Marketing Reps: 15 minutes
Schedule your social media posts for next week. Instructions here.
Project: Clients
This week, we’re going to build a referral web in your community.
Take out your list of neighborhood businesses from yesterday.
Look at the business closest to your own – your neighbor on the left, the right, or across the street.
You’re looking for any type of service business: a body shop, a salon, a taxi company..
On your way to your business this morning, pick up a tray of coffee with some cream and sugar on the side.
Drop your gear off at your business, but before you sit down or start sifting through the mail, walk the coffee over to your neighbor.
Say “Good morning!”
Say “I was just picking up a coffee and thought you might want one.
We haven’t met yet. I’m X from across the street.
Are you the owner?
Awesome to meet you.
How’s business going?”
That’s it. relationships aren’t complicated or hard. You don’t have to pitch a formal referral system; you don’t have to swap stories or try to sell them on joining your gym. You just have to take coffee, shake hands, and say hello.
I’ve never had anything other than a warm “thank you so much!” when I’ve done this (and I’ve done it dozens of times.) I HAVE created an amazing referral web in my community; lots of people who will say “hi” when I’m out in town; and hundreds of thousands of dollars, over the years, in referrals.
Not because I paid for referrals or figured out a complicated rewards system: all because I made the relationship rewarding, got over my introversion and just went first with introductions.
