Kit Prendergast, PCC
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Tag Archives: communication
Get Noticed…Get Referrals
Get Noticed . . . Get Referrals: Build Your Client Base and Your Business by Making a Name for Yourself, by Jill Lublin, McGraw Hill, 2008.
Lublin is a master at helping business owners like us build our businesses through the art of nurturing relationships and encouraging referrals.
She brings a wonderful energy and a wealth of experience to her workshops and books. I had the opportunity to travel to the California wine country to take one of her courses with my colleague and media extraordinaire, Judith Harlan. We both took away a huge amount of information to apply to our businesses and a bottle or two of wine tucked in the back seat.
Posted in Kit's Resources & Book Reviews
Tagged communication, Leadership, Networking, Relationships
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3 Tips to Build Referrals
It’s not hard to build a referral-base business if you are strategic about what you want for your business and how best to use your time and energy. Having your previous clients continue to buy from you and to refer to you is a very cost-effective way to grow your company.
Research shows that the average business owner spends about 30% of their time trying to engage new clients but the person working primarily from referrals spends about 5% of their time. So let’s get smarter about this so we all can enjoy the phone ringing with requests for our services. Here are three strategies I have found particularly helpful over the years. They work!
- Identify your most valued “referral partners”. Who is out there in your professional network that sings your praises and recommends you often? Nurture those relationships by staying in frequent contact, thanking them personally when they refer and returning the favor by passing on the good word about them and their services when appropriate.
- Develop a reputation “personal brand” so you are known as someone who is easy to work with, visible & available, reliable & dependable and most importantly you can be trusted to offer top quality services at a reasonable price.
- Ask for a LinkedIn recommendation (2-3 sentences) from clients who are wildly enthusiastic about your work. Get their permission to cut & paste the recommendation into your website using their name or initials, name of company or geographic location.
Keep It Simple, Strategic & Smart
It’s so easy to become totally overwhelmed with the latest in all the social media buzz. My suggestion is to keep it simple, strategic and smart and, most importantly, working for your specific career needs. I suggest starting with the free version of LinkedIn. This is where the professionals and the organizations that hire professionals gather. Begin with these three strategies.
- Build a solid, engaging profile which includes a photo of you smiling and looking interested in meeting people.
- Identify who you want to be in contact with and start to “invite” them to connect with you. Be generous in inviting others so you can build a robust network of people you want to stay in touch with or who know people you would like to know.
- Strategically select 1 -2 groups that interest you and become a regular contributor to the online discussion between the members.
Give yourself time every couple of days to familiarize yourself with the resources within LinkedIn. It’s amazing how your growing network puts you into contact with a wealth of job opportunities.
Choose Not to Be Afraid
At 4:45am each morning I take the dogs outside for their first potty beak and to pick up our local paper off the front driveway. As our golden retriever and westie (Snowball & Dooley) are rolling in the snow making snow angels, I am glancing at the paper’s headlines under the garage lights.
Almost without fail, the front page stories shout at me about something that is going to immediately endanger myself or my family. It can be anything from global terrorism; the national economy, our local unemployment statistics; home foreclosure rates or a whole array of looming health disasters that will kill me off before the day is done. I’m surprised I can stagger back into the house for my first cup of coffee.
Fear, worry and anxiety are epidemic in our world today. The media, our politicians and even our family & friends are telling us constantly to “be afraid” of everything and anything. Yes, there are some very real things in 2013 that we need to be concerned about but do we really have to be worried 24/7? No, we don’t!
It’s our choice – what are we going to be concerned about (in a healthy way) and what are we going to let go. It takes practice but over time each of us develops an inner “check list” of what is worth getting our “knickers in a twist” (as the Brits say) and what needs to go on the back burner. That’s when our inner voice – the language – we use in speaking to ourselves becomes critical.
My challenge to you, is to pay attention to what media generated “fear” can hook you and then be touch with yourself in choosing your response. It’s your choice. Do I retreat to my comfort zone? Second guess myself constantly? Become critical of others? Cynical of the world around me? Think about it . . . and I hope you choose to put fear in its proper place. You are in control . . . not it.
Be Enchanting – Learn How to Smile Like George Clooney
The first step to enchanting anyone is “likeability”. Coming across as a grumpy old man too tired to learn new tricks (now that’s a personal brand no one wants) is not going to help you enchant anyone to go over and beyond. Instead, we need to ensure that people like us and we start with the most basic skill – smiling.
Try to smile like George Clooney. He has a smile that radiates from his eyes. Yes, the muscle surrounding our eyes is called the orbicularis oculi muscle and this muscle is what squeezes together to create those crow’s feet or laugh lines (as my sister calls them). A smile that uses all of these eye muscles has its own name – the Duchenne Smile – named after Guillaume Duchenne, a French neurologist.—
It’s actually not hard to have a radiating smile if you practice this simple tip – as you are walking into a room this holiday season think about some pleasant memory or upcoming fun plans. Let yourself dwell on those thoughts to give yourself that nice lift. Now keep them in mind and let your smile shine through!
Posted in Kit's Tips
Tagged Career, communication, entrepreneurship, Networking, Relationships
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