Here's your link to view the webinar - The Experts Edge - Featuring Lindsay Adams CSP, 24th August

http://www.screencast.com/t/plvUywCsKts

Here's a Summary of Lindsay's top tips and advice:

There are three things you must do to get your business back on track when things slow you down or tie you up completely and take you out of action for any period of time - it's the VCP formula:

Visibility
Credibitility
Profitability

Raise your visibility by getting in front of people - let them know you are active, interested in opportunities, and ready for action.    You have to get Face-to-Face.
With credibility you can either earn it by doing something for someone, or it can be given by someone who tells someone else about you.  Recommendations and Referrals are important.
With Increased visibility and credibility, comes profitability.  The income starts to increase and while there is a lag time as you build momentum, you will reach a warm up speed quickly if you focus on these things.

In terms of getting the referral system working for you, you need to understand the 3 core competencies of referrals:

1) The Right information at the Right time
2) Immerse yourself in the learning
3) Educate your market - I'm available, I'm ready, This is what I do!

The core concept you must understand for this to all work comes back to knowing your target market.  Who are they, what do you do for them, and how to do deliver it and solve their problems. If you don't truly know them, then you are taking a shotgun approach in reaching them, and you should be taking the sharp-shooter approach.  it's more direct, more profitable, and much easier in the long run.

Referrals are great - and much easier for getting business than simple cold calling.  The statistics make it clear that if you make 100 calls, you will get between 3-6% positive response to your call.  If you get a referral lead in, then you can expect to get 18% positive responses to your calls.  
However- doing a good job does not guarantee you a referral.  Just because you ask for one doesn't mean you'll get it, and it's the Reactive approach.  Better to focus on Proactive referrals, with partners who actively seek opportunities for each other.   For example, a sales trainer, leadership expert, and a team building expert will all seek to work with the same kind of companies, but each compliments the other instead of competing against each other - and therefore are in good position to recommend each other.   Lindsay has a partnership group who help each other out this way. 

As far as asking clients for referrals goes - be upfront at the start of your journey together.   State at the beginning that "the majority of my work comes from referrals, and let me be honest about this now, I hope that in the end of our work together that you'll be in a position to refer others to me.  Is that possible?"

This is a way of re-framing it that works - you both know where you stand from the start.    But remember - doing a great job does not guarantee you referrals.  But the Law of reciprocity states that if you do something good for someone else, they will feel more inclined (not obligated) to do something for you in return. 

As for writing recommendations on Linked In or on any other forum for someone who asks, always remember to NEVER give a recommendation or refer someone without meaning.  If you have not personally experienced that person's value, or commitment to what they do, you are seriously risking your own credibility by giving it away to someone else unless you are sure that it's an excellent recommendation to make.

Only write a recommendation for someone if you are 100% comfortable doing so.  Don't be afraid to say no.

Actions to take following this webinar:

Work out how much work you actually are getting from referrals.  Check if this percentage is based on guesswork or a measured response.  
Measure your referrals, track also where they are coming from.

1) Educate your referrers about what you do, spend time with them ensuring the relationship is strong and that the referrals you get from those people are good ones.

Having 4-8 good referral partners will give you a good working base and sustainable income opportunities.
2) Review your target market and be absolutely sure you are working on a Sharpshooter basis with your marketing, not a Scatter-gun basis.

3)Identify others working with the same target market as you are, who are potential referral partners.

Finally - a word on paid referrals.  If you are working on the basis of getting paid or giving payment for referrals, then you diminish credibility of the referrals.   The client who finds out you referred someone because there was a kick-back will always wonder at your motives for making that referral in the first place.

Lindsay will give a FREE 30 minutes Referral Audit to anyone on the Experts Edge programme by Skype or if you are in Brisbane, over a cup of coffee.   For more information about this, you can email Lindsay at:  lindsay.adams@referralinstitute.com.au or you can visit his website:  www.referralinstitute.com.au

 

Here's your link to view the Webinar - The Experts' Edge - Featuring Ian Berry CSP, 10th August.


2011-8-10 The Experts' Edge

Here is a summary of Ian's top tips and advice:

 

Differentiate – don’t be like everyone else   

Strategy positioning is about doing what others are not – and fully developing your micro-niche. Niche marketing vs Micro-niche marketing is best described as comparing a Leadership (a very broad subject) with Collaborative leadership, or another way is to compare specializing in working with dogs, vs working with only poodles, birds vs Parrots who can talk.   If you are not prepared to step into a tighter niche market, then it becomes a matter of trying to please all people and not focusing intently on the few who might be the most profitable and easy to work with for YOU, in relation to YOUR special skills and talents.
 

Build a Tribe

We all like to be with people we fit with, and building a tribe of people you can share with, work with, and who know you is a great way of helping to position yourself, and work with people you really want to be with – not just ‘everyone else’.  Create a community who knows you, cares about what you have to contribute and share generously with your tribe.   Ian created the Difference Makers Community in 2009 which has now grown to more than 600 members from 39 countries.  His business and personal connections from this are a vital part of his life and business now.
 

