DOTC: Bringing on the Barter

Let's get back to brass tacks today, and do it on the cheap!

As a small business, you often need many products or services that you simply can’t afford to buy outright.  This can be especially true in the very beginning of a new business.

One way to work around this is to go very, very old school  - barter.

Not only does it help you get around a cash shortage, it’s also a way to get your service/product out there, and hopefully, have a barter client who will sing your praises, perhaps via a recommendation on your web site or on LinkedIn.

Note:  referrals and recommendations are a "currency" that can help you out big-time, so don't discount the value of this.

So, how would this work?

A pot of honey for a mauling?  DEAL!

Let’s say, for example, you are a bookkeeper.  You need a logo created.

I bet, if you are out there leads referral networking (and if you’re not, why aren't you? It’s one of the best cheap tactics around), you know a graphic designer or know someone who can recommend a good one. 

It is very possible that your designer friend needs somebody to set up their Quickbooks.  Maybe the time it takes the designer to whip you up a logo is similar to the time it'd take for you to set up Quickbooks.  Thus, it would be a mutually agreeable arrangement for both of you to barter this service.

In my opinion, this works best with services trading for services, but there's no reason why you can't do it for goods.

The possibilities are endless, but here's some services I bet you could find a barter partner for:

• Graphic design
• Copywriting
• Web hosting
• Bookkeeping
• Cleaning services (especially if you have a physical location, like a martial arts school or a small office)
• Administrative services
• Execution of social media
• IT services

Note: When bartering, do make sure you are trading equally - that is, the value of your time (or cost of goods) versus what you receive in trade needs to be relatively the same.

You don't want to give more than you get, right?

Track the value of barter just as you would as if you were paying cash, and evaluate the return on investment the same way.

Also - talk to your bookkeeper or accountant about how that needs to be tracked, as it is considered taxable income by the IRS in many cases.

Have you ever used barter in your business?  I'd love to hear about it in the comments!

Adventures in Customer Service - UPDATE!

If you didn't read about my awesome adventure in customer service with AT&T, you can catch up with Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.  Epic fail was, indeed, epic.

By the way, Twitter account for customer service from AT&T (@attcustomercare), when you ask me to DM you, why didn't you ever respond to the DM I sent to you as requested?  Tweet from AT&T Customer Care

I wrote those posts before the situation was finally resolved - here's the conclusion to the story.

After doing some research, I decided that I was going to switch providers.  A competing provider in my area (who will, admittedly, treat me no better than AT&T - I switched to AT&T from them, so I know them well) has a similar internet service for about $30 less a month than I pay currently.

If I'm going to have bad customer service, I might as well get it cheaper.

So I call AT&T.

I confirm I'm going to get a credit for my internet outage, as I was repeatedly told several different CSR's in the midst of the outage fiasco.  The nice guy on the line (and I do think they hire very nice people overall) tells me he will manually make sure I get issued the credit and confirms the amount.

Wait... "manually issue the credit"?

That's not funny, AT&T.

If I didn't call in and specifically request it, would I have automatically received the credit?

I asked the CSR this question, and he responded that they couldn't know how long my internet was down and thus what to credit me for unless I called in.

I would not have received the credit if I hadn't called in and specifically asked for it!

I received a robocall on the day service was restored telling me the ticket was closed.  So yeah, they knew I was back online.  The promise of a credit was basically a promise they weren't going to argue with me about it, I guess?

Here's the deal: I'm a big corporation veteran, so here's my (admittedly cynical) bet:  I bet they are hoping I forget or miss it on my bill so they can keep the money.

It's like how a percentage of people let gift cards expire and the company gets to keep the money.  It's one of those little things they do that flows directly to their bottom line. It's smart on a spreadsheet.

It's horrible customer service.

So, next, I tell CSR guy that I'm going to fire them for a better deal, and he wants to transfer me over to the Retention Department.  I agree to listen (hey, never hurts).

Retention Department Dude is a very nice guy, and he offers to give me the next tier of faster speed for about $15 less a month than I am paying them for the slower service (and the faster service starts immediately).  Plus, they are going to upgrade my modem at no charge (which is what the service tech recommended).

