I’m back with another peek at our 30-Day Business Transformation program.
If you missed the last few videos, go check those out because I’m sharing sneak peeks
into the classes in this program each week for 7 weeks.
Today we’re taking a look at a segment from module number 6, Develop Your Marketing Strategy.
So grab your free worksheet download in the comments and take a peek.
Welcome back for day 25 of your 30-Day Business Transformation.
Today we’re developing your local network; that is a network of people in your local
community that are a referral source for your business, or otherwise market to clients for
you in some capacity.
So someone might go to their doctor for back pain and that doctor might give them your
name.
Or it could be another health professional that you collaborate with to offer something
special for your clients like a workshop or products.
Or it could be a handful of clients who tell everyone they know about how amazing you are.
All of that is a network.
But instead of “should I join a BNI” or “should I join the chamber of commerce”
or whatever…let’s flip this so it’s not focused on the avenue of networking, but
rather the purpose of the networking relationship.
Because that determines then what avenue would most likely deliver that.
For example, if I’m looking for professional collaborations, like I want to do some educational
video with me and another healthcare pro educating clients on at-home exercise and self-care
techniques, I’m probably not going to be able to get an orthopedic surgeon to get on
a video with me.
They’re busy and likely don’t need to do that sort of marketing.
But if I’m looking for straight up business referrals for a clinical practice, then yeah…I
want to connect with an orthopedic surgeon.
So let’s start with the 4 primary purposes behind your networking relationships.
Referrals from Business Owners Professional Collaborations
Referrals from Clients And Owner Support
So first, referrals from business owners.
We want other business owners to send us clients because they’re interacting with a large
group of their own customers and the local community, right?
If you have a good relationship with them, when they hear of someone who may need your
services, they’re likely to send them your way.
We want to create and nurture these relationships, because that’s what networking is…it’s
building solid professional relationships with people.
First, you’ll need to do a little research.
Remember back when you looked into those local complementary businesses?
Now’s the time they come into play again.
So check back and see who you already found that offers those complementary services or
products.
Who do you want to build a relationship with?
This is a great place to start, but let’s also not limit it to just those few.
Do a little research into others in your community that may be out there.
If you don’t already have their contact info in there, go ahead and get that now.
We want to actually make contact and start building and nurturing this relationship.
The key here when approaching a business owner to start this kind of networking relationship,
is to be certain it’s mutually beneficial.
I see a lot of therapists make the mistake of approaching someone with their cards and
it’s just like “hey send me people because I’m awesome” but there’s not something
of benefit for that other business owner or a way they can really test your skills, so
to speak, or otherwise…like what do they get out of it and how do they know they should
recommend you?
I mean, I know I’m super wary of recommending people myself because if I send you to someone,
I need to know they’ll deliver or my reputation and trustworthiness is damaged.
So you need to offer something; and it’s not necessarily a tit-for-tat sort of thing.
Some people try to give a gift card or something in exchange for referrals, but that’s not
usually a great idea…not that it’s terrible, but there are better ways.
And if you’re trying that with a doctor or some other health professionals, you’re
falling on deaf ears because there’s actually laws against them accepting and using things
like that in exchange for referrals.
There are often anti-kickback laws that prevent that basically.
And if it’s a “I refer to you and you refer to me” sort of thing…while that’s
admirable and can definitely happen, that sort of relationship is kind of tough to start
if neither of you has experienced the others’ services and don’t know each other really
well.
So instead consider how you can help their business.
How you can help their clients, patients, or customers.
In what way can you offer some benefit to them and their purpose?
So you’ll see over in your workbook you’ve got some places to fill all this stuff in
for a few different businesses you want to start networking with.
Next, professional collaborations.
This is similar in that we’re wanting to connect with other business owners, but it’s
not just about exchanging referrals, this is about working together to provide benefit
to each other’s audiences.
This could be things like doing educational videos or workshops together in the community,
showing up at each other’s open houses to provide support and complementary services,
tagging each other in certain social media posts to showcase what the other offers, things
like that.
It’s about working together for the benefit of the businesses and both business’ client
base.
