Testimonials can be a great way to show your prospects that you provide high quality service and products. They are also a great tool for providing credibility in your industry. But how does one go about receiving more testimonials?

When was the last time you asked for a testimonial?

The key in receiving more testimonials is knowing when to ask. For example, asking a client for a testimonial after they have just finished complaining about your service or product is not wise. However, asking them after you have just finished responding to their complaint is great.

In fact, many times you will receive some of the best testimonials after fixing a problem. However, many of them go unrecognized because staff is not trained to look for them. Can you spot the testimonial below?

Customer- “You know, I really can’t believe that you were willing to change out my faulty product without any questions or hassles. I have never had a company do that before.”

You- “I am glad that you are happy. It is always our goal to provide excellent customer service and high quality products.”

Customer- “Well, you definitely have.”

Where was the testimonial? Everything the customer said could be made into a testimonial. Now, is that a strong testimonial as is? No, because you haven’t asked for permission to use it as a testimonial. So go one step further by simply adding the following:

You- “Great! Would you mind if I used that as a testimonial?”

Customer- “You sure can!”

It is vital that this becomes ingrained in the minds of everyone in your business that has interactions with customers. Changing this mindset will increase the testimonials in your business and will increase your credibility in the marketplace.

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It’s easy to overlook the true value of a customer. Most people only look at the immediate revenue a new customer will bring to one’s business instead of the life time value. Why is it important to know the lifetime value of a potential customer? This will help you know where to allocate your resources so you can focus on what will bring the highest return on investment.

It's easy to overlook the true value of a client.

It is very simple to calculate the lifetime value of a customer. You do it by calculating out how long a customer will be with you (example 3 years) and multiplying that by how many transactions a year (example 3) with the average transaction amount each time ($50).

So, in that scenario a customer would be worth $450 to you for the lifetime value. Now, if it costs you $100 to acquire a customer is that worth it you? Only you can answer that question based upon your goals and business model, but most people would undoubtedly say yes.

After all, spending $100 to bring in $450 is not a bad scenario for most people, especially if this is something that is consistent. Now keep in mind that all customers won’t work out to this precisely. Some will be worth more, and some will be worth less. The main thing is to get an average so you can use this knowledge accurately.

Now, some people might say that they are not sure how much it costs them to get a new customer. Or some people might say that because they don’t do advertising or marketing they do not have a cost to acquire customers. This is not true, however, because every activity has a cost. Of course your time is worth something and you need to factor that into every decision you make.

Understanding the lifetime value of a customer will enable you to allocate your time and resources more effectively no matter what type of advertising, marketing, or networking you do.

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Most people do not buy on the first time.

Most people do not buy the first time they hear about your product or service. This is for many reasons. Sometimes it is budget. Sometimes it is a lack of understanding. Sometimes it is a lack of need (perceived or real).

The most important thing to realize is that if you are in a sales appointment and someone says no, that you realize why he or she said no.

Is it because it is not in their budget? Perhaps it will be in the future.

Is it because they don’t see the benefit, or maybe it’s because they don’t like you. Some objections you can’t overcome, but a lot of things you can understand.

This brings up an important question. Do you have a way to follow up with prospects if they don’t buy right away? In marketing circles this could be called a hopper system. A hopper system helps educate, nurture, and build a relationship with your prospects so that when they are ready to buy, they buy from you.

Remember, most sales are made after several touches or appointments. Consistent follow-up allows you to leverage your time and have a consistent stream of prospects ready to buy.

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Taking Action--One Day at a Time

You have undoubtedly heard the question, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer—simple yet profound “One bite at a time!” applies to many things in life and especially one’s business. Many people do not achieve their goals due to not understanding the purpose or function of goals, how to set goals, and how to achieve the work that goes into accomplishing their goals.

Goals should be like stair steps. The problem is, most people know how to create BIG goals, but they don’t understand that the big goal needs to be reverse engineered down to include little goals to get you to the point of success.

