As small business owners, we are forced to wear many hats in our growing organizations – often, we find ourselves wearing many of them at the same time.

While it certainly gives us the sense of productivity, I wonder what toll it takes on us and our business relationships.  Personally, I am not a good multi-tasker; although I would have told you otherwise throughout most of my business life.  Becoming a blogger has opened my eyes to all of the dropped balls that I never saw while struggling to maintain my juggling act.

I came across this article, Task Master: Is doing it all, all at the same time, really the best way? (originally published in Today’s Christian Woman in 2005), and it started me thinking about whether all of this multi-tasking is really good for my small business. 

Do I Really Have to do 3 Things at Once to Feel Productive?

I love this question that she asks.  It gets to the heart of the matter very quickly.  If I were only doing one thing at a time, but doing it very well, would I feel as productive?

Like the author, I have to admit that unless I am doing multiple things at the same time I do not feel productive.  I can easily see myself in her recounting one multi-tasking event from her life.

Or I’ll take a stack of correspondence into our family room and tune in a movie I’ve been eager to see. Distracted by the film, I have to read each letter twice, not really connecting with the dear person who’s written to me, nor fully involved with the story on the screen. When a family member joins me and starts to chat, I catch myself scribbling words that make little sense, trying to follow the movie out of the corner of my eye and only half-listening, half-nodding to whatever my loved one is saying.

Somewhere along the way, we have accepted the premise that just because the technology makes it possible that it is something we should do.  Have we focused so much on being productive that we’ve forgotten about being effective?

Is Your Productivity Killing Your Relationships?

I often hear from small business owners who complain about the loss of loyalty from their workforce and their customers.  Let’s face it.  Building strong, long-lasting relationships takes a lot of time and effort.

They are not something that naturally flourish as a result of multi-tasking.  All too often, they are the balls that have dropped to the floor during your juggling act.  If you’re like me, it may take you a while to notice them laying there on the ground.

Which is why blogging has made me realize that I am not an effective multi-tasker.  Blogging is very much about developing that relationship with your readers.  I’ve been so busy lately trying to be productive, that this blog became one of those balls on the ground.

What Balls Have Fallen to the Ground for You?

It’s been eye-opening to see something that I have been passionate about growing has so easily been lost in the flurry of productivity.  When the author talks about her multi-tasking experience above, did you notice that while she was getting many things done at once that none were being done very well?

How are your relationships with your employees?  with your customers?  with your family?  The moments in life, in business, in relationships that seem to have the most impact are not those moments when we are trying to do many things at once.

Maybe it’s time to start being less productive and more effective?

No related posts.

You may have noticed the new poll feature on the sidebar of this blog.  The question for this month is whether you are more or less likely to visit a business that advertises as “Christian-Owned and Operated.”

Several months ago I asked the question Should Your Small Business Advertise as Christian Owned?, and I pointed out some of the issues that may arise when one chooses to do so.  Now, I want to know if making that choice translates into more business.

What Factors Impact Your Buying Decision?

My gut feeling is that we make our buying decisions primarily on name recognition or price.  It’s why campaigns like “Buy American” don’t really work over the long run.  I wonder if it is really any different when it comes to the Christian community.

Given the lack of any significant differences in social behaviors in studies comparing Christians and non-believers, I have serious doubt that there will be greater loyalty when it comes to the pocketbook.

I Need Your Help

I’m having a difficult time locating credible studies showing the impact of advertising as a “Christian-Owned and Operated” business on a buyer’s decision making process.

If anyone knows of a study, or has any suggestions where I might find one, please let me know in the comments below or shoot me an email to brad@bradleyaharmon.com.

While I know it is not a scientific poll, I would appreciate it if you would answer the poll in the sidebar.  The more people I can get to answer the question the better.  If you could spread the word about the poll I would be grateful.

No related posts.

Our inaugural guest post is written by Mike Holmes.  He is the author of I Shall Raise Thee Up: Ancient Principles for Lasting Greatness and operates a blog by the same name where he writes about business and leadership development from a Biblical perspective.

Mike has written posts for several respected Christian business blogs, and is currently working on his second book entitled Biblical Strategies for Marketing Success.  He has been a very active member of our blog community adding interesting insights through his comments and tweets.