The equivalent service (the faster speed than what I had) from the competitor costs almost double that, so, after three (and now four) blog posts complaining about them...

I'm still a customer of AT&T (just barely) for another year.

Even if they just had to end that call with that stupid, mindless reminder about texting and driving (seriously, AT&T, stop it!)

Here's the thing:

I think AT&T is trying very hard to deliver good customer service (given they are in a captive market, which I talk a little about here) and are completely missing the mark.  I think, on some level, they know this, and that's why they have a Retention Department authorized to reel me back in with a (relatively) good deal.

They overcame my anger by finding the tipping point whereby I would let it go in order to get a better price.

They can afford to this, because they are very big.  You know how I bet they are hoping I miss my credit (and thus give it up) above?  This is the flip side of that bet.   

You (and I) are very small.  We can't afford to do it this way!

To sum up:

1. Don't require your customer to solve their own problems - that's your job
2. Don't say things you don't mean
3. Don't put your priorities ahead of your customer's

Are you disappointed I stayed with AT&T?  Let me know in the comments below!

Assuming the No

Recently, I wrote about the pursuit of the Big Idea, and how we prevent ourselves from making them into reality.

One of the reasons we use to prevent our development of Big Ideas is:

We decide we can’t get buy-in from needed partners or leaders.

This is "Assuming the No".

People in direct sales are very familiar with this, and to be successful, they have to do a very good job in overcoming what I suspect is a natural inclination to assume people don't want you, your ideas, your products, or your services.

I struggle with this myself! I have a nearly pathological fear of approaching people I don't already know in order to sell my services (and yes, I'm working on that).

This is related to something a friend and I were discussing the other day - the idea that we have

Protip:  Grumpy Cat will not be on board.

been programmed to ask for permission to do anything.

Starting as small children, we need to ask for permission from parents, teachers, pastors, coaches and a whole host of other people.  As adults, we include needing the permission of bosses, coworkers, vendors, and customers.

When we become small business people, we then retain this habit, even when we don't have to!

So this is what we do:

1. We ask or wait for permission
2. We assume that permission will not be granted.

I want to explore asking for permission further in another post, so lets get back to that NO you think you're going to get, and let's assume you do need "permission" to proceed with the idea (such as buy-in from a potential partner).

We all know the saying about assuming things (and if you want to see the origin of the phrase, as far as I can tell, take a few minutes and watch this scene from The Odd Couple - classic!) but that's not the real core of this problem.

Why are we automatically assuming that NO is the answer?

What happens if we change our minds and assume that YES is the answer? That the idea will sound as good to other people as it does to us?  That they, too, will be swept up in the excitement of our Big Idea?

Unlike when we were kids, where we learned that Mom and Dad were absolutely not going to allow us to eat candy for dinner every night, there's no good reason to assume that every person will give you no for an answer other than our own doubts and fears.

Here's a challenge: for one week, in everything you do, to assume that whenever you need buy-in from somebody else, that the answer will be YES.  Don't let your fear of no prevent you from getting that client, partner, or Big Idea off the ground.

Start assuming the yes.

I bet it's going to change your perception of what you can do - and you'll discover that it was you saying no far more often than other people.

Try it, and let me know how it goes!

You can always drop me a note at AbanicoMktg@gmail.com or comment below.

What's the Big Idea?

Ever get an idea that was so powerful it felt like literally getting hit in the head when it occurred to you?  It’s one of the best feelings in the world, isn't it?

True, 99% of these ideas are unworkable as originally imagined, and maybe a third are workable in a refined form.  Regardless, some of my best work comes from these “lightning bolt” moments - the times when I become struck with a truly Big Idea.

So, after the initial shock of it wears off, what happens next, typically?

I've noticed that it’s very common for us to dismiss Big Ideas offhand.  We let the Big Idea just die. We do this for a lot of reasons:

Probably both?

We decide we don’t have (and can never get) the resources necessary to execute this Big Idea.

We decide we can’t get buy-in from needed partners or leaders.

We decide that the idea is so fanciful it’s completely unrealistic to spend any time developing it.

