Why Are You Trying The Impossible?

Since I always stress the importance of customer relations, I often come across a problem with the desire to measure the return on investments. Especially larger companies often try to simplify their customer contacts into the single transaction to see if the sale was worth the effort. Some try to track referrals, but since many referrals are unknown to the company. This effort is wasted.

Does this mean that customer relations are wasted too? Of course not!

You just have to have a little faith.

Your Return on Investment is Unlimited

As customer relations become more of a focal point, the single customer can generate unlimited business. Every time a new customer perceives great value, referrals follow. As soon as a single referral has occurred that you are unaware of, your measurements are no longer accurate. The growth in business however is unmistakable.

Faith Based Business?

Yes, this is one of those times where you will have to employ faith in that doing what is right by the customer will pay off in the long run.

Since the chain of referrals is potentially unlimited, every customer you build a strong and positive relationship with has the potential to bring unlimited business. Every lost opportunity is potentially a loss of unlimited business as well.

Exponential Faith

If you every week can convert TWO percent of your new business to loyal customers, and at the same time keep your rate of new business, In one year, your business will be 280% of your starting point.

As soon as even one of them starts referring your business to others, the potential is unlimited.

You simply can’t afford not to have a little faith…

Are you looking for a supervisor or manager? Should you be promoting or hiring? The simple answer is; It depends on who is on staff right now.

If the best reason you can come up to promote someone is their long service or good performance in their current job. You are probably better off hiring from the outside.

Before you promote, you need to consider the impact. Promoting from within as a rule and used as a reward will eventually result in everyone reaching their Highest Level of Incompetence . Performance in a current position gives little indication of performance in another, and it says nothing about leadership abilities.

Plan Early For Success

1. Identify Leadership Potential.

Constantly evaluate your employees to find the personality types who are natural leaders. Look at how they approach problems, how others view them. Are they “Go to” people for problem solving. Do they have their peers respect and liking? Are they helping others succeed already? Constantly keep an eye on the employees to see who is moving in that direction naturally.

2. Project Management

Once you have found potential candidates for promotion. Give them projects to manage, start simple, and increase the length, scope, and complexity every time they are successful.

Give them plenty of support while doing it, you are a mentor to these people and they will need support. This will groom leadership qualities and you will end up with a promotable employee when the time comes.

If you throw someone into a leadership position without training, you will be paying for their lack of experience as they learn on the job. Or worse – when they fail and damage your company in the process.

Prepare for Hire

If you are unable to find a promotable employee, or maybe you are too small to even have one. Begin early to canvas your surroundings, look at your friends and their friends to find potential future employees able to take on supervisory positions early. You can save a lot of money in head hunters’ fees by starting early and identifying as many candidates as possible. Taking your time also allows you to identify the best person for the job. Not the one that is most fun at parties.

Having a clear policy of hiring the best person - whether that is from the outside or not - is also the best way to reduce agitation among your staff for not getting promoted. When your common policy is to promote from within without question, you automatically place an expectation of this being the norm.

Understand How Your Own Position is changing

1. Hand Off

When you grow, and hire workers, supervisors, and managers to take over certain tasks, the most common problem for small business owners is the inability to delegate. It is extremely hard to hand off something that you’ve been doing yourself in the past. You must however be prepared to release the formal power that goes along with a position or you are hog-tying them from the start.

The result is that most will end up micromanaging the organization. This has rarely any benefits and more often causes bad relations with employees. Which inevitably translates to poor performance.

2. Why Did You Hire to Begin With?

You are hiring or promoting because you are unable to do the work yourself. This means that if you maintain all the formal power, you are forcing the new managers to wait for you at every turn. Waiting for you to do the job you were too busy to do to being with will only slow down the process further.

Micromanagement of this kind is the most common reason that small business owners are overworked and quickly lose ground when they grow. You have to hire / promote and train the person to do the job. And then trust them to do it.

3. Control and Correct

When there is a problem, be certain that you correct it, but do this with the mentality of a mentor, not a drill sergeant. If you have the skills, pass them along so that the problem will not repeat itself. Taking over and doing it yourself will not solve anything in the long run. No one knows everything about their new position, and they certainly do not know exactly how you want it done unless you teach them.

However, just because you’ve always done it one way, doesn’t make it the best way. If you hired or promoted a qualified person, chances are that they will come up with improvements over time. Don’t shut that process down.

