Giving Good Testimonials October 27, 2006
Posted by wnelson in BNI.2 comments
Jackie, Phil and I met last Friday night at the Brickhouse for happy hour drinks. I would have counted it as a one-on-one, but after a little, I was seeing two. Anyway, they are great people and funny. Jackie’s boyfriend came too – a very nice guy. If you guys want to have some fun, give Jackie or Phil a call! They are so fun that I bet doing business with them is fun too! You should do business with them – they are nice and fun!
How’s that for a testimonial? You think that Jackie or Phil are going to pick up any business from that? In BNI, we are here to do business. We give testimonials and referrals to each other to help each other achieve “better net income.” Testimonials are used to help build credibility and reduce the “mistrust” to other associates so we feel comfortable doing business or referring business to the target of the testimonial.
A good testimonial is one that talks to how our associate’s product or service completely satisfied us personally or how someone we referred to the associate was satisfied completely. We can talk about how difficult the problem was, how quickly our associate responded, how knowledgeable our associate was and how that helped…any of these. But, the testimonial should be about their business, not how interesting and informative the one-on-one was or how fun they were.
If I were giving a testimony for Jackie, here’s something I might say: As you know, Jackie is with Liberty Mutual Insurance. I have been with Liberty Mutual for over 25 years. My father has insured with Liberty Mutual for over 40 years. During that time, both of us have had several claims and never a problem recovering our claim. I have shopped around from time to time with other insurance and have never found an equivalent policy cheaper from anyone. And Jackie in particular, well, she is the only agent I know who still does house calls. And she goes out of her way to make sure your insurance needs are covered but not over-covered. If you haven’t asked Jackie to quote you insurance for your car and house, you’re probably spending too much! And she is so easy to refer! There is no downside for someone to talk with Jackie about their insurance needs. She will either save you money or she won’t bother you again.
Make your testimonies specific about the business and how clients can benefit. That’s how we help our associates to better net income.
What makes a good marketing moment? October 20, 2006
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One hour. That’s how much time you have in front of your BNI associates to teach them who to sell to and how to do it effectively. And almost 90% of that is with your Manager’s Minute. That makes the 60 seconds a week crucial to your success.
Most people learn by repetition. Additionally, they will be “focused” only if the topic is interesting to them. Quick retention requires a simple and direct message. So, this means your Manager’s minute must be simple, to the point, attention-getting, and repetitive week after week.
The biggest mistake most of us do is to “wing” our message. This causes two problems: First, we are crafting our message while our associates are giving their messages. We can’t learn to sell for our associates if we aren’t paying attention, now, can we? And as we have said before, if you want referrals, you have to give referrals. If you aren’t listening, how can you hope to give referrals? The second issue is that your message will not be polished. As you stumble through it, your associates become distracted by your stumbles. You have just wasted 2% of your time available. THE FIX: Write your pitch ahead of time and PRACTICE!
Now, write this down! From the MSP book, the the Manager’s Minute is: Introduction: 18 seconds in which you say your company name, products, and services. Then, 20 seconds you share a story of how you helped a customer or how you are better than the competition. The next 10 seconds, you state who would be a good referral for you. And the next five seconds is a call to action – “I would like an introduction to…” The final seven seconds is a “memory hook” – your tag line or slogan that sums up your business and advantage to customers.
Another way to do this is with the four P’s: PROFILE – What type of client is most successful for you? Who is excited by what you offer? PROBLEM: Describe an issue you have resolved. PRODUCT: What is it you did to fix the problem? PROSPECT: So today, who are you looking for like this profile?
One final tip: Never use these words: Anyone, somebody, everyone…..
Simple, direct, attention-getting, and repetitive – stay with these guidelines and your Manager’s Minute will be productive.
Working in spheres of influence in networking October 13, 2006
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Your Sphere of Influence is made up of those associates who together you can drive a lot of business among you through referrals. In a sphere of influence, the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Together, you can bring more value to customers than individually. For instance, an attorney and an accountant together can help a client to incorporate with the right structure for their business. A real estate agent, a mortgage broker, and an insurance agent together can help a client find, buy, and insure their new home. The common thread: The customers and the customers’ transaction. All are a part of it simultaneously.