We decide that the idea must have too many fatal flaws - if it is such a great idea, why isn't somebody else doing it?

Or, most tragically, we decide that the idea is just too good or too big for somebody like us.

Much of the time, this decision is made before doing any research, any discussion, or any planning. It’s automatically rejected out of hand before any development happens.

Every great idea was at one time just somebody’s “aha” moment - nothing more than a Big Idea.

Take Jeff Bezos and Amazon.  Do you think when he first considered selling things on the internet, that he had the huge logistical problem completely worked out before he started writing his business plan?  Do you think, at that stage, he had any idea what Amazon would become?

Nope – he wanted in on the ground floor of the coming eCommerce revolution, and he saw books as his way to do it - so he wrote a plan, got the partners he needed, they solved the problems that arose, and changed shopping on the internet as we knew it. 

Learn more about how Amazon came to be here: Freshdesk: Amazon's Road to Customer Happiness

The point is, if Bezos had listened to conventional wisdom about profitability, and logistics, and a host of other things, Amazon would not exist.  Now, you can argue somebody else would have done something similar, and maybe that's true - but it was Bezos who created Amazon and changed our world.

There is no reason in this world you can't do it, too. Imagine how amazing the world would be if we all developed those Big Ideas into reality!

Do me – and the world – a favor.  Write down your next great “aha” moment and let that big idea breathe.  Don't let it die before you give it a chance.

Who knows?  The next Big Idea that changes the world could be yours!

Five Ways to Make Your Business Card Awesome (Part 2)

If you missed the first part (with the first two points), you can catch up here.  Let's continue on with some ways to make your business card awesome.

AWESOME BIZ CARD TIP 3: DON'T TRY TO USE YOUR CARD TO SELL YOUR SERVICES

Some people will take up the majority of the real estate of a business card – which is only 2 inches by 3 inches - with product information, lists, product photos, etc.  I've heard and read some experts advise doing this, and I do understand the logic behind the suggestion, but I'm going to respectfully disagree.

NO.  Just... no.

A short list of key products or services – on the back of the card – is just fine.

A line or two about what you do, that’s cool too.

A tagline and call to action?  Go for it.

Your picture? I’m a big fan of this, no matter what industry you are in – it really helps people associate your name and company with your face, and humanizes your business.

But before you start using your card as a replacement brochure, keep in mind that the purpose is for people to contact you, not to tell them everything about any possible product or service you might offer.

I have seen dozens of business cards trying to cram all of that information in that very tiny space, in six (or even four!) point type.  It all becomes unreadable and your contact information becomes lost in competing marketing messages.

So while it’s tempting to do this in order to save money, keep the extra information and marketing messaging under control and let your card serve its true purpose.

AWESOME BIZ CARD TIP 4: ONLY ONE PERSON PER BIZ CARD

It's not unusual to see a business card where two people are "sharing" the same card (sometimes they even share the same email address).

While business cards aren't cheap, they aren't crazy expensive either.  Please, let’s stop using one card for more than one person.  If you and a friend have a business together, you should each have your own card.

It’s especially difficult when there are two people on the card with the same gender (or both have gender-neutral names) and you can’t remember the name of the person you met specifically (it may have been at a big event, for example, where you met lots of people and you're having trouble associating a face with a name). 

I have run across this many times now, and I think it’s just a cost-savings thing, but please, if you want your business card to be awesome, it must be about an individual - YOU.

I’m not contacting some faceless corporation and it doesn't matter who responds - I want to contact you and it does matter who responds.

Please, let's get a business card for each person who needs one, thanks.

AWESOME BIZ CARD TIP 5: HAVE FUN AND EXPRESS YOURSELF

Ok, yes, I've just laid down a bunch of rules on you, so you probably believe that I think that your business card has to be boring to be effective or communicate clearly.

I’m here to tell you that isn't true – you can clearly communicate the key information and still have a sharp business card that will uniquely identify you and what you do.