Process improvement comes from those that work with the task, rarely their supervisors.

Promoting Practices That Can Kill You

1. Promotion is Not A Natural Progression

Just because someone has the longest work history, does not translate to being the best suited to manage. This could mean that the person is actually happy in their current role. Be very careful before removing someone from a job they are good at and putting them in a spot that they are completely unsuited for. Some people are not leaders.

2. Hiring Promises Are Part of the Problem

Companies often promise “rapid advancement” which is completely detrimental. This places an expectation of promotion on the table and you will have to live up to it or lose an employee.

3. We Always Promote From Within

This is common and completely asinine at the same time. Think of top level executives in large corporations, they move from industry to industry with little problem. Why? Because leadership is not about the product or service, it’s about the people you manage.

A supervisor will with each step up take one step away from product specific problems. It’s better to hire a good supervisor from the outside, than to promote a bad one from the inside just because they know the product. 

4. You Might Lose Them if You Don’t Promote

Then let them go! The damage of losing a low level employee is merely an annoyance when compared to the disaster a bad supervisor can create. Instead of losing one persons productivity, you are stifling the entire team by promoting someone unsuited.

5. He / She is the only one you like

If you have less than stellar relations with the rest of the employees, and you are about to promote the only one you like among them. You just lit the fuse to a potentially very big explosion. If you don’t “like” many of your employees, chances are they don’t like you either. We’ll get to that later, but for now, know that the person you do like is probably not well liked among his or her peers.

Be very careful in promoting a person that is poorly liked by his or her peers. A supervisor is not every ones friend, but promoting someone that is already an “enemy” is going to sour relations between employees and supervisor as well as towards the company. Remember that a supervisor is not only there to enforce your policy, they are there to get the best performance out of the team. Being poorly liked and seen as the "bosses pet" is not a good platform to stand on when your job is to lead and motivate.

6. Kissing Your Rosy …. Is Not A Leadership Quality

You want a supervisor that is independently thinking about the best for the business. Not someone who will constantly nod and kiss your derriere. Supervisors have direct contact with areas that you no longer will. When something in their world changes, they have to be able to stand up and say so, even when it means disagreeing with you.

Avoid ipromoting yes people, it’s great for your ego, and a horrible business decision.

Preparation is Key

Like every other aspect of business, You need to consider growth early on and plan accordingly. Don’t make the mistake of letting your success run away from you, forcing you to grow faster than you can control, which in turn will inevitably make you promote the wrong person.

If you don’t plan for success early, the success won’t last long.

Browser stats

If you are attempting to monetize your blog. This is one statistic that will tell you quicker than anything if you are getting "good" traffic to your site.

Quite frankly, Firefox users don’t click on ads.

Go check your statistics, Find a day with a lower click through rate than you normally have. I will bet you that your Firefox percentage was higher that day.

Firefox (depending on where you look) make up about 40% of the internet users. If your statistics are showing that you are getting more than that. You are seeing the "wrong" type of traffic for an advertisement funded blog.

Why is this?

1. It’s already well known that some traffic is pretty "useless" for ad conversions. Stumble, Digg, Propeller, and all the other social bookmarks don’t convert well into clickthrough. Google Organic searches and "surf traffic" do.

2. It’s also well known that bloggers, social bookmark users and other "net-savvy" visitors use Firefox to a much greater extent than the average 40%

Since the users that arrive from social bookmark sites are normally "bad clickers" and since they often use Firefox. You can tell that you are getting the wrong type of traffic by simply reviewing your Firefox percentage.

On days where I have a "normal" distribution of about 57% IE users, 40% Firefox users and 3% "other". I get almost a five times higher click through rate than I do on days when I have a Stumble or Digg heavy traffic day which brings 90+% Firefox browsers.

IE Users Surf - Firefox Users Probe

An IE user is more likely to actually surf the web, In other words to follow the links from one page to the next. Going with the natural flow of the net, they are there for enjoyment and recreation as much as information gathering. When one of your ads looks interesting enough, they will follow it.

Firefox users on the other hand, do pokes; they start at their favorite place on the web. Digg, Propeller etc. and they will hit a link only to return to the hub when they are done. The "Back" button is a Firefox user’s greatest friend. He or she will poke and probe only so far, and return to the "safe" surrounding of peer reviewed and recommended reads. Ad clicks are not their game, and this is not going to change anytime soon.