The first step in identifying your sphere of influence is to reflect on each of your customers. Identify what fits naturally with your products and services? If you are an office furnishings supplier, your customers need office supplies, office equipment, PC’s, networks….Now take a look at your associates. Do you have associates who provide those other complementary products and services? They can be part of your sphere. If you realize you are missing key components in your sphere, this gives you a new goal for your networking events. Make a list of those needs and seek them out.
When you have your sphere in mind, make plans to meet. Together, draw the picture of how you all fit together to meet more of your customers’ needs. Brainstorm to see if there are other items you might need to add to your “basket” to become even more important to your customers. When you come up with a list of other providers you should have in your sphere, then brainstorm if anyone in the group might know someone. If, as a group, you know more than one, discuss each candidate and decide who might be best or if you can’t decide, set up meetings with the candidates – interview them and then decide.
Your sphere of influence is like a virtual company. You are in partnership with your sphere members. Meet regularly and trade clients. Make introductions for your partners. Discuss additional people who might be influential in your sphere and add as needed to make your sphere stronger. Do join marketing activities together – eMail or direct mail campaigns, brochures, sales calls, seminars…be creative and think of what you might do if you were a company.
Don’t be surprised if you belong to more than one sphere. You may complement other groups’ capabilities. Belonging to more spheres means more meetings to coordinate activities, but it also means more business.
Picking a Time Management System October 3, 2006
Posted by wnelson in Time Management.add a comment
Franklin Covey, Daytimer, Timesystem, DayMinder, Outlook, paper/electronic…What a lot of choices for time management. And the truth? It doesn’t matter! Pick one that fits you. However, there are some points to look for:
Appointments
The planning system should include a place to schedule your daily appointments and scheduled activities by hour.
Long Range Calendar
The planner should allow you to schedule activities several months out. For this, electronic systems are very convenient because you pick a date, write the activity, and you’re done. No rewriting required. Paper systems require you to place an item on a monthly calendar and then on a daily calendar.
Things to Do
Most planners have a place for a “things to do” list. The “things to do” should have space for three elements: 1) The item, 2) A spot for priority, 3) A spot for checking it off when done. The “things to do” section should have room for both personal and business items.
Long Range Goals
The system should provide you with space for long range goals – those goals that you want to include so you don’t forget them.
Diary
A good planner has room for a daily diary. The diary can include conversations, meeting proceedings, phone calls, thoughts, and your actual activities (to compare against your planned activities in the appointments section).
Contacts Records
A place to record contact information – phone numbers, addresses, etc, is a necessity.
Frills and Extras
Some sections that might be useful:
Expenses – allows you to record dollars spent and categories, as well as mileage.
Projects – for heavy duty project management, pages that allow for project planning
Data Management – a section to index data, long range goals, diary items, and any other data for faster retrieval.
Electronic Versus Paper
Electronic planners have the advantage of automatic reminders for appointments and no need for rewriting items. Additionally, electronic systems make data retrieval simple with search capabilities. However, if it’s a PC-based system, you will need a notebook computer. And even with a notebook computer, you have to have enough battery to use it in remote areas. Of course, you can print out information – but then you are using a paper system, right? PDA’s help with the problems, but synchronization with your PC is a must. The downside of PDA’s – the inconvenience of the methods of entering data.
Overall, which system to choose for your time management system is a personal choice – try several and pick the one that suits you. What’s important is implement time management and stick to it.