So over in your workbook, figure out what kind of collaborations would be mutually beneficial,
who you want to collaborate with, how this is going to help your clients, how it’ll
help their clients, and then line up some details.
Next referrals from clients.
A client referral network is one of the best because these people have first-hand experience
with your skills and knowledge, so they’re some of the best advocates for what you do
and who it’s best for.
There are two general ways to go about building this…
Simply asking clients to refer people to you OR incentivizing with some sort of reward
for referrals, like a discount or free upgrade on a service or something after they refer
so many people to you.
And I’m not a deadest advocate that either is the “right” way to do it.
I think either can work wonderfully, it’s more about the actions around your method
than the method itself, and it usually – not always, but usually – can come down to your
comfort level with certain discussions and your clients’ personalities.
The more comfortable you are talking with clients about how much you’d love a referral
from them, how you’re trying to build up your business, you’re still growing, all
of that stuff…the more likely that an incentive may very well not be necessary.
You being really personable and connecting with clients, and those clients being the
type that want to see you succeed, they’re excited for you to build this business, they’re
all about supporting small businesses, all of that…those clients are more likely to
hand out your cards to everyone they know with absolutely zero financial or service
incentive.
They just want you to do well and they love what you do for them, so they’re going to
share it with the world.
So you can hand them a small stack of business cards and ask them to send their friends and
family to help your business grow.
Encourage them to leave reviews online and tag your business pages anytime they come
in for a session.
The less comfortable you are with those conversations and the more financially incentivized your
clients, the more likely you’ll need to offer something in exchange for those referrals.
So consider your own personality and boundaries, and then look back at your ideal client profile.
Was money a top concern?
Are they more introverted?
All of those lend themselves to needing more of an incentive to get them to refer.
So in that case, you may want to offer a free add-on, additional time, or a small discount
in exchange for X number of referrals.
You’ll want referral cards for this so you can keep track of who came by whose referral.
So there in your workbook, you’ve got some things to fill out for this to start to get
a referral strategy together of what’s going to work best for you and your clients.
Alright…last networking relationship purpose, owner support.
Let’s face it, business ownership is lonely.
This is something you don’t see discussed much, but this profession can feel a bit lonely
at times, especially if you’re solo.
Clients come and go, and even when they’re with you, they’re often quiet, leaving you
to your own thoughts.
Then all that before and after time that you’re working on other things in your business,
it’s just you.
You’re responsible for everything, you’re with your own thoughts all the time, and it’s
hard to find people who understand some of the pressures and weights of business ownership.
So networking goes beyond just working to get more clients…there’s a personal factor
to this that I think gets overlooked, and that’s having a local support system of
other business owners.
Now, there’s all kinds of groups, and industry specific groups especially online, and of
course, you have your student group over on Facebook just for y’all in this course,
and our main My Massage World group too, but there is something about having a local person
or a few of them, that you can meet for coffee with and just vent or brainstorm or discuss
all the moving parts of everything involved in running a business.
Because it can be lonely and having at least one or two other people you can talk to about
all that stuff, it’s really helpful in getting those things out of your head, helping you
decompress, holding you accountable, and of course learn from and learn together.
So consider also those other business owners in your area, even if they’re in a really
different field, that you may want to develop that kind of kinship with.
This is where BNI groups and chambers of commerce and those kind of common community networking
groups can come into play even more…is they give you a plethora of people to kind of get
to know a little bit on the surface and then you can deepen some of those relationships
to get that owner support that you need.
Last note here today…when it comes to building a network with clients and with other businesses
and professionals in your community, it takes time.
You can’t expect to go to one networking meeting or hand a stack of cards to clients
and suddenly have a stream of referrals from all these other people.
Those networking relationships have to build, and that takes time and effort.
Not just communicating a bit about what you do, but seriously building a relationship
with these people and with these other businesses that show you’re not just in it to get referrals
but to sincerely build a relationship that’s mutually beneficial and has a real purpose.
Spend some time brainstorming on all these.
Once you have this all laid out, we’ll be using that as we put together your detailed
marketing plan tomorrow.
So, get this done today and I’ll see you back here tomorrow for that.
Thank you so much for watching today.
If you want to sign up for the program and see more of what’s included, I’ll link
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