And now, without further adieu, here’s Mike …

What does the Bible Say about Salesmanship?

By Mike Holmes

With all the strategies and techniques available to the Christian Entrepreneur (offline and online)…it all means NOTHING if not translated into sales.

Sales is vital; not just to business but everyday life:

• A prospect doesn’t become a happy client without a sale
• The unsaved don’t realize their need for Christ without a sale
• An interview doesn’t become a job offer without a sale
• The single become involved when there is a sale…in fact, it moves to marriage through another sale

Sales is so important that the Bible goes into great details about it.

The Bible?

Sales?

Huh?!

Yup. You heard me: “great details”! It gives strategies, concepts, what-to-do’s, and what-not-to-do’s. It’s all there.

But before we go “there” let me define “selling.”

I define “selling” as:

“Persuading someone to take advantage of an idea, concept, product, or service that is in their best interest.”

Nothing more, nothing less. A true salesperson is a servant first.

So here they are…some of the Biblical strategies for sales success. Whether you’re interested in becoming a better salesperson, helping your people become better salespeople, or just interested to see what the Bible says this one is for you!

Be sold yourself

To sell something effectively you have to be sold on it yourself. How can you sell something you truly don’t believe in?

The apostle Paul had numerous hardships in being a messenger of Christ. He faced persecution, ridicule, scorn, beatings, imprisonment, and etc. But in spite of all the hardship he still wrote:

But we continue to preach because we have the same kind of faith the psalmist had when he said, ‘I believed in God, so I spoke.’ We know that God, Who raised the Lord Jesus, will also raise us with Jesus and present us to himself together with you. - 2 Corinthians 4:13-14 (New Living Translation)

In other words, “I so believe in what I’m selling that I’m willing to endure this kind of rejection. Because what I’m offering will benefit the world!”

SALES=The Transfer of Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm is essential to sales. If you’re not fired up about what you’re offering, why should your prospect be?!

The word itself is Greek in origin; and it means “inspiration or possession of God or a god.”

When the early Christians saw someone convert to Christianity they had no word to describe the overwhelming joy that followed, so they created a word out of two words: “En” and “Theos” which together mean “God within.” In other words, “it means to be so inspired it’s like God Himself dwells within.”

The last four letters of the word IASM are used as an acronym:

I
AM
SOLD
MYSELF

That kind of enthusiasm comes with a GREAT PRODUCT that you’re sold on yourself!

If you’re currently selling something you’re not completely sold on do one of two things:

(1) Resell yourself on its merits

OR

(2) Stop selling it!

Sell yourself

The Bible says, “He who wins souls is wise” – Proverbs 11:30 (NKJV).  This is sooo critical in selling.

If your prospect is not sold on you they will not be sold on your product or service. The worst thing you can do is try to win the sale without winning the soul.

To win a soul is to win the prospect’s trust and friendship—through genuine relationship building. Not through gimmicks, but genuine honesty and integrity. Why ? Because every message is ALWAYS filtered through the messenger. And if people don’t trust the messenger, how can they trust her message or product?

When you succeed in building a genuine (emphasis on “genuine”) relationship you move from a “salesperson” trying to get them “to buy something,” to a “consultant” helping them make “a buying decision.”

Relationship is key.

Sell your service

A sale never ends with the signing of a contract and/or the writing of a check. Your customer needs to understand that you’ll be there for them—as long as you’re in the business they’re warranty is good with you.

The Bible says, “Since God assured us, ‘I’ll never let you down, never walk off and leave you,’ we can boldly quote, ‘God is there, ready to help; I’m fearless no matter what. Who or what can get to me?’” Hebrews 13:5-6 (The Message)

Until it is installed, programmed, finished, and/or understood the sale is not done. Sales and service go hand in hand.

One of the things that separate top producers from lower producers is the top have books of repeat business—in other words they have a clientele. Even though they’ve closed the deal they still service the account. Doing that opens a tremendous stream of client referrals.

Service is still the best form of marketing.

Unfortunately, most salespeople subscribe to a “wham-bam-thank-you-ma’am” philosophy of selling—and though this helps quota it doesn’t create a clientele. In fact, it creates resentment and mistrust.