If you are a blogger, you probably started out on IE, and as you got more into social networking, you switched to Firefox because of its lower system requirements and better plug-ins. (like those that completely block ad networks.) You probably were a lot more prone to click ads before you got "wise" and switched to Firefox too. If you are a blogger that have been considering to switch to Firefox, I’m betting that you are fairly new to the game.

Links are Firefox Filters

Since Firefox users are less inclined to venture further out than one click from their preferred social media or bookmark site, getting links to your blog will effectively send much more IE users than Firefox users to your blog. IE users will follow links, Firefox users won’t to nearly the same extent. So getting inbound links to your site is imperative. You need them to get both an increased Page rank and since they will send mostly IE users.

This supports what I’ve been saying in the past articles of "The Blogpreneur." You have to build a strong blog with great content, when you do that, you will get links, which in turn will give you both Google, and referrals from other sites. And those hits will probably be much more IE heavy and thereby more click friendly.

Check your browser stats, it will tell you a lot about whether the hits you are getting are likely to hit an ad or not. If your traffic is Firefox heavy, you are not getting what you are looking for.

Check Firefox Ratio Before You buy Ad Space

If you are going to advertise on a site to drive traffic to your site. Ask them what their Firefox percentage is. If its high, it’s probably better to pay per click than to pay a flat monthly rate based on their traffic.

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Whenever I buy something that says "batteries sold separately." I calmly dream that this will be the store redeeming my basic faith in a company’s ability to seize the most self-evident opportunity for customer service.

(I’m starting to think I am a hopeless idealist.)

1. If you are selling an item. TEST it before you let the customer walk out with it. Take out a pair of batteries. Put them in and make sure everything works.

It really doesn’t matter that the item is made by Widget Industries in Upper Mongolia. YOU sold it, and the customer will be angry with YOU when it doesn’t work.

2 . (This is where companies make fools of themselves) Turn off the object and put it back in the box before closing the sale. But LEAVE THE BATTERIES.

Yes, I said it! Save your key rings, forget about the complimentary Frisbee. Take the unusually smart step of actually making sure that the item will work when they get home without the customer needing to buy batteries.

In fact, if I come home with an object without batteries, but a complimentary branding Frisbee, I’m probably going to be even more fuming than if I didn’t get the Frisbee at all. At that second I am going to wonder what moron came up with that idea instead of just giving me a pair of bloody AA’s! Now I’m both angry that I have to go back out and get batteries, and convinced that your establishment is owned and operated by a cretin. Not the customer experience you should be shooting for.

Giving It Away Increase Sales

The amazing thing is that your sale of batteries has a great chance of increasing too. Why? Because if you don’t have a policy of testing each item, your sales clerks are going to forget to remind the customer they will need batteries x amount of times out of a hundred.

If clerks test everything as a policy, they won’t forget as often and that will improve sales of batteries as well. And here is the kicker, the customer probably has other things that need batteries, so even though you just gave them batteries for the item they purchased, they will often end up buying them for other items.

It All Goes In the Plus Column

If the item you are selling is $2.49 with a profit margin of 30 cents. This is admittedly not a great idea. But if you are holding a profit margin anywhere over $3 per item, you can’t really lose by doing this.

AA batteries are about 7 cents if you buy in bulk. You are paying more for those fancy brochures used to staple the receipt to in case the product doesn’t work. Now you will have to deal with less customer returns as well, which also saves you money and bad will. (See the math here?)

If you have a profit margin that is high, Say $70. You will have to convert 1 sale in every 250 to a returning customer or a referral for it to break even.

I guarantee you will be head and shoulders above the competition that are still standing there like misers, taking them back out of the gadget before asking you if you would like to buy batteries. To me, that is not just a missed opportunity of customer service. It’s downright counterproductive and borderline rude.

I can also promise you that the statement "I’m going to leave these in here, if you would like to buy extra batteries, this item takes Double A’s" will do more for your customer satisfaction than a Frisbee ever will.

I am convinced that being religious, in combination with being a smoker is a great combination for business success. Now, before the atheists and puritans out there have a coronary, - I don’t believe its about the religion, or the tobacco.

