Lead By Example by Sending Magic Mails

Two weeks ago I wrote a blog post about leading by example to get more referrals.

I explained to look for ways to help someone (in this case the person you want a referral from) by introducing or referring them to someone who is interesting to them. In this way they will experience themselves how this works and reap the benefits. Not only will they be more open to help you, but they will also understand how to do it.

The “tool” we advise to use is called the Magic Mail.

The Magic Mail is actually a “normal” email in which you introduce two people to each other.

Why do I call it the “Magic” Mail?

Because the results can be magical!

Its primary function is that the receiver of the email experiences that you took time and made an effort (so it must be important enough). Besides the Know, Like, Trust factor is also transferred, creating the foundation of a potential relationship between the two people.

Of course it depends on the relationship between you and the two people you introduce whether there just a few sparkles of magic or huge fireworks.

To your success !

Jan

If You Want to be in the Media, Be Online and Especially on LinkedIn

Like anybody else journalists and reporters have to do more in less time.

When they are looking for information, they use the web a lot (surprise surprise).

However there are some “characteristics” you might be interested in to know about.

These are some findings of the Arketi Web Watch Media Survey (from a blog post on the Marketingcharts website):

– LinkedIn is the most popular social network among business journalists, with 92% having a LinkedIn account (85% Facebook and 83% Twitter).
– Virtually all (98%) journalists read news online, and 91% search for news sources and story ideas.
– Many engage in activities such as social networking (69%) and microblogging (66%), while more than half blog (53%).
– Despite high levels of social network membership, only 44% of journalists obtain story ideas from microblogs, while 39% obtain them from social networking sites.
– 82% of business journalists say a company without a website is less credible, and 81% turn to a company site when they are unable to reach a source.
– 85% call industry experts for breaking news.

What could be the conclusions?

1) You need to be present online with a website, a LinkedIn Profile (personal) and a LinkedIn Company Profile.
2) You could start building relationships with journalists by following them on Twitter and commenting on their blogs, stories (on the website of their magazine) and microblogs/status updates.
3) You need to be where they are when they need an industry expert (fast): on LinkedIn.

To your success !

Jan

Referrals: Lead By Example

Last week I wrote about the importance of your expectations when asking for referrals.

I got a few emails that it still was hard for some people to ask for referrals.

They wrote that their customers don’t know how to do it so they don’t ask anymore.

One of the best ways to get results, is to show them first.

Ask them who they need to achieve their targets.

If they own a business or are in sales, that would be new customers. However in many cases your customers are not looking for new customers themselves since they are in human resources, finances, IT or other departments.

Then ask them: “Who do you want or need to reach your goals or do your job?”, “Who do you want to meet?” or “What kind of expert would you like to meet to learn from?”

Then look for ways to get them in touch with each other.

After they have seen your example, they will be more inclined to help you as well. And when they tell you they don’t know how to do this, simply refer to the connection you made for them.

To your success !

Jan

What Are Your Expectations When Asking For Referrals

Three weeks ago I wrote a blog post about “What are your expectations when going to events“.

The same information applies to asking for referrals.

When you ask a current customer to refer you to a potential customer, what do you expect?

Do you expect them to come with objections or do you expect them to happily help you?

Again, the expectations you have will heavily influence the result.

Of course you need to have a good product/service and be prepared to objections, but what are you focusing on? A positive result or a negative result?

If you can just change your mind from rather negative to rather positive, this will already make a huge difference in your results!

To your success !

Jan

How To Change The Order Of Applications in Your LinkedIn Profile?

After using LinkedIn for a while, you might want to change the order of the Applications you use.

For example you might want to show your SlideShare presentations first and then your blog, Google Presentation, Box.net, LinkedIn Events and so on.

But how to do that?

There is no option to change the order like for example in Groups.

This is how to do it:
1) Go to More (main menu on top) and click “Get More Applications”. You will get an overview of all available Applications whether you have added them to your Profile or not.
2) Click on an Application you have installed on your Profile.
3) Scroll down to the bottom of the page and tick off “Display on my Profile”. Your data will be stored, but it won’t be visible anymore on your Profile.
4) Repeat steps 2 and 3 for all Applications on your Profile.
5) Click on the Application you want to be the first in your Profile.
6) Tick on the box “Display on my Profile”.
7) Repeat steps 5 and 6 in the order you want the Applications to show up in your Profile.

To your success !

Jan

PS: get your free light version and free updates (50 pages in the meanwhile!) of the book How to REALLY use LinkedIn (or in Dutch: het boek Hoe LinkedIn nu ECHT gebruiken)