How to Grow Your Business by Bumping Up Your Sphere of Influence
In last week’s blog, I wrote about important prospect-to-client conversion tips. In it, I outlined what happens when you make the mistake of asking someone to do business with you before you’ve developed a relationship with them. Getting the “yes” answer to your proposal often requires more than just one touch point before someone decides to do business with you.
The same is true as you expand your business by expanding your sphere of influence. Your sphere of influence is not only the number of people you know but also includes influencers who have a broader network and are in the one-to-many conversation.
Years ago, when I launched one of my books, a person in my network that I knew well encouraged me to call a well-known best-selling author to ask them to endorse my book. In my heart, I felt torn because I didn’t have a relationship with this best-selling author. Against my intuition, I called up the author, let him know who connected us, and I asked him if he would endorse my book. The author was so incredibly gracious and politely declined.
It was an important lesson for several reasons: listen to your intuition and remember that doing business is about cultivating relationships. “The influence game is about relationships.” said Teresa de Grosbois, Founder of the Evolutionary Business Council (EBC). “You don’t ask to borrow the lawn mower from the neighbor you just met.” Teresa would know. She created the EBC to connect collaborative thought leaders and highly influential business leaders whose mission it is to teach the principles of success.
“Never take for granted the value of the influencer’s network.” said Teresa. “Last year, I had someone approach me asking to collaborate. When I agreed to expose them to my network, which is hundreds of thousands of people, they proceeded to ask me for money to sponsor their event. In their haste to complete their agenda, it was lost on them the value they were getting from the exposure alone. It lands like complaining there’s no strawberries on the cake, when someone just cooked you a gourmet meal.”
There are three important tips to remember before asking an influencer to promote you to their following:
- Cultivate the Relationship. Even though the influencer might be someone you think you want to connect with, get to know them first. They want to get to know you, too! Years ago, when I met a brand new entrepreneur, he immediately unpacked his brochures the first time we met. I didn’t even know him let alone know if there would be a good collaboration match. Enter into a meeting with a courtship in mind rather than a one-night stand.
- Be a Giver First. Even if you have a limited network, there are many ways to give, including:
- putting comments on an influencer’s blog
- inviting him or her to be on your radio show,
- giving them exposure to your community or
- inviting them to a telesummit where you promote them on your show.
- Be Patient. When expanding your network, pile on the patience. Understand that it often takes more than one touch point before influencers may collaborate. One of my colleagues devoted 10 years of comments on an influencer’s blog before they met. Only after she developed the relationship did she extend an invitation to the person to one of her workshops. Today, they powerfully promote each other.
When you show your commitment to collaboration and respond to others through your generosity, you will find that you will garner a reputation for win-grow relationships, attract a greater following and grow your influence exponentially.
Are You Asking Your Prospect to Marry You on the First Date?
Recently, I had a member of my community write in to tell me that his biggest frustration was that he feels that he is overwhelming his prospects a bit too early in the enrollment/sales process.
If you feel this way or you feel you’re giving away your valuable advice for free, you might be trying too hard and too early to convert a prospect to a client. This happens frequently when you don’t have your sales flow mapped out.
It’s humbling to watch entrepreneurs make the same mistakes I used to when I got my business started. Asking someone to do business with you the very first time you meet them is like asking someone to marry you on the first date. Getting the “yes” answer to your proposal often requires more than just one touch point before someone decides to do business with you.
To get the “yes” answer, many consultants or coaches make the mistake of giving more information in their one-on-one meetings, often overwhelming their prospect. The problem isn’t more information. The reason there is a lack of conversion is often attributed to:
- Prematurely setting up meetings with prospects
- Having no way to pre-educate your prospects, and
- Having no systematic way to keep in touch
One of my Entrepreneurial Edge System Alumni who is a consultant experienced the same problem. When she learned how to systematize her pre-qualification process, she immediately recognized a savings and converted more of her prospects to clients. Once we mapped out her sales flow, there were two important changes she implemented to her sales process:
First, she pre-qualified her prospects before scheduling a meeting with them. She discovered she wasn’t using all of her marketing assets, including her website. Rather than waiting for a face-to-face meeting, she answered her prospects frequently asked questions on her website. She also offered her prospects a free downloadable eBook that gave her prospects the ability to assess their situation before meeting with her. When they scheduled their meeting with her, the information they worked through in the eBook would then be reviewed. Her prospects appreciated the framework to immediately sort through their main concerns and individual situation. Because she shifted the way she worked, she freed up her schedule so she could take on more clients.
Second, she automated her follow up process. With an automated follow up process, her prospects received messages that engaged them and continued to pre-educate them. If you’re thinking that automation can’t possibly nurture a relationship, think again. The magic happens in the way your messages are written. A carefully written message can make the best of automation, engage your prospect, and provide continuous value to your prospect when done right. Automation does the heavy lifting yet still provides the flexibility for you to respond directly with your prospect.
Not only did my client save approximately three hours per prospect by pre-educating them, she increased her conversions over 50% in just 30 days, and more than quadrupled her income in just one year.
If you feel like you’re overwhelming your prospect, consider breaking apart the information you provide in smaller digestible pieces and giving value to your prospect over time. Remember to make their next step in doing business with you clear to them. A systematic approach might be just the ticket to simplify your sales process, making it super simple for your prospects to do business with you.
You have a lot going on in your business, but are all of your marketing pieces connected? If you’re wondering how to automate your marketing, automatically bring in pre-qualified prospects and turn them into invested clients 98% of the time, then get started today with the Entrepreneurial Edge SystemTM Implementation Program. In this step-by-step, comprehensive program, you will discover:
- How to automatically bring in pre-qualified prospects
- How to reverse the sales process so your prospects choose you instead of you chasing them
- Systems that easily automate your marketing and bring in multiple income streams
- How to set up your Business BlueprintTM so you put all of the pieces of your business together so you Wake Up Profitable.
Find out why high-achieving influential entrepreneurs, like you, attend my LIVE Wake Up Profitable Event every year. Click here to learn more, and get your BONUS Ticket to my 2013 Wake Up Profitable Event.
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