Perspective

What I’m talking about is the need to get a break and some fresh perspective. I remember reading a study in the late 90’s that smokers were more productive than non smokers. Why? Because they took the 5 minute break for a cigarette every so often, giving them a chance to clear their head and stop staring at the same problem for too long. Those that didn’t smoke tended to keep working, although they appeared to be more productive they actually only were the first two hours of the day. Although the actual facts can - and have - been debated until the cows come home. I am a firm believer in the concept.

The same goes for religious people. Many entrepreneurs will slowly let work cut into their free time. Soon they are working day and night, 7 days a week.  While the religious person will hopefully take their holy day off and attend a service. The religion isn’t really the issue; it’s the break from work. Socializing with friends and family, and actually having a little time to recharge the batteries in between is what matters here.

Working too much and not letting yourself take a break and actually enjoy life and the people around you will not work for long. Overworking is an all too common problem among entrepreneurs in general.

Although I can’t recommend smoking, I do recommend taking short breaks throughout the day. The religious concept of keeping a day a week where you don’t work is as brilliant as it is old.

Don’t want to take up smoking, or go to a service? Join a Charity!

Working with charities produces much the same result. Think of how many times you’ve heard successful people talking about how important it is to give back to the community. As much as it is socially responsible and a good thing to do, it also gives you a break from the daily grind, and you get to do something that makes you feel great about yourself and your surroundings. And feeling great is the first step to being great.

Entrepreneurship Is a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Your business needs you, but it needs you at your peak performance. Once you are burned out, you are not much good to it, yourself, or those that love you. Find what recharges your batteries, and make sure you always keep time aside for it. Unless you pace yourself, you probably won’t last long enough to see things really bear fruit.

Clear Your Head and Get More Done

Once you break the constant working habit, you will begin to be more productive. The breaks will get your thoughts organized, your motivation recharged and you will look forward to the work you need to do.  A little time off will actually allow you to do more with less time.

Smart v. Hard

You became an Entrepreneur for many reasons, and one of them was probably to get more time for the things you love. This is not about working Smart v. Hard, no matter how smart you are, an entrepreneur will almost always work hard.

Work a little less, and you’ll be able to work both harder and smarter.

—

Are you running a small business on the side?

Maybe you have a small online store, an affiliate site or a monetized blog? If you are, and it’s not making much money, it could be your mindset that’s slowing you down.

If your business really is mostly for fun, it’s no big deal. If you are looking to do as little actual work as possible, and you are happy with whatever income it generates, then great. Keep up the good work and for goodness sake enjoy it. But, if you ever sat and wondered how to squeeze a little more juice out of it’s time to sit back and take stock.

The problem here is the thought pattern of having a “Hobby Business”. It’s a contradiction in terms.

A Hobby COSTS money - A Business MAKES money

You shouldn’t have a Hobby Business, but you can have a Business Hobby. It’s all about the mindset in how you approach it.
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t have a small operation on the side, with the intent of earning some pocket money, what I AM saying is; the way you use the time allotted, will determine the outcome. Treating it like just a hobby, will result in it becoming one – which means it will probably cost more than it generates.

Even the Small Should Think Big

Whenever you deal with your business, you should think like a mogul. Make solid decisions, stick to them, and see your plans through. How long it takes will depend on how much time and energy you spend, just avoid sitting down on Saturday morning to “see what’s going on.” You’ll flounder around and probably end up fixing what isn’t broken. Approach each and every decision with the clear intent of being Rockefeller. Even if this is your hobby, its more fun to have a hobby that you are successful at.

Set your goal – Make the plan

First step to any successful business is to have a goal, and a plan on how to get there. If you have a side business that you want to do because you think it’s fun, then by all means, set those goals low. But set measurable goals. It’s the single most important way to ensure that you are in fact doing things right.
Once you have your goals, figure out what to do to get there. Pick your plan of attack, and sketch out what the steps are. This way, you can spend the time you have on your side business the most effectively. Not having a plan of attack figured out is the best way to end up wasting your time.

Make your Schedule

Take your steps, and set a schedule on when you want it done. If you don’t want to spend a lot of time every day or week, then spend a little time - But follow your schedule.
When you are running a business as an extracurricular activity the big risk is that you keep getting off track. Having a plan and schedule keeps you from running around in circles.

Measure and Correct

If something isn’t working right, find out why and make the adjustment. Just don’t adjust every time you sit down and do some work. Try to consider that the less time you put in, the longer it will take to get anywhere. So allow things to level out a little before you decide that it isn’t working.