Your customer needs to understand that you’re there for them not for their money!

But what do you think?

No related posts.

In December, I wrote a review on a new book by up-and-coming author Michael Holmes called I Shall Raise Thee Up: Ancient Principles for Lasting Greatness.

Some of you know Michael through his comments on this blog where he always brings an insightful dynamic to the conversation.  I thought you might enjoy going deeper into his book with the author himself and learning more about him in the process.

If you haven’t had a chance to read my review of Michael’s book, you can read it by clicking here. 

This would have been a fabulous interview with audio or video, but I am not quite set up to do that yet so we conducted the interview via email.  I hope you enjoy it.

On How Writing this Book has Changed His Life …

Brad: I think a lot of entrepreneurs can relate to where you were on that long bus ride heading to a job that you hated thinking “there’s got to be a better way.” I’m interested in learning how your life is different today as a result of transforming that recurring thought on a bus ride from a rejected magazine article to a published book.

Michael: Well, it has and has not changed. I’m not financially independent and I’m still in a job that I wish I wasn’t in.  But things have changed a lot in my attitude, my focus, and my purpose.

By attitude: I’ve learned (and am still learning) how to thank God in spite of and not because of. I’m learning to trust His timing and not my own.

By focus: I have learned to use the bulk of my energy toward things that will ultimately matter—and not be bogged down with activities that serve no purpose in the long run.

By purpose: I have discovered more and more of what I’m here to do. And I think that’s the greatest thing that can happen to a person. To discover your purpose is to discover the reason for your talents, strengths, weaknesses, likes, dislikes, and etc. And to discover the greatest of them all: your life’s work.

What He Hopes Readers Will Take Away from the Book …

Brad: As I mentioned in my review of the book, there are so many great quotes that I’ve highlighted for future use.  The size of your book is deceptively small because you cover so many different principles and aspects of being an entrepreneur.

As the author, what is the one principle, idea, or impression that you hope your readers will take away from your book?

Michael: Service.  Service is the key ingredient for a great company, ministry, people, or person. And whenever we lose sight of that the downward spiral is only a matter of time. Service is the greatest of all the principles…but love is even greater that that.

The Role Isolation Played in His Life …

Brad: I mentioned in my review that I was excited to see where you were headed in the chapter on isolation, but that I got lost with the biographies you used in the chapter.  The promise of that chapter really struck a chord within me that I hadn’t thought about before, and I wanted to give you an opportunity to talk more about it here and what role isolation has played in your life as a Christian entrepreneur.

Michael: I never used to fit in certain crews or cliques and it used to really trouble me. It wasn’t until recently where I discovered that God designed me not to fit in. It was such an eye opener to realize that people’s rejection of me was simply Him directing me.

For a Christian entrepreneur, isolation has many benefits. And by “entrepreneur” I don’t necessarily someone just in business for themselves—although that’s a big part of it. An “entrepreneur” is someone of takes possession of a new enterprise, venture or idea and assumes responsibility for the outcome. In other words, it someone who takes control of their life and assumes responsibility for it. A Christian entrepreneur is someone who does that with God’s help.

And so isolation plays its part because everyone doesn’t think like that. They let other people control their lives…and worse yet…refuse to let God take control! And so that isolation is essential because it makes you not fit into that. And THEN God and you move from mediocrity to greatness.

On What He Would Tell that Avon Supervisor Today …

Brad: It seems so many of us have had people in our lives that were in a place to help lift us up, but chose to ignore or belittle us instead.  I could really empathize with you as your excitement was crushed with her indifferent “that’s nice.”  If you were to meet her today, what would you like to say to her?

Michael: I would bring her to your site!  LOL!  Then I would take her over to a few others like Rod Kirby, Stephen Borgman, Bradley Moore, and etc.  Then I would walk her through history and show her all the believers in enterprise…that started great enterprises.  And then I would try my gut-busting best to introduce her to the Savior we all know as God.

On the Challenges of Writing Your First Book …

Brad: What are some of the challenges you faced in writing your first book?  What advice would you give to others who are thinking about writing a book?