Here’s a few ways to do it:

• Instead of landscape orientation, use portrait.
• Try an unusual shape or size: if you are selling electricity, maybe your card could be in the shape of a light bulb.  If you’re a Realtor – have one shaped like a house!  Try a round or oval card or a thin one (1 x 3).  I know this annoys some people out there, but in my opinion, if you can afford it, it's a great way to stand out. One caveat – I do not recommend an oversize or dimensions larger than 2" x 3", as they are hard to keep in what many people use for business card holders. Use the standard dimensions of 2" x 3" or smaller.
• Indirect imagery related to your product or service: let’s say you sell cars - what if you had a background watermark of an open road?  If you are an accountant, what if you have a background that looks like an old-school ledger?  This is one way you can be really creative and make your business card represent you and what you do but not interrupt the purpose of the card.
• Play with your head shot: instead of a boring business portrait, why not have one with special effects applied to it – think of the effects you can get with Instagram, for example. I strongly advise people selling services to include their picture on their card, because half of what you sell is yourself, not your service.

Those are just a few ideas.  Working with a graphic designer can bring forth a lot more.  That being said, remember, never let the design overwhelm the purpose - always make sure the Big Four (full name, company name, phone number, and email address) are clearly communicated on your card.

I hope you have found these tips useful – got an awesome business card? Share it with me, I’d love to see it!

Five Ways to Make Your Business Card Awesome (Part 1)

I do a lot of networking and I meet dozens of people every week.  I end up collecting a lot of business cards, and then I enter them into a contact manager for follow-up later.

Yes, yes, Bump, CardMunch (or for us Android users, CamCard) exist, yay technology, but still, it's still a paper business card world.  You won't be taken seriously without one.

So, as you can imagine, I've been giving business card design a lot of thought after entering the contact information of lots and lots and lots of folks into my contact manager.  I think we can all make some basic changes for the better – let’s all make our business cards awesome.

AWESOME BIZ CARD TIP 1: LESS IS MORE

Money is tight, and business cards are not cheap.

However, you business card has a primary purpose – to give your contact information to other people so they can contact you at a future date.  If your contact information is not being clearly communicated on your card, you are wasting your money.

There are four critical pieces of information your business card must clearly communicate: your full name, your company name, your primary phone number, and your email address.

Other bits of information (such as your title) are useful, but not required for your card to serve its basic purpose. (Caveat - if you have a physical location, such as a retail shop, you should include your address, but do not omit the Big Four or make those unreadable in order to fit in your address.).

Ivory text on White Paper is so hip!

I have in my collection a card I was given some weeks ago at leads group I attended. It has a script font in medium blue on a black background in 6 point type with a list of products, next to a product image, all on one side of the card (with the back blank).  It’s basically unreadable.  I'm sad for this person, as they have wasted their money (even if you use the free Vistaprint cards... it's a waste).

Here's some tips to improve readabilty:

• Have a high-contrast color scheme – black type on white paper is popular because it’s inexpensive, but it's also very readable.
• Use larger type in a standard font (such as Georgia or Arial) – in a size that is greater than eight points - ten is better.
• Bold or make larger the four important points of information (name, company, phone, email address) if you have other content on your card.
• If you use light color on dark background, make sure it’s very high contrast (for example, white, neon green, or yellow on black is more readable than blue or red).
• If you want to say more than just the basics, use both sides of the card - one side for contact info, the other for marketing information.

Note: if you are a designer or someone who does a creative service such as photography, your business card should reflect your style and, theoretically, include at least one image indicative of your work.

AWESOME BIZ CARD TIP 2: INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS (no exceptions)

I am amazed at how many professional business cards I get missing email addresses.

Friends, we are living in the second full decade of the 21st century. Not having an email address in your advertising and on your business card is the modern equivalent of having no phone number in 1970.

Email is still one of the most preferred methods of contact for lots and lots of people - and when you omit it, you lose that audience.

So, of you do not have an email address to use for business purposes only, get ye to www.google.com and sign up for Gmail immediately.  It’s free and it takes literally minutes.

Go get your new business cards printed with your email prominently displayed on it.  Watch your interactions with your peers, your customers, and your partners improve (because it will).