Success is Fun – Having fun Breeds Success

If you break down your overall goals to smaller steps, little things that can be reached on the way, you’ll find yourself being more motivated to get to the next one.

When you reach a goal, celebrate your success. Even if it’s just coffee and donuts with your friends or significant other, allow yourself to be proud of your successes and reached milestones. Sharing your enthusiasm will make those around you enthusiastic about it, and that will be a great motivator.

Give it a Try

Running a business on the side is rewarding in so many ways. It can generate a little – or a lot – of income. It will however with certainty be a growing and educational experience that few other hobbies can measure up to.

If you run it right, it might even become your new career

Good Luck!

I often find myself giving reading recommendations to business owners, managers, and future entrepreneurs. I also find myself reading a lot of business books. So with the “Blogpreneur” series well underway, i thought i’d try to combine a little affiliate marketing with actually providing a good and solid piece of helpful advice.

The books listed here are books i feel should be on every business man or woman’s bookshelf. They are solid business books which have both taught and inspired me in some way.
Reading has always been my greatest source of information as well as inspiration.

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Marketing Management - Philip Kotler

Mr. Kotler is often heralded as the father or modern marketing. For a very good reason. This book was handed to me by my first boss back in 1990. It was this book that made me choose to study marketing, and this book that made me want to know everything I could about it. It is a bit of a brick, normally used as a textbook in colleges and universities. which might make many back away from it in a normal bookstore.
But there are no two ways about it. Unless you plan to hire outside marketing consultants and firms to do it for you. This is the first book you should buy. It works as a reference, as inspiration when you need to think in new ways. And it serves as my anchor when I start feeling out of ideas.

It is one of the books i would strongly suggest you buy. Even though it will be available in most libraries.

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Disclaimer: I do make a percentage of sales generated through the ad listed here. So from a personal perspective, i would naturally like to see sales being generated from it.
However, The reading suggestions in this article are meant for Business men and women as a resource. So my suggestion is to get the book any way you can, at the best price you can. Or simply borrow it at the local library.

Getting Your News Out There

The most time consuming part of press release marketing is to build a media list. This is why the companies that distribute press releases charge so much to do it. They have built extensive databases with every possible piece of information they might need. You are not paying for the service as much as you are for the use of their database.

Building your media list requires a lot of legwork on your part to find, classify, and target your contacts.

Start with the publications you already know. Your local media, the papers and magazines you already read, the channels you watch. Use the knowledge you already have to find your targets.

When you have completed the list of your known outlets, it’s time to broaden your horizons.
The internet is full of directories; it’s the perfect place to start to find media outlets that fit your idea of what you would like to spread yourself to.

Media Directories

US Newspapers - http://www.usnpl.com/
Yahoo Media Directory - http://dir.yahoo.com/News_and_Media/
News link - http://www.newslink.org/
Refdesk - http://www.refdesk.com/paper.html

Create a Database

As you identify the publications you want. Add them to a database of some sort. A basic Excel Spreadsheet or a simple Access Database works well for a job like this. Even your email address book can be used.

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You can download a Basic Spreadsheet here
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Target the Right Journalist

Once you have a publication, the most important step you can do to improve your chances is to target the right journalist. It’s far better to send a press release to a journalist that normally writes about your topic than to send it through the “catch all” emails and fax numbers.

Go to the publications website; see if they publish an online version. If you are lucky, this will also include the e-mail to the author of the article. This is the goldmine. You get the name of the author that has shown an interest in your topic area, and a direct channel to their inbox.

– Warning –

Try not to cause unnecessary work

If you intend to send the email to more than one writer at the same publication; Do NOT send separate emails. Send it to all of them in the CC Field. So that they can clearly see who else got it. You don’t want two people from the same publication working on the same story. That will happen once, and the next time they won’t touch it again since they wasted time before.

Fax

Some publications want you to fax them the release. If this is the case, find out what the fax is for the journalist you want to target. If that is not possible, Make sure that you attention it to the person you want. Faxes arrive by the truckload to a major publication. And if you don’t target someone, you risk getting lost in the shuffle of things.

Create a corporate list

Often overlooked, you can make a lot of progress if you build a list with companies you want to associate yourself with, potential advertisers, existing and prospect partners, Industry Leaders etc. It is never a bad idea to include these in your list.

