say?

How to Get Everything You Want in Business and in Life by Having B.A.L.L.S.
How to Step Out of Your Comfort Zone & Find Your B.A.L.L.S. So You Can Get Everything You Want
Real Estate Marketing Strategies - 7 Tips to Motivate Your Sphere of Influence to Refer to You
Are you afraid to pick up the phone? Don't be! Here are some tips to empower you and make those referrals happen.
A New Kind of Networking for Recessionary Times
With our economic market in an up and down swing, and sales from referrals our very best source, quality networking has taken on new meaning.
You Never Know Whom They Know
Don't think a gardener can be a referral source to the rich? Think again. Discounting even one potential networking opportunity can be disastrous.

A Three Step Solution to the Selling Dilemma
Recently I began working with a new client, a brand new franchisee of an outstanding franchise system, who told me, "I'd like you to know something about me right away. I've attended sales trainings before and I just won't do the 'car salesman' thing!" "Well," I replied, "Thank goodness... because that's exactly the opposite of what I'll be coaching you to do." Today's business owners are really uncomfortable with the old 1950's way of selling. And so are today's customers. The trouble is,many of these same business owners and customers have never experienced a kinder way of selling. Which is where I step in, ever so gently.
Why Do Referral Efforts Fail?
I’ll assume that you are likable, have integrity, and know your stuff. Over my years of working as a professional and working with professionals, I’ve identified four CRITICAL keys to referral success. Most professionals fall short in one or more of these areas.
Are You Prepared for Success?
Self-employed creative, professional people say that success means their docket is full and they're confident that the work will continue to come as long as they serve clients well and continue to spend some time on marketing. Unfortunately, most people look ahead to success without realizing the day will actually come. Consequently, they don't prepare and they get stalled by all the work required to move into the next phase of growth. Read more to find out what happened to "Ron" and Nancy, and about the 7 things you can do now to prepare for success.

Part Two - Prospecting for More Sales
In this series, we explore all the different avenues of prospecting necessary for a business to succeed. Think of your business as a a beautiful garden, and then consider all the things you need to do to keep that garden beautiful and growing, rather than dreary, dead or decaying. Need help with Prospecting? Feel free to get in touch with us via our website.

Financing Your Startup: Some Essential Tips
Step-by-step hints from experts to assist you....
Replacing Cash Will Be Slow, Painful, Inevitable
They're at it again giving us a gazillion good/great even reasons why we might as well forget our checks, cash, credit cards when it's all so fun, easy, rewarding to go with mobile wallets, mobile cash mobile whatever. And you have to admit it sounds fantastic!!! But no one has yet been able to tell us (to our satisfaction) who makes up the difference when some dude/dudette rips us off for our social security number, driver's license, birth date, pin numbers, life. We're pretty trusting for most folks. We're dumb...not stupid. We know Bonnie & Clyde really existed and we're not in a good enough financial shape to let them steal from us to give to themselves.

Other acquaintance Related Articles

Selling the Customer What the Customer Needs Not What You Want
I’d like to tell you a little story about Sam, an old acquaintance of mine. The first time I met Sam I had stopped in his little general store while passing through town to buy some soda for my long car ride back home. His was the only store in this very small rural town and he did a sizable amount of business. As I walked down one of the aisles to get to the refrigerated coolers in the back where they kept the soda, I couldn't help but notice that the shelves were loaded with containers of salt for sale. There were salt containers from the front of the aisle to the back, from top to bottom, and on both sides of the aisle. I couldn't believe it, an entire aisle dedicated to just salt.
No Fear of Referrals
People are often worried about being put in an uncomfortable situation in which someone they just met is asking them for a business referral -- particularly if their new acquaintance is a salesman asking for a referral to one of their friends who could be a potential client.

Everything Starts With A Conversation (Including Your Next Sale!)
Picture this. You're out having a coffee with a friend. An acquaintance of your friend happens to walk in and sits down for a few minutes to chat. After you finish talking about the weather and last night's sports scores, the inevitable question comes up: "So, what do you do?" You've got 60 seconds. What do you say?

The other side of social media: business networking
With social media comes a whole new way of connecting with others. As our friend list builds on Facebook, we realise that that keeping a relationship adrift with the written word is now a perfectly acceptable and viable alternative to meeting for coffee or picking up the telephone. Posting on somebody’s wall or replying to their blog post is just as acceptable as a teleconference call. In fact, we may have contacts that we have never even met or that we have never heard speak, but are as valuable an acquaintance as others whom we’ve known for years – especially when it comes to the business world. Social media is leaving the MySpace era of tweens and teens behind, and is now a perfectly acceptable mode of business networking.

People and Expectations
As you have already discovered, the world is full of all kinds of different people. Some of them mesh well with our personalities and expectations and others simply do not. This is not a problem in and of itself because all of these people put together make up our world as it exists. The difficulty arises when we expect people to be other than what they are. For example, we all have a friend or acquaintance who is habitually late. If this is the only problem with a particular person, it can be dealt with. Over the months and years, we simply learn to build in extra time, because we know that they will continue to be late. The problem arises when we expect that late person to be punctual.

There is no such thing as a home page
As children we are taught to see beyond first impressions and give everyone a chance. The old “don’t judge a book by its cover” still plays in my ears as I enter a less than pristine restaurant or a new acquaintance’s messy home. Still, in everyday life and especially in business, first impressions mean everything. From the polish of your shoes to the make of your phone, we are constantly being judged by our peers based on outward appearances; and a professional website is no exception. In an online world your website is more than just your storefront, it’s your brand identity.

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