Michael: Because I wanted this book to be of quality I had to do my homework I breezed through at least a hundred books in writing this—not to mention magazines, websites, and Scripture study. That is hard. Then I had to make it as simple as possible—so that means not using four words when two will do and so on. And I had it keep it short…and that itself was hard because there was sooooooo much more I wanted to say.

For first-time authors I would say the key thing is writing a book are reading and writing. Read as many books as possible, see what the authors are doing right, and see what they’re doing wrong. And then write! Nobody’s gonna read a book you haven’t written. And don’t worry how the first one looks…you’ll get better the more you practice.

On the Response He’s Received to His Book …

Brad: What has been the response to your book?  Are there any stories you would like to share from any of your readers?

Michael: The response has been overwhelmingly positive! One lady said she read it in two days and passed it on to her son. One lady who had given up on life said that it gave her hope that He still had a plan for her life. And especially considering this recession people need hope like never before. And I’m glad God would use me to communicate it.

On Possible Books in the Future …

Brad: It’s been said that we all have at least one good book in us just waiting to get out.  Do you plan on writing another book?  If so, what will it be about?

Michael: I’m actually in the process of writing another. The next one will be entitled “Biblical strategies for marketing success.”

It came to me because I noticed that most of the “new” and “good” marketing we see today like “being transparent” “permission marketing” “giving value” and etc have their origins in the Bible. So I’m writing to show that these strategies existed before us and they’ll exist after us—because the One who created them is eternal. So it’s a back to the Bible-kind-of thing…because any answer to any problem is found in the Word of God. We just have to have the sense to look—because God hides them purposely. He hides them so we can seek for them and seek Him for them

Wrapping Up

Wasn’t that a great interview?  I’ve really enjoyed getting to know Michael over the past few months. If you haven’t read I Shall Raise Thee Up: Ancient Principles for Lasting Greatness I highly recommend it.

I’m sure you will see more from Michael on this site through his comments, and I’m very excited to announce that he’s agreed to guest post here as well from time to time.

You can always find his latest writings on his blog, www.raisetheeup.com/blog.  Thank you Michael for a great interview.

Related posts:

1. Book Review: I Shall Raise Thee Up

How many times have we seen a young entrepreneur cross our paths who is just full of passion and out to conquer the world.  He has big dreams, big plans, and is naive enough to think they are all going to come true.

A few years later, after the world has kicked him in the teeth a few times, we put our hand on his weary shoulder and say, “Welcome to the real world kid.”

I started thinking about this scenario today while I was reading the first chapter of Psalms.  It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how many times I read a passage from the Bible I take away some new insight I hadn’t seen before.

I guess this could probably be said about all great literary works to some extent, but none more so, for me, than the Bible.  It’s not only the literary aspects that speak to me, but the historical, philosophical, and spiritual as well.

My revelation today was that there, in one simple verse, was the reason so many entrepreneurs lose their passion – not only lose it, but become cynical in the process.

Whose Counsel are You Walking In?

Psalms 1:1 starts out by warning us not to walk in the counsel of the wicked.  As entrepreneurs, we need the counsel of others to be successful.

It’s been said that no man is an island, and that is especially true in the business world.  In 5 Lessons Entrepreneurs Can Learn From Shark Tank, I pointed out that one mistake new entrepreneurs make is not assembling their own shark tank to go to for advice.

Surround yourself with the best people possible.  Make sure that they have a passion for what they do.  It’s also important that they will be honest with you and provide positive reinforcement.  Without this support, you will find it hard to keep your passion.

Whose Way are You Standing In?

Psalms 1:1 goes on to warn about not standing in the way of sinners.  Did you catch the imagery?  The warning went from walking to standing.

You’ll hear a lot about the fast pace of business as an entrepreneur.  There are certainly times when we need to pause and regroup, but one luxury we do not have is to let everything come to a screeching halt.

Sometimes, we listen to the wrong people and hit a dead end.  Too often, we listen to so many voices we don’t notice that we’ve stopped moving.

It’s when we stop moving that we’re likely to be run over.  Get wise counsel, then act.

Whose Seat are You Sitting In?

Psalms 1:1 finishes by warning against sitting in the seat of the mocker or scornful.  See the imagery?  Bad counsel leads to dead ends and confusion causing you to come to a standstill.  If you stay that way for too long you end up parking it.