For example? Imagine you are writing a book. For this example let’s say that the book will be 200 pages. Now that sounds very scary and almost impossible to do. But once you break that down you can realize that if you write 3 pages a day, you will be done with writing the book in under 70 days. Now you must ask yourself how long does each page take to write, realistically? Let’s just say you can write a page in 20 minutes. That means an hour a day and you have your three pages. With just a little bit of strategic time management you will have an entire book.

Now, the point is—whether or not you need to write a book—that any project can be taken and reduced to smaller steps, so you are doing business one day at a time. Of course the phrase, “Rome wasn’t built in a day…” applies, but an even more appropriate axiom of truth is this: “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step!”

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Let’s say that you are beginning to look for a new car. Now, you are not quite ready to buy, but you are beginning to do research. You go to a couple of the local car dealerships to look around.

At the first dealership you speak to a salesperson and mention that you are looking to purchase one of their cars in the next 2-3 months. The salesperson hands you his card and says, “Look me up when you are ready to purchase.” Then he moves on to another couple to see if he can have them help him boost his sales for the week.

Next you go to a second dealership and a salesperson approaches you. This salesperson does a great job of answering your questions. You mention that you are looking to purchase in the next 2-3 months and the salesperson begins narrowing down what type of car you would like. As you leave the salesperson takes down your name and contact information.

Later on that week you receive a handwritten thank you card from the second salesperson. The following week you receive a postcard with a picture of the car you were looking to purchase on the front. Every week for the next couple of months you receive something from the second salesperson. One week it is a report on what to look for when buying a new car, the next it is a happy July 4th card.

During month three you decide that it is now time to buy your new car. Both dealerships have the exact car you want with a similar price. Where do you go? Well, let’s ask this question. Which dealership is T.O.M. (top of mind)? The second dealership of course!

Why? Well, the number one reason is because you probably feel like you know the second salesperson. You now feel like you have a relationship. And as a by-product the salesperson has created top of mind awareness. This means that when you think of buying a car he is the first person you are going to think of. If someone else mentions that they are wanting to buy a car you are going to think of him. And when you finally buy your car and someone says, “Hey man, I love your new car,”…you are going to be thinking of the salesperson that sold it to you.

How can you create top of mind awareness with your prospects? What about with your customers or referral partners?

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We’ve all heard that it’s not what you know, but who you know that matters most. A new information-gathering company even states it’s “what you know about who you know” that really matters. However, there is a large and growing population who believe that the most important thing about every relationship is that we are all just people, and we all want to be treated with a certain amount of respect. Human-to-human interaction is and will always be the foundation of any long-term, sustainable success.

We’re not autobots, or targets; lead statistics or prospects. We don’t want our information gathered and categorized, nor do we want an ongoing assault of unsolicited advertisements or SPAM. We are people with feelings and families, interests and needs. While its true that everybody has something to offer – a mutually beneficial relationship occurs when the offer is genuine and unsolicited. Does that mean that “sales efforts” are evil? Absolutely not, but it does mean that there is a way to sell more without dehumanizing the people that you are interacting with in the process.

Technology has made it easy to group people into subject matter and blast information “at” us. Besides being impersonal and just plain rude – it’s not effective! We are all so busy tweeting our latest thoughts and status updates to our networks, that there’s very little time or ability to receive or screen the responses or engage in any real H2H exchanges. While I am a huge supporter Twitter, Facebook and OneDegreeConnected.com, among others – I do think it’s important to note that so much is coming at us so fast it’s hard to discern any useful information out of the constant broadcast of the media stream. So let’s keep things in perspective… these are just tools, a means to an end. What is the end…? Building and maintaining meaningful relationships!

It’s been cited in countless books on the subject; “people will more eagerly do business with those whom they know, like and trust.” Well how do you really get to know someone when you can add literally hundreds or thousands of contacts to your network on any given day? The simple answer is slowly, by identifying someone of common interests or needs (existing social media tools are very useful in this aspect), and ask questions or share information.

When a new acquaintance expresses a need (in whatever media format), offer to help without asking for anything in return. If you are not able to fill the need, then give a referral to someone you know who can fill that need. You are then beginning to build trust with both the new acquaintance and the person whom you referred.