See these links:
When is a restaurant a factory? October 1, 2006
Posted by wnelson in Improving Profits.add a comment
Recently, I called on a restaurant owner who was losing a ton of money – to the tune of 2% of sales per month – losing $1300 per month on a fine business of $800,000 in annual revenues. The owner was almost in tears as he told me that he had contacted a bankruptcy lawyer. As with many restaurants, this was a family business. The owner tends bar and handles the purchasing tasks, the owner’s wife waits tables, the owners son, a recent graduate from a renowned gourmet cooking college, is the chef, and the owner’s daughter buses the tables and does the dishes. The owner was deeply saddened because not only was his dream slipping away, but the family’s nest egg too. The owner took the meeting because he wanted to talk about marketing activities to drive his business. He showed me ads he placed in local papers, discussed billboards, the value of coupons, and other traditional advertising options. We also talked about teaming with local hotels and golf courses. These were not fresh ideas – he had tried them all before.
The owner had been in business for 15 years and had been profitable until 9/11/02. Then, the business took a hit on sales. Sales had come up since and the restaurant hit its former peak last year. However, costs have also increased. The owner showed me his income statement from his accountant. The accountant was very good and included such things as average food sales, average beverage sales, and average costs per order. The owner discussed with me his customer targeting – mid to high end customers. To do this, he wanted his average price per plate to be $15. His financial records showed that this was the average price per plate he sold – he was right on. His cost per plate was right at 40% or $6 per plate. His food sales made up 65% of his monthly sales, or $43,000 per month. So he sold roughly 2900 plates per month.
When I looked at this situation, it became clear to me that the owner didn’t have cash for advertising. His line of credit was tapped out. And he was bleeding money. The owner reviewed with me his fixed costs and his actions to reduce these…not all of which would come through – and even if they did, he couldn’t get to breakeven.
Then it occurred to me that perhaps this wasn’t a marketing issue so much as a “production” issue. I explored with him reducing the cost of each plate by just $1. This would turn his present situation from a $1300 lose per month to a $1600 profit. We looked at his menu and saw that he had 20 choices. I suggested he target 10 dishes on the menu at a price of $15 and a cost of $5. He could have five below that price with a margin target of 67% and five above that price with a target margin of 67%. He went to work on his menu and found ways to reduce each plate cost by a dollar and created a profitable business. Two months later, he was making a profit and was able to invest in an integrated marketing program – radio, newspaper, etc – and within four months, he had increased his sales by 10% and was bringing in a profit each month of $1300 per month after adding marketing expenses of $500 per month.
Looking at this problem from a “restaurant” perspective leads to solutions centered around fixed cost reduction and marketing for increasing sales. Adding the “production” perspective of a factory, the impact can be larger and quicker.
Understanding your network partners’ businesses October 1, 2006
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Last week, I discussed how to get referrals by giving referrals. This week, I’m going to take it a step beyond this and suggest to you that you can’t give good referrals unless you truly understand your networking partners’ businesses. To understand their business, you need to schedule one-on-one meetings. Pick a convenient place where you won’t be interrupted during the conversation and where you can concentrate. The purpose of the one-on-one meetings is two-fold: First, you want to develop a personal relationship with the individual. Referrals come after trust. Trust is build on rapport. By getting to know the person versus the business, you build that rapport. Second, you learn about the business. 
An aid for building rapport is the GAINS Profile (Goals, Accomplishments, Interests, Networks, and Skills). For the business side, use the Launching Pad Questions (My three best customers are, Examples of referrals that work well for me are, My best contact sphere professionals are, New doors I’d like to open are). Bring blank copies of these so you can ask these questions and record the information. Bring these forms filled out for you and your business too so you can hand them out if you allotted time in your one-on-one meeting for both of you (however, I don’t recommend this because it dilutes the information exchange – set up another meeting to talk about you and your business!)
In addition, put some thought into other questions you want to ask and write them down. Think about questions like: How do customers benefit from your products and services? What makes your company better than the competition? Describe an idea customer. What problems do you solve for these customers?
Your final preparation step is to look through your business card file. Based on what you know about the products and services ahead of time, look for potential referrals to take with you to the meeting. Call those contacts before the meeting and ask if they would mind if you gave your network friend their name and phone number. And take your cards to the meeting as well, because as you learn more about that person’s business, you may think of more people to refer.
The key to a good one-on-one meeting is preparation. Being prepared helps you to get all the information you need to begin giving good referrals. And giving referrals is the first step to getting referrals.
