There’s a lot of talk going around these days about leveraging…leveraging your time, your money, your ability. How does leveraging apply to word-of-mouth marketing? I can think of one very specific way to exponentially increase the ability to generate referrals for your business with “one hit.” This method is sometimes known as the “rubber chicken circuit.”
Now, if you are a program chair for a service club or other organization that meets regularly and schedules speakers for each meeting, I apologize for disparaging the meals served at these functions. But, that is how the speakers who frequent your programs have come to know the ballgame.
Many business people realize the immense networking value joining and participating in service clubs lends to their credibility in the community. What they don’t think of, often, is how many referrals actually being the speaker at these various meetings can generate.
When you schedule an appointment with someone you think might be interested in what you are selling, that hour is important! Imagine setting that same ONE HOUR appointment with between 20-50 business people in your community! That is, in effect, what you are doing when you go out on the rubber chicken circuit! This is why we refer to this technique as Power Word-of-Mouth Marketing.
How do you as an entrepreneur get on their calendars? It isn’t as hard as you might think. With a little creativity, you can put together a presentation that will be informational, educational and even entertaining for these groups. Usually program chairs are scrambling to find someone different, engaging and interesting to have come on in and present to the group. Your job is to help them find YOU!
Here is a sample letter I used to send to program chairs when I was in business consulting. You will see that I was offering much more than a one-hour sales pitch for my service:
Dear Program Chair:
AIM Consulting is a management consulting firm that works with small and medium size businesses. During the last two years, we have given a presentation entitled “Entrepreneuring in the 80’s” to over 60 service organizations such as yours. The presentation deals with managing and motivating employees. It involves participation and interaction with the audience and leaves time for questions at the end. Here are some of the comments we’ve received:
“Fantastic, every service club must hear!”
East LA Rotary “One of our best…Ivan kept everyone excited.”
Alhambra Optimist “An excellent talk by an excellent speaker.”
Irwindale Rotary “Excellent, highly recommended, got a lot of questions.”
Hermosa Kiwanis If you are interested in this topic, we would be glad to visit your club to give this presentation.
Please feel free to contact us is you have any questions.
Sincerely, Ivan R. Misner President Just one acceptance to this letter can position you in front of multiple business people who might be in the market for just your product or service! Once you have the opportunity to make these types of connections, you never know where they will lead. Often business generated this way leads to a lot of spin-off word-of-mouth business.
Let me give you an example of how a business owner might position him/herself to be a speaker at an organization’s weekly meeting. Take the case of a handyman. He owns his own business; in many cases, he IS his own business! You might wonder how a handyman could appeal to a program chair who is looking for someone to speak to his or her group. The topic of home safety is a very timely message. Who better than a handyman to fashion a presentation on home safety and give viable tips on things to do around the house to be sure that the home environment is free from hidden (and not so hidden) dangers.
Of course, the members present at that meeting might have a need to correct some of the things the handyman is bringing up. Who do you think they are going to contact for that? Bingo! That week’s speaker is just the person for the job.
Another great networking result is spin-off business from being a speaker at a local organization’s meeting. Spin-off business is like so much icing on the cake. Once you begin networking with the members of the organization, you will be met with an open door for referrals from them. Make sure you ASK for those referrals.
The key is to go in with information and education…not a huge sales pitch. People don’t like being sold to, but they do like to buy! A great presentation can motivate your audience to want to buy what it is you have for sale. But, not only that, a great presentation can also position you favorably for extended networking with the members and their contacts.
Next time you think of rubber chicken, think - leverage, think – word-of-mouth marketing, think - business!!
Called the father of modern networking, Dr. Ivan Misner is a New York Times bestselling author and Founder of BNI (www.bni.com the world’s largest business networking organization. His latest book, Truth or Delusion can be viewed at www.TruthorDelusion.com. Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the Referral Institute, an international referral training company (www.referralinstitute.com He can be reached at misner@bni.com .
Power Word of Mouth Marketing Leveraging Your Referral Generating Ability - To learn more about this author, visit Ivan R. Misner's Website.
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Ivan R. Misner
(Visit Ivan's Website)
Dr. Ivan Misner is the Founder & Chairman
of BNI (Business Network Int'l.). BNI (www.bni.com) was
founded in 1985. The organization has over
4,200 chapters throughout every populated
continent of the world. Last year alone,
BNI generated millions referrals resulting
in billions of dollars worth of business
for its members.
Dr. Misner’s Ph.D. is from the University
of Southern California. He has written
eight books, including his New York Times
best seller, Masters of Networking and his
#1 bestseller, Masters of Success. He is
a monthly columnist for Entrepreneur.com
and is also Chairman of the Board for the
Referral Instititute - a referral training
company with trainers around the world.
He has taught business and social capital
courses at several universities and is on
the Board of Directors for the Colorado
School of Professional Psychology.
Called the "Father of Modern Networking"
by Ecademy.com and the “Networking Guru”
by Entrepreneur magazine, Dr. Misner is
one of the world's leading experts on
business networking and has been a
keynote speaker for major corporations and
associations throughout the world.
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