Stepped Value

Ian talked about his process of taking clients and prospects through from providing free entry level information, such as blogs, articles, online audits etc, to then stepping them up to some products, mentoring, packages of consulting/mentoring/products, followed by speaking/consulting etc and finally for some, the ultimate package of Ian and all his resources for those whom it’s suited to, and want this level of engagement with him.   It’s a process, and there are strategic steps along the way to working with the top clients, but without excluding the mid range or lower level clients necessarily.
 

Positioning is more Pull than Push

When you are positioned well as being the expert in your field, then people are more likely to call you and say: “I’ve read your book, or seen you speak, I know what you can do, I want to work with you…” which is ultimately more rewarding than having a referral by someone else for you to call a prospect and sell yourself.   The old adage of Referrals are Preferred, is beaten out by being the sought after specialist who doesn’t have to make those calls, but for whom word of mouth marketing is working very well. 
 
 

Story Telling

A great Ian-ism: Storytelling is the Key to moving the world into being a better place!
Ian is a master storyteller and uses this to create dialogue with clients, both on and off the stage.  He says people engage with stories, and need to hear them.  The ability to not just present but to be spontaneous instead of scripted, means that he can exchange information, not just talk about what he knows, and smaller groups and online audiences are very receptive to this.   Ian uses on-camera GoTo Webinar for some meetings and Skype with video, so that he can see and be seen during meetings and coaching sessions and highly recommends this.   By combining storytelling, with video and in person meetings, he’s able to engage with all three (audio, Visual, kinesthetic) types of learners.
 
Ian believes that live and personal presentation styles will not be overtaken by the internet as the power of person presence for storytelling and sharing information is so powerful.
 
If you would like to engage with Ian for mentoring, or to purchase his books, please contact him via these options:   +61 418807 898, or email ian@ianberry.au.com, or you can join The Difference Makers Community at www.differencemakers.com.au
 


Here is the link to view the Webinar - The Experts' Edge - Featuring Kylie Bartlett, 20th July.


2011-07-20 13.08 The Experts' Edge


20^th July 2011
 
Today our first Webinar session in this series featured Kylie Bartlett, The Web Celeb, who generously shared a wealth of information about Facebook and how to effectively use Facebook for marketing yourself and your business.

Here is a summary of her top tips and advice

 

Rule number 1 – You Must be Strategic. 

Don’t just start using Facebook without having a clear plan – a blueprint for what you want to achieve, how you plan to use it, and what you need to do with your page.
Set up a welcome tab, with a call to action, and a welcome video on it.  Make sure your FB page looks like it’s your BUSINESS page – whether you use your personal page for your business or your separate business fan page, ensure you have consistent branding and good images, professional copy and material.
An opt-in box on your welcome tab is also a good idea so that you can collect names for your database as you go.
 

Measure your traffic. 

Use the analytics tool to check that your hits are up, review your impression statistics and comments.    
 

Kylie recommends using these Apps and tools:

Consider your contacts have a combination of Auditory, Visual and Kinesthetic learning styles.  So cater to all three, with videos, audio files, photos, and information.

• Networked Blogs,
• You Tube Application 

So that these feed directly into your FaceBook pages

• Involver is a great App for these.
• Integrate flicker if you  have images to share

 

Lists:

Personal page allows you to have your contacts saved as Lists – which allows for easy management of them, by location, industry, and category of contact (ie friends from various places), and you can mail out directly to these lists.  This means that you can send invites or notices to say all your contacts in Brisbane, or all your personal friends, or your work colleagues instead of sending information to ‘everyone’.
 
A great Kylie-ism: Repetition creates your reputation!
 
When it comes to building a strong profile – online and offline – go back to Rule number 1, be strategic!  Don’t start out looking like a work-in-progress. Create a strong brand with images, styles, content, and focus that looks like you thought about it before you launched it.
 
Create good partnerships and joint-venture with people you know who are well aligned to what you do and who you also market to.
 

Use the 5 P’s:

• Profile – Strategically create your profile and where/how your market will see it
• Pitch – Get your pitch right for your ‘Bob and Betty’
• Partner – Form good business alliances
• Products – Create books, dvds’ and other products that your Bob and Betty’s want and value
• Promote – Yourself, your products, your profile!

 

Advertising Gold:

• Facebook is more niche focused than Google in Kylie’s opinion

• The more competitive words will cost more to use – select carefully.
• Set your ads on Facebook to go out at the right times for your Bob and Betty.
• An image is imperative – choose with great care. It must grab attention.
• Having a good photo with a clear call to action works really well. 
• Send them somewhere – ensure the destination is well thought out and be strategic about this too.  It’s easy to send them somewhere they can click off or away from instead of onto.

 
Another Kylie-ism:  Don’t write a cheque with Social Media that your Facebook page can’t cash
 

Summary of Good advertising on Facebook:

• Pose a question
• Image – and strong brand
• Succinct Copy with a good call to action
• Make sure your destination is engaging
• Timing is everything
• Track and Measure
• Per Per Click – not Per Impression – average of $1 per click is reasonable

 
Finally… about one hour a day on Facebook is good. You should have a brand ambassador for your company who regularly does this for you, checks your own page, and updates things, as well as checking what your industry peers and commentators are doing. 
You can build a strong business profile using Facebook – but Facebook is only part of the overall Social Media package, and needs to complement the other parts of  our online and offline marketing strategy.
 
Kylie Bartlett – is definitely worth following on Facebook, and please take time to visit her website at:  www.thewebceleb.tv