As an aside, please, do check your business email frequently.  Many people prefer this communication method and it’ll be perceived as lazy or rude if you don’t check it daily at a minimum.  You can ignore personal email all you like - and I know plenty who do - but you can't do that with business email.  Ignore it at your peril.


Part 2 (and three more tips) about making your business cards awesome will come on Thursday - but in the mean time, have you seen any business cards that you really admire?  What about one that make you cringe? I'd love to hear about it at AbanicoMktg@gmail.com or in the comments.

Adventures in Customer Service, Part 3 of 3

We started discussing the epic fail of AT&T customer service over here in part 1, and continued in part 2.

Let’s finish up our list.

INAPPROPRIATE UPSELLING

It’s day 5 of my outage and I’m on my last call with AT&T to verify that a tech would, in fact, show up at my house, after having to cancel my participation in my martial arts class and any other activity I’d planned, because who knew when – and if – a tech would actually show up?

Plus, I'm getting very, very irritated at 1) the really bad hold music and 2) being repeatedly nagged about texting and driving.

So, on Saturday, I am one seriously pissed off and unhappy customer.  I have mentioned in this call and the one the night before that I am now comparison shopping alternatives to AT&T Uverse because of this incident.  I am a customer with one foot out the door.

Why yes, I've completely failed to serve you!
Would you be interested in giving me more money?

So, what does the CSR try to do as the call is ending?

She tries to upsell me into buying cable and land line service.

I'm not kidding.

So, hey, here's an idea -  instead of trying to sell me more services why not offer me something to prevent me from comparison shopping and dropping your service completely? 

I’m not blaming the CSR as an individual – she’s obviously measured and rewarded on upselling products and services.

She apparently has zero incentive to placate me or see things from my point of view or attempt to prevent me from looking elsewhere for service – she has an upsell quota to meet. Her needs and AT&T's needs are what's most important, not mine.  AT&T is her boss, not me.

Yesterday (Wednesday) a communication arrived at my house from AT&T.  Was it an apology for the outage, and a confirmation of the credit I would receive as a result?

Ha! Ha! As if!  Nope, it was yet another attempt to upsell me into more services - a special offer of discounts on additional services.

Well, that's an other piece of mail for the recycling bin. Thanks, AT&T.

LESSON LEARNED: AFTERMATH OF AN EPIC FAIL

After this Adventure in Customer Service, I say that AT&T, with all of their money, process, and training, is failing in providing excellent customer service in an epic way.

In every interaction with me, AT&T put their needs ahead of mine.  They put words ahead of deeds.  They demonstrated that their so-called “caring” about me is a joke, as they did not understand or seem to want to understand what I really needed from them.

I know, should anybody at AT&T read this, that my words are falling on deaf ears. After all, I’m one tiny customer and won't miss me when I'm gone.

No, I'm using this experience to try to make myself a better servant to my clients - and you can, too.

As small business people, customer service – really good customer service – can be our edge when competing against the big guys, who have superior resources, budgets, and sometimes cheaper prices than we do.  I do not believe it requires steeply discounting your services nor does it take an investment in a huge customer service apparatus to deliver excellent customer service.

Just ask yourself – am I putting my company’s needs ahead of my customer’s?  How can I discover what my customer really needs from me and deliver it?  Am I treating their time and money with the respect it deserves?   Do my actions match my words?

Am I asking my customers to solve problems I should be solving for them?  To me, this is the key point, the essence of customer service – don’t ask customers to solve problems you should be solving!  That is why they pay you!

None of us are perfect, and we will fail, at some point, to deliver what we promise, sometimes in situations beyond our control.  How do we handle that fail – how do we make the customer feel more confidence in us after mistakes, rather than less?  How can we turn a fail into a win?

Look at yourself, and your business, every day, and answer these questions honestly.

Go out there and provide excellent customer service.

Thoughts on this rant (or others)?  Let me know in the comments or email me.

Adventures in Customer Service, Part 2 of 3

We started discussing the epic fail of AT&T customer service over here in part 1 .

Let’s continue with our list.

YOUR WORDS SPEAK LOUDER THAN YOUR ACTIONS

I spoke to a CSR four times in five days.  At the end of each call, I was treated to this message:

“AT&T cares about you, so don’t text and drive.”

