Scott The Card Guy.com

Lets Build Your Referral Base
Referral Action #1:
Create a written referral-marketing plan

Referral Action #2:
Develop and maintain a Relationship Database System

1. Name, spouse, address, phone #, E-mail, company, birth date, anniversary

2. System must notify you of important dates

#1. Face it folks, if you do not have a written plan, you will not accomplish what you want to accomplish with the plan. When creating this plan simply write down what you need to do each day to increase your referral base. Many of the steps, I am going to show you over the next few days. You need to know what you have to do to increase that base. Maybe you want to focus on past clients. That’s great, how many are you going to contact each day, week or month? You may have a stack of business cards you have collected over the years. That’s great, how many are you going to call each day? The key is you have to have a plan that is focused on success. Don’t try everything at once. It doesn’t work. Focus your business on gaining the confidence of the people closest to you. Make sure they know you are in your business and are ready to help them. You must develop a plan and work it.

#2. To have an effective relationship marketing database you have to have your contact’s name, their spouse’s name, address, phone number, e-mail, birth date and anniversary date. If you can add their children’s birth dates even better. Did you know that the single most important date to contact someone is their birthday? People remember who sent them a card on their birthday. This past year I received more birthday cards than I ever have. Some were simple, some were very creative. The point is the people who sent the card made an impression on me. How did these people know to send a card? They had a system which informed them birth date was approaching. As soon as they knew the date was coming up, they sent me a card. How simple is that? I remember them and will refer business to them when I have the chance.

To summarize today’s message, you must develop a written plan to stay in contact with the people from whom you want to receive referrals. Create the plan and stick to it. It will work. Too many times people give up on their plans just as they are about to become fruitful.

Invest in a database which has birthday and anniversary reminders. Anniversaries can be marital or maybe it is the date the person purchased from you. I know many Realtors who send cards to their clients on the anniversary date of the closing of their transaction. Ideally you have a system you can set to send the cards in advance. You will never forget a birthday again.

Tomorrow: Increasing the size of your network

Are We a World Out of Touch?

“Send me an e-mail.”  “I’ll text you an answer by COB.”  “Just leave a message on my voice mail.”  “Did you get my e-vite?”  “Meet me on line.”

Have we gotten to the point where our only form of communication is via e-mail, voicemail or chatrooms?  Where is our world headed with this lack of personal communication?  Could some of the problems we see each day be a result of lack of interaction between people?  What can we do about it?

Isn’t it amazing how you can communicate with someone around the world in the click of a button?  Isn’t it also amazing how we use the same form of communication to ask someone in the next office a simple question?  Has technology taken away personal communication?

Every day we see reports of incidents and wonder how someone could do such a terrible thing.  Do we really need to wonder?  You hear all the time, “he was a loner”, “she had no close friends” or “he kept to himself”.  Did he keep to himself, or did no one talk to him?  It is a dilemma we face with the advent of the wonderful technology we have available to us.  What can us as individuals do to better communicate with our friends, relatives or business associates?

When was the last time you picked up the phone and called a client instead of “shooting them an e-mail”?  Have you sent a thank you note to someone that did something nice for you recently?  Is it such a long walk to go to someone’s office on the next floor and get an immediate answer to your question rather than wait for a response to your e-mail?

Our communication is becoming nothing more than short phrases with abbreviations everyone is supposed to understand.  Does anyone else think LOL is highly overused?  Most of time LOL is more like ALC, a little chuckle.

How personal can an e-mail be?  How many people tear open an e-mail when they receive it?  How often does the e-mail get lost in e-mail purgatory, often referred to as spam filter?

There are many questions asked here and few answers given.  Can one person change the way our society has evolved when it comes to personal communication?  Maybe.

If all of us would make it a point to each day make a phone call to a friend or relative it would be a start.  If you need to thank someone for something they did for you, send them a card through the mail.  Surprisingly, it will get to them and they will read it.  Grab a cup of coffee and go ask your colleague a question rather than sending an e-mail.  While you’re there, ask him or her how their kids are doing.  We used to call it a conversation.

Can you change society’s ways?  In a small way, yes you can.  If each of us influences a few people by sending them a greeting card or calling them and having a conversation, eventually we may see more and more people communicating on a personal basis.  We can touch other’s lives in a way that makes them happy about themselves.  Will it solve the world’s problems?  Probably not, but it sure will make us feel better about ourselves and those around us.