Trust is developed over time thru the process of getting to know someone and in having others willing to vouch for your intentions, character and results. Again, this is an ongoing process, not a prepackaged solution. Human-to- human interaction is complex but can be highly rewarding.

Because you can’t ‘know’ everyone that you have access to, it’s important to use your social networks (both online and offline) to identify those people whom you do want to develop a relationship with, then take the steps to make it happen.

Building good relationships means making the time and effort to get to know people and their needs, with a genuine interest in helping them achieve their goals with no expectations in return! This may be difficult to get your head around – but think of some of your most trusted friends or business associates; they have earned your trust by helping you on some level with no upfront demands.

Every investment in another person will not be met with an equal return – its just not possible. But most people are eager to be helpful when the opportunity does present itself, if for no other reason than to keep in your good favor and continue to receive the benefits you provide. We’ve developed an online tool (not another social network) that is designed to help establish and manage relationships exactly in this manner.

There is still a level of responsibility to build and maintain relationships within the vast network of human connectivity that technology has provided us. While you may not be able to develop mutually beneficial relationships as quickly as you can “friend or follow”, the benefits of building meaningful interaction are significantly greater, and can far outlive the lifespan of the latest and greatest network fads!

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Building solid relationships is one of the most important skills you can develop for your business. One of the best ways to build solid relationships is through networking. There are many opportunities to network. From networking groups and associations, to meetings and charity events, networking can transform your business life. With this in mind here are 5 networking blunders to avoid:

Be Strategic in Your Networking

Blunder #1. Not knowing WHO you need to meet. It’s easy to go to a networking meeting and just get wrapped up in the atmosphere or try to meet everyone. Most of the time, depending on what you sell, there can be dozens–if not hundreds–of prospects for your business. What’s the problem with that? It’s too many people. You need to narrow down who you need to meet and be strategic in your networking. One Degree Connected is an excellent tool to make sure you are targeting the exact WHO of WHO you need to meet.

Blunder #2. Not focusing on long-term strategies. Many people go to a networking meeting or network with the immediate intention of making sales. Networking is not about that. The goal of networking is to establish relationships that bring you a constant flow of referrals and therefore money.

Following up and establishing a relationship is the key.

Blunder #3. Not following up with people you meet. We all are busy. Just because our product or service is great, doesn’t mean that our prospects or referral partners realize it is great. Additionally, the second you leave a meeting with a person they will quit thinking about you. Following up and establishing a relationship is the key.

Blunder #4. Not differentiating yourself from everyone else in your industry, profession, or niche. You must understand that you’re among many competitors. How are you different? You must be able to clearly articulate the differences between you and your competitors.

Blunder #5. Not making it personal. You’ve heard the phrase, “People only do business with people they like and trust.” This is undoubtedly true. If people don’t trust you, then no matter how good you are at what you do — it won’t matter. Equally as important is making sure people like you. There are people out there we trust, but we don’t personally care for, so we won’t give any business to them.

How do you get people to like you? Well, first you need to be yourself. We’ve found that if you replace the word “networking” with “building relationships” or “building friendships” it is easier to think of networking. Ask yourself this question: What would you like the referral partner to do for you? Then be sure you are working to provide the same to them.

If you avoid these five blunders and implement these strategies in your business you will differentiate yourself, get connected with who you need to meet, become memorable, and have a lasting and successful impression for you and your business.

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Think back over the last few months. When was the last time that you had an exceptional buying experience? Now, we’re not talking about some ho-hum experience like someone smiled politely and did what they were supposed to do. That is all well and good—especially these days. But rather we’re talking about an experience when someone completely wowed you. They went above and beyond to make sure that you were taken care of. So when was the last time you had one of those experiences?

You probably fall into one of two groups. The first group is composed of the people who struggle to think of a time in the last few months. Don’t worry, you can stop straining your brain. If nothing is coming to mind then you haven’t had an exceptional experience.