In You’ll Shoot Your Eye Out! – Who Wants Your Business to Fail?, I pointed out several types of people that want your business to fail.  The cynic tried and failed on their own, but now they’ve given up and give excuses or blame others for their failures.

They wallow in their own self pity and make success seem so far out of reach.  The more they bring into this cacophony of “woe is me,” the more legitimate their “reasons” start to sound. It’s easier than you think to end up here.

All that it really takes is to stop walking, stand still listening to the excuses, and the next thing you know you have your own seat at this pity party.

Blessed is the Man

Hopefully, when I started out this blog you thought to yourself, “that doesn’t sound like me.  I would pat that young entrepreneur on the back, tell him to keep his chin up, and that his dreams were just around the corner.”

If not, then recognize where you are above.  The Scripture starts out by saying blessed is the man that doesn’t do the things above.  Successful entrepreneurs get back up and keep moving.

Stand up, surround yourself with good counsel, and get moving again.  This is the way success is earned.  Start talking about your dreams again instead of your failures.

No related posts.

The parable of the unjust steward in Luke 16:1-13 may be one of the most difficult parables told by Jesus Christ.  I doubt that many Christians have ever heard a sermon preached on this passage.

Why?  Because it appears that Christ is giving tacit approval for the unjust servant to defraud his master after being given his pink slip.  Let’s just jump into the parable and you’ll see what I mean.  I’ll be using the King James Version (KJV) today because there are some translation issues with the New International Version (NIV) on this passage.  Click here to see the parable in the NIV.

The Unjust Steward Gets the Pink Slip

The parable starts out with the unjust steward being fired by his master after being accused of being wasteful with the master’s money.

¹And he said also unto his disciples, There was a certain rich man, which had a steward; and the same was accused unto him that he had wasted his goods. ²And he called him, and said unto him, How is it that I hear this of thee? give an account of thy stewardship; for thou mayest be no longer steward.

The steward does not defend himself because he either has no defense or isn’t really given an opportunity to defend himself.

³Then the steward said within himself, What shall I do? for my lord taketh away from me the stewardship: I cannot dig; to beg I am ashamed.

Given the number of pink slips handed out over the past two years it is easy to relate to his thoughts.  It’s a rough time to be out of work – especially if you have no skills for the jobs that are in demand.  It’s natural to start to worry in this situation.

The Unjust Steward Decides to Create His Own Parachute

The unjust steward decides that he is going to create his own social welfare safety net as part of his final duties.  Be honest, this is tempting – isn’t it?

⁴I am resolved what to do, that, when I am put out of the stewardship, they may receive me into their houses. ⁵So he called every one of his lord’s debtors unto him, and said unto the first, How much owest thou unto my lord? ⁶And he said, An hundred measures of oil. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty. ⁷Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore.

Did he just do what it looks like he did?  Did he just give some unauthorized discounts to make some friends that may want to help him out later?

The Lord Commends the Unjust Steward AND so Did Christ

Surely his master is not going to look kindly on this matter.  You’d think, but he actually commends the steward for it.  What is going on here?

⁸And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. ⁹And I say unto you, Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness; that, when ye fail, they may receive you into everlasting habitations.

Say what?  Did I just miss something, or did Jesus just tell His disciples to do the same thing?  It looks like Jesus is saying it’s okay to use your boss’s money to buy friends.

Jesus Warns Us to Be Faithful With Little

Jesus then appears to take an about face and warns us about being faithful with little.

¹⁰He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. ¹¹If therefore ye have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? ¹²And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?

Confused?  This doesn’t seem to jive very well with what He said above, does it?  There has to be some other interpretation.

Let’s Take Another Look

There seems to be three plausible ways to look at what the unjust steward did.

First, he did what it appears that he did and the master was impressed at how shrewdly the steward provided for himself on the way out.  I have a hard time buying this one.

Second, the steward had overcharged these people and was just setting the records straight for his master as an attempt to gain both his and the other’s good will.

Third, the amount slashed was the steward’s commission.  By giving up his commission now he earned the good will of his master and the others.

What Was the Point of This Parable?