Seems harmless, huh? Good PR, anyway – AT&T can claim that they are addressing this important public safety issue and check it off as good corporate citizenship.

Text and drive all over the place,whatevs.

Well, after hearing it four times in five days, no matter what my interaction was with AT&T on each call, I was ready to start texting and driving in rebellion!

AT&T must be measuring their CSRs on delivery of this message and it’s got to be a high priority for them.  Of course, being repeatedly annoyed about texting and driving wasn't on my priority list...

This point - that AT&T's priorities were in fact more important than mine - really became clear to me on the third call.  This was the one on Friday night and I was livid that a promised appointment with a technician within a twelve hour window did not actually happen.

Remember,  I had to chase down AT&T to figure out what was going on - especially irritating as they robocalled me earlier in the day saying I would, in fact, see a technician that day, so I should stick around the house.

I spent the majority of this phone call complaining and expressing my frustration, and talking about finding a new internet provider (tersely, but as politely as I could manage, as I don’t believe in abusing customer service people).  The CSR handled the call very well up to this point, sounding sympathetic and patient.

So, after about twenty minutes of my venting my extreme displeasure, as we end the call, he just has to make sure he ends with “AT&T cares about you, don’t text and drive.”

"No Way"
WAY!

Hey, AT&T, if you actually cared about me, you would have let me know that the technician was not going to show up without my having to call you.  You would not have required me to call you on Saturday to make sure when and if a tech was going to show up to my house.

If you actually cared about me, you’d understand that harassing me about texting and driving is completely inappropriate when you are in the middle of apologizing profusely for failing to follow through on a promise and wasting an entire day of my time.

The CSR should have been able to use human judgment and say, “Let’s skip the texting and driving message on this call, because it probably sounds pretty stupid”, without fear of being harassed by his managers about not having the cover on his TPS reports (or however they measure such things over there).

But because AT&T needs to appear to care about my safety, it looks to me like they have to deliver this texting and driving message on every call, and if they don’t deliver the message, I bet there are negative consequences in store for that CSR.

AT&T, your actions show that you don’t care about me, so stop forcing your CSRs to say that you do. It’s insulting.

Ok, again, I'm out of space here, so I'll finish up in Part 3.

Adventures in Customer Service, Part 1 of 3

I've written before about customer service as a marketing tactic.  See here and here. I'm pretty passionate about the idea of excellent customer service being a key marketing tactic in your business.

I recently experienced customer service from a major corporation that could only be described as epic fail.  I think the reasons why this corporation failed might not be so obvious to the casual observer.  I have so much to say about this experience, I had to break it up into three blog posts!

Here’s the situation:

I was without internet service from about 6:30 pm on Tuesday 7/30 through around 11:00 am Saturday 8/3.  My service provider is AT&T Uverse.

Hi There!  How can I be of no help
to you whatsoever today?

Over the course of about three and a half days, my critical work and personal financials piled up (I couldn't do secured transactions via public WiFi after all) and our family life was disrupted.

Now, this was very frustrating, as I depend on the internet for just about everything (including TV).  It was like being punted back to 1986 and the digital Stone Age.  Yes, yes, I know, first world problems and all, but still, it was a major disruption to my business and my life.

The outage itself, however, was not what outraged me the most.  What was particularly galling is that my interactions with AT&T customer service representatives proved to me that for all of the money, training, and process that AT&T is obviously putting into its customer service apparatus, it’s missing a few key important points that are critical to providing excellent customer service..

I believe that the four different CSRs I talked to sincerely empathized with my problem and genuinely wished they could do more (being CSRs, of course they have zero power, but still – nice people overall).

So where’s the epic fail?  Here’s a list:

REQUIRING THE CUSTOMER TO FOLLOW UP

Once I reported a problem to my service on Tuesday night, why did I have to call AT&T back repeatedly over the next few days to make sure that AT&T was doing what they should be doing to fix my problem?

After the first call, I was told service would be restored by 8:00 pm on Wednesday.  I get home at 9 pm on Wednesday and nope, no internet!  I call the help line – and they don’t answer it after “business hours”, so I’m down for the night.  As you can imagine, that was awesome.