Follow Up

Once you’ve sent your release. Try to follow up with those that you sent it to through a phone call, it does wonders to be picked up if you call them, and ask if they got it, if you can send them anything else. or answer any questions. Again, if you do a little of their work for them, they’ll reward you for it in the long run.

If you have a large list, Make sure that you follow up with the most important ones, as well as the ones that you already have a relationship with. Always nurture your press contacts, they are worth every ounce of effort.

Free Press Release Services

You should also consider news aggregate services like the free press release services, as well as posting your press release onto places like Digg, Reddit, Propeller etc.

Here are two free news release services that function as aggregates. and news people do read them. So you definately want to post your release here too since it does increase your chances with no cost and barely any effort.

Free-Press-Release – http://www.free-press-release.com/
Open PR - http://www.openpr.com/

Condition the Journalists

To maximize your chances, you need to condition the people that pick up your press release. If you follow the basic guidelines, you will give them max benefit for minimum work. This conditions them to look for you again when they need something to publish.

You want to become their "go-to" resource when they need something, you can only do that by providing the best possible release - with easy access followup and supporting information. Do that, and you’ll be rewarded.

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Press Release Marketing if done right, is one of the most powerful, low-cost marketing channels. Don’t miss out on the business you can generate from it.

Good Luck!

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Previous Articles on this topic

How to Create a Media Kit
How to Write a Press Release

Have you bundled yourself so tight you can’t move?

Once upon a time…… I worked with a company that provided contracted services. The services were spanning many areas, and of course came in different bundles.

I was tasked with finding the "custom" contracts, those not conforming to any of the standard bundles, so that they could be standardized. Something that many companies try to do to simplify both the billing and being able to provide the service they agreed on. Up until this point, it was nothing strange to me.

When i worked on it, i quickly realized that almost all of the "weird" contracts as they were called, had been sold by one of the senior staff. These contracts were highly customized in both services provided and pricing. This of course was interesting, but what was more interesting than that, was that the company had an almost 100% retention rate of these customers.

After crunching the numbers, it also became very clear that the profit margin on those contracts were on average 7$ over the standard packages. Even after taking the "hassle" of customized billing and keeping track of what services to provide into consideration.

The Senior member had tapped several majorly important resources at once. The customer got a personal relationship which let them buy exactly what they needed. And in the process, the company:

A) Made more money
B) Kept the customers longer, (making even more money.)
C) Made the customer happy
(which i’ve harped on enough already as the only way to get good referrals.)

Simplified Billing be Damned

These wierd contracts were exactly what every customer should have been offered, Customized to perfection, the senior staff member had by "breaking the rules" shown that it was the best option available.

But as always, the "cutting costs" aspect of simplified billing and contract management was what the corporate head office could more easily measure, and therefore wanted. So that was what they got. The profitability and retention went down as could be expected.

The savings of "simplified billing" ended up costing them more than hiring an extra Accounts Recievable staffer would have cost them.

And lets not forget that they had a very powerful accounting and billing package that if used correctly would have made it a non issue to begin with.

Lessons Learned
What i learned from this staff member was that unless you are completely unable to customize, there is no reason not to. It’s simply better to sell them what they want. They are willing to pay a slight premium on the services they do get, if you allow them to cut out the ones they don’t want.

Thougts on Selling Services

-Services, should never be sold as a fixed package unless they are interdependent.

- if they are interdependent, they shouldn’t be listed as two separate items to begin with.

- Bundles are great, some customer likes the no hassle approach, and the rest can use them as a base from where to start. But to not allow customization is the same as saying "Your wants and needs are not important."

For Gods Sake, Don’t Listen to Me!

Every time you sell a custom contract that adds or subtracts a service from one of your bundles, You are being given Free Product Development . Your customer is helping you improve your bundles and packages with no other consideration than you listening to them.

Consultants like me charge big money to give you the same information that your customer just gave you for free.

So by all means, please ignore this opportunity, and call me instead, I’ll be happy to listen to your customers for you, (and bill you accordingly.)

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Satisfied customers are your best sales force, but are you paying attention to the ones that are doing the work for you?

Next time you get a clear referral, don’t miss a beat in contacting the person who gave it. Make sure that you thank them for the business. If at all possible, reward them somehow, give them a discount, a gift card, take them out to lunch. Whatever you do. never let a referral go unnoticed.

If you notice and appreciate the business they send you, they’ll do it again.

Major sales teams almost always have bonus programs, are you rewarding your “sales force?”