It seems to me that the third explanation is the most plausible as it accounts for both the master’s commendation and for Jesus telling his disciples to follow the steward’s example.

The wisdom comes in the signing over of your worldly possessions now for the hope of the eternal rewards later.  It is a call for us to be generous with our worldly possessions using them to make eternal friendships.  Many Christians miss the smart play here.

¹³No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

The unjust steward was wise enough to know that giving away what he had was the only real move to make.  If he had kept it, he would have had nothing when it was gone.

No related posts.

If ever there were any doubts, they are completely gone now.  I am definitely a creature of habit.

My plan at the beginning of December was to take off one week between Christmas and New Year’s Day, but that wasn’t exactly how it worked out.  Once my wife and son were on their winter break from school, there was little hope of keeping up my two-a-day posts.

There was no hope at all when my laptop crashed.  To make matters worse, all of my social networking came to a screeching halt as well.

My routine was pretty well set.  I would write one post in the morning, and in the afternoon after I picked up my son from school I would write the second post.  I would do my blogwalking and social networking on the laptop while watching television or carrying on a conversation with the family.

It’s not that I didn’t want to blog, but the extended break started a new routine that was hard to break without the laptop being available.

The Christian Entrepreneur in the News

It should come as little surprise then that there was very little buzz going around the blogosphere during January.  I managed to post a whole six posts for the month.

The biggest news came sometime around New Year’s Day when we received our visible PageRank update from Google.  The Christian Entrepreneur now has a PageRank of 2 up from the initial PageRank of zero it received in November.

It’s Hard to Comment When There’s No Postings

I was pretty surprised that the number of comments were as high as they were since I had not posted much during January.  All I can say is that you all rock!

This month we had 26 commenters make 52 comments compared to 42 commenters making 189 comments last month.

Top 10 Commenters

1. Paula (8)
2. Mike Holmes (6)
3. Will from Whatawebsite (4)
4. Brandon A. Cox (3)
   Laurie Neumann (3)
   Ms. Freeman (3)
   Alison Moore Smith (3)
5. Rod Kirby (2)
   David Rupert (2)
   Jared P. Little (2)

As a way of saying thank you, the links above will share my Google PageRank.

Special Commenter Appreciation Goes To …

The free one month advertising banner goes to Paula from Affiliate Blog Online for being the top commenter.  Please email your banner to brad@bradleyaharmon.com.

Paula from Affiliate Blog Online, Mike Holmes, and Will from Whatawebsite will all receive a free write up on their blogs for being the top three commenters of the month.

Find out more about our commenter appreciation program by reading Comments Are a Blogger’s Best Friend.

5 Most Commented on Posts of the Month

1. How SMART are Your New Year’s Resolutions? (18 comments)
2. 5 Ways to Make Your Goals Even SMARTer this Year (14 comments)
3. What Entrepreneurs can Learn from Martha Coakley’s Campaign (10 comments)
4. Gays, Lesbians, and the Christian Entrepreneur (10 comments)
5. Where was God when Haiti Shook? (9 comments)

Website Statistics

Even though I was harder to find than Waldo at a barber shop sign warehouse in January, the web traffic for the month was still decent for such a young blog.

Top Referring Sites

1. Whatawebsite (62)
2. Blog Engage (50)
3. Stumble Upon (43)
4. Intense Debate (35)
5. Twitter (21)

February 2010 Goals

• 2,500 visits
• 1,000 unique visitors
• 7,500 pageviews
• 3.00 average pageviews

January 2010 Goals vs Actuals

The four goals that I wanted this site to achieve in January were not possible with my post volume for the month.  I am surprised that we were at 50% or more for most.

• Goal was 1,200 visits – Actually had 663
• Goal was 700 unique visitors – Actually had 464
• Goal was 3,500 page views – Actually had 1,526
• Goal was 3.00 average pageviews – Actually had 2.30

Final Thoughts

Obviously, I need to step it up big time if I am going to come anywhere close to my February 2010 goals.  It’s my birthday month though so hopefully you all will give me a nice present.

I will be opening up guest posting in February, and I will be writing guest posts for several bloggers that have asked over the last month.