Exceptional experiences make customers want to talk about you.

The second group is composed of the people who had an experience in mind before we even finished penning the first paragraph. If you fell into that category you know exactly what we mean by exceptional experience. And the odds are that you have already told a minimum of 10 of your closest friends and business associates.

So, what does it mean to create an exceptional experience and why would you want to? Well, the answer to the second question has already been answered by the breakdown in the two groups. If you want your business to be remembered months later then you need to understand the concept of an exceptional experience.

An exceptional experience strives to provide the unexpected to customers and clients. Maybe it is a waiter that remembers all of his customers’ favorite drinks and the way they like their steak prepared. Or perhaps it is a dry cleaner that delivers your daughter’s wedding dress to the church just in time for her to make her debut—saving your butt since you forgot to pick it up the night before. Would you talk about an experience like that? Who would you tell? Probably everyone you know!

Every industry has an opportunity to create an exceptional experience for their customers to talk about. What is yours? If you have an experience to talk about let us know below in the comments section or join the discussion on our Facebook fan page.

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Is there a way you can turn these cards into an asset?

We’ve all been there before. We’ve got stacks and stacks of business cards sitting on our desk or in a desk drawer. What can you do with these business cards and is there a way you can turn these cards into an asset? The answer is yes! Here’s how you do it.

First and foremost you need to get your business cards into a usable format. It is no use having them sit on your desk. They need to be in a database. Now, in this database you need to not just have a list of everyone in your database, but identify different groups or segments into different categories. Some ideas for categories are: potential referral partners, strategic alliances, potential clients, clients, and (yes…) the black list.

Why a black list? Because having a stack of business cards on your desk will not get you anywhere if you don’t know how to use them. Many times less is more. You cannot manage 5,000 business cards effectively, but you can manage a much smaller number.

After you get them into the data base then what? Well, you need to figure out a way to contact the people with whom you wish to work. Here are some strategies to do that.

1) Use the phone if at all possible. Email is convenient, but email is not personal. In addition, emails can easily be missed for multiple reasons.

2) Don’t be a one-shot wonder. Most of the time people are busy and won’t resonate to your request right away.

3) Differentiate or die. You need to be able to articulate what is in it for the person who refers you or works with you.

If you adopt these strategies you will quickly learn that your stack of business cards can become an asset instead of just cluttering up your desk.

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Peter Drucker, a famous business development expert and author, once said that in business the two most important things were marketing and innovation. With this in mind let’s analyze both marketing and innovation, and determine why Drucker said this.

Let’s begin with this simple question. Why should people choose your business or company as a solution to their problems versus the other numerous options out there? If your response is a generic platitude such as “honesty, service, or reliability” then while that might be true, your competition can easily claim the same thing. You have not differentiated yourself one bit from your competition. Now there could be two reasons for this. One, there truly may not be a significant reason WHY someone should go with you, or two, if there is you may not be communicating and articulating it correctly.

So, let’s look at the first problem of not being worthy of the business. This is where innovation comes into play.

How can you be different? Don’t focus solely (or sometimes even at all) on being the most cost-effective or cheapest. There are generally other things that buyers value such as selection and availability, speed, quality, among other things. If buyers only bought on price all the time then people would always be shopping at Goodwill, would only stay at Motel 6, and would only eat at Taco Bell.

But if you give your buyers price as the only thing to buy, they will certainly focus on that. Innovate, innovate, innovate. What would make your potential buyers LOVE to do business with you?

The second thing you need to do is then communicate this innovation effectively. This is where you must avoid using generic phrases and platitudes that your competition can (and does) say. While beyond the scope of this blog post you need to quantify down specifically what makes you different. If you are 1 of only 37 businesses in a geographic region that delivers your innovation, then by all means SAY that. Don’t just say that you give good service or quality, because every one of your competitors will be saying the same thing whether it is true or not.

If you focus on developing innovations that will help serve your buyers and then focus on delivering that message in an articulate way many times you will out perform your competition and grow your business faster. Remember, innovate, then tell your buyers about it!

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