So I had to call them on Thursday morning, find out I need to get a tech scheduled (none available until Friday), wait another day for a tech to show up on Friday (and nobody showed), follow up on Friday with another call, to be told that the techs were backed up and I would not get my problem resolved on that day, and I had to cancel another day’s worth of activities on Saturday when the tech finally showed up and fixed the problem.

Here’s the thing: if AT&T actually gave a flip about me or my time or my value as a customer, they would have in place a process that, once I reported a problem, THEY would follow up WITH ME – again, via phone or email or text message, even – to make sure everything was okay. 

On each of four phone calls I made to AT&T, I had to go through the same rigmarole with my account number, phone number, PIN and explanation of my problem.  If they were calling me, I wouldn't have to go through the same song and dance repeatedly, theoretically.

So, here’s the point: if a customer is having an issue with your product or service, it’s on YOU to follow up with them to make sure that the issue gets resolved.  That action shows that you actually do care about their satisfaction with your product or service, and that their needs are more important than yours.

I've got two more main points, but I’m out of space today – see you in part 2.

Doing Things On The Cheap (DOTC): Leads (Referral) Marketing (aka "networking")

Leads (or referral) marketing activities can be one of the best, most effective tools in your arsenal as a small business.

These groups work by bringing together people in a variety of industries for the express purpose of creating relationships so you can confidently refer people to each other.

It is very common for these kinds of groups to be industry exclusive - once a member from a specific industry "locks in" membership (and how to do that varies from group to group) no other person in that industry is allowed to participate in the group.

It's a great way to meet other business people who are there for the purpose of meeting you and learning more about you.  They’re also great if you need to practice speaking in public (as you will usually do at least a 30 second “pitch” about you and your business).

So wait, which color of wine goes with my business card, again?

There usually are several groups in your area – some completely free, some cheap, some pricey.  I’m going to focus on finding the first two rather than the latter (if you are interested in the latter, check out groups like BNI or NetWorkz.  Also, many local Chambers of Commerce have these sorts of groups going for their members - if you are a Chamber member, use this service!) 

Go to Meetup and set up an account for yourself (do it as your business, not you, personally).  Make sure you use a good - and accurate - picture of yourself and fill out your profile completely.

Search for meetups within your target geography (typically not too far from your house or center of business) using the following interest keywords:

Referrals, small business owners, network marketing, business referral exchange, referral marketing, small business marketing, marketing strategy, business entrepreneurs.

You should also add any special terms related to your ideal customer base (as some groups may be industry specific).  Over time, additional terms will be suggested to you by Meetup in order to find more groups.

Several meetups should appear, unless you live in a very small place.  If none do anywhere near you, and you're the organized and outgoing type, you could try starting one yourself (I'll write about that another time).

Join a few on Meetup, go to the meeting, do one-on-one meetings with the people you meet there, develop relationships, and above all, learn as much as you can about the group members and do your very best to refer leads to them as much as you can.

They will pay you in kind, at least, a good group will (I talk about "bad" groups in "Five Reasons Your Leads Referral Group Sucks" Part One and Part Two).

Be aware it can take a while to get traction in a group, so don't expect a ton of leads on your first visit.  This marketing tactic requires patience and time to develop trust, and you must do your best to contribute to the group by bringing in new members as much as possible.

Many, if most, of the groups you find on Meetup either are free (they are at a restaurant and the expectation is that you buy something to eat - you can keep your cash expense down by ordering just ice water or a soda or something) or have a very small fee of some sort.  So, essentially, the major investment here is your time, especially as you also need to have stand-alone one-on-one meetings outside of group meetings to get to know the members better.

Of course, you will need to evaluate the investment in time and money versus the return (generally measured in leads) like any other tactic.  Be objective, but also don't discount the "vibe" of the group in your decision making process.

You may need more than one group, but don't do too many, as the "pool" of people you can refer business to will be too large to be meaningful.  The key here is building relationships and being known as someone who actively seeks leads for the rest of the group.

So sign up for Meetup and get going - let me know how it's working for you!