If you’re interested in having me guest post on your blog, or you would like to guest post on The Christian Entrepreneur let me know.  The best way is by leaving a comment here or leave a comment on my Facebook wall.

Related posts:

1. December 2009 Recap – A Great Ending to the Year
2. November 2009 Recap – What a Great Month!

Last month, I asked Just How Valuable are Customer Referrals Anyway? I used a real world example to show how easy and profitable it is to grow your business through word-of-mouth referrals alone.

I’m not suggesting that referrals should be your only source of business growth; however, given the low acquisition costs associated with referrals they should be a major source of that growth. In fact, they are the low lying fruit on the tree of business growth that take very little effort to harvest.

Why do so many small business entrepreneurs miss out on referrals?  In my post, Is Your Small Business Kissable?, I pointed out that one of the reasons is that we simply fail to ask for them.  Another reason is that they lack an effective client referral system.

Who Do You Want Your Clients to Refer to You?

Before we get into the referral system, you first have to know who it is that you want your client to refer to you.  It’s a very simple step that too many entrepreneurs skip, but it is one of the most critical steps.

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while then you will know that I come back to this question over and over again.  Who is your target customer?  Be specific.

Your client is going to need to know specifically what you are looking for in a potential referral if you want to receive quality leads from them.  You don’t really want all of their friends and family members without any qualifying factors, do you?

What are Your Target Customer’s Problems?

What problems are you solving for your current clients?  Is it saving time by making them more efficient?  Maybe it’s making them more profitable?  Perhaps, it’s making their business less stressful?  Make a list of the problems you are solving.

Now list the symptoms of those problems underneath each bullet point. What is it that people say in general conversation that would indicate they are having a problem you are great at solving?

Let’s face it, most of us don’t go around telling our friends that we need to revamp our hiring process because our application doesn’t really gather useful information needed to make an informed hiring decision.

We tend to make statements like “good help is hard to find,” or “if you want things done right I guess you have to do them yourself.”  You need to set your clients up to think about referring people based on their symptoms.

Sizing Up Your Target Customer

Symptoms are great because they allow you to pinpoint needs that you are great at solving.  It doesn’t do much good though if the person with the symptoms can’t afford your services or is part of a mammoth corporation that is too large for you to service.

Write down the names of your ten best clients (the ones you would love to have more of – not just the biggest).  Under each bullet point list out what you know about them.

This includes the size of their company in both number of employees and revenues, their occupation, their education level, their hobbies, etc.  What are the most common data points that you listed?  Does this fit with your target customer profile?

For example, you may find that most of your ten best clients have fewer than 50 employees, are college educated, work in the computer industry, and love to play golf.

Now you not only know the size of business and industry that you want to target, but you also have a great idea where they hang out.

Who Else is After Your Target Customer?

Hopefully, you are starting to have a good image in your mind as to what your target customer looks like.  They should look very similar to your ten best clients.

Now it’s time to start brainstorming as to who else could be looking to do business with your target customer.  I’m not talking about competitors, rather what other businesses could sell their products or services to your client.

For example, a client who needs a certified public accountant may also need an attorney, a financial planner, an insurance agent, or a stockbroker.  Developing a referral network with other business owners providing synergistic products and services is a great way to expand your customer base.

Why not ask your best clients who it is that they are using for these services and start a relationship with them?  Referral networks are much easier to form, and more profitable, when mutual clients recommend synergistic partners to each other.

Making Your Target Customer a Reality

We started with looking at your target customer though your eyes, but then we refined that image by looking at it through the eyes of your client and other service providers.

You should begin to see how taking these first steps before talking with your clients about referrals are setting you up to receive higher quality and more focused referrals from your best clients.

It’s also a great process for making sure your target customer becomes more concrete in your own mind.  Someone suggested in a comment the other day that we should name our target customer and even make an avatar for them.

The more real they become to you the easier it will be for you to successfully market and operate your business.

The Next Step in the Referral System

Tomorrow, we will look at creating a Customer Profile Sheet using the information gathered from this post.  It will be a vital tool throughout the rest of the referral system.

How you use it though makes all the difference.  Please be sure to check back throughout this week for the rest of my proven client referral system.

Related posts:

1. Just How Valuable are Customer Referrals Anyway?