Building Relationships

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Building Relationships

Thanks to Tim Templeton in his amazing book “The Referral of a Lifetime” for the following.

There are four principles of building a referrals list based upon relationships with others. They are as follows:-

The 250 by 250 Rule. It’s not only who you know that counts, it’s who your clients know that is important. If you give them a great experience and look after them, they will talk to others about you and what you do. Many very successful businesses now have stopped cold calling and focus on building on what they have.
Build a Database of contacts and ABC it! This means categories all your contacts into A’s - those who recommend you and who absolutely love what you do. B’s - those who want to help you but as yet haven’t. C’s - Those who don’t know yet that they want to help you. And the D’s - those you really should delete!
Just Let Me Know. Educate your clients about how you work and your value to them through regular, tangible actions performed without fail. Remember that whenever you contact them always tell them that if they need any help to ‘Just Let Me Know”.
Keep in Touch, consistently, personally, and systematically. This does not mean flood them with sales messages. But send a letter, a card for a birthday, an invitation to an event, some useful information, a special offer. Make a call to those on your ‘A’ list at least once per month. Plan a communications strategy for the next 12 months.

I can’t stress how good this system is. I’ve used it for years with my clients and it does work. If you fail to do anything else then you need to answer these questions, and then read this book.

Question 1. Do YOU like yourself?

Question 2. Do you believe in your product and company?

Question 3. Are you willing to “stay the course”?

If you can answer YES to all three questions then invest a couple of £’s for this book. It’s only 100 pages or so long and can be read in a few hours. It is very readable, and I know you will be swept away by the content. Let me know how you get on.

Tim Templeton’s “The Referral of a Lifetime” part of the Ken Blanchard Series