Tony Scelzo
By Tony Selzo,
Rainmakers Marketing Group
Are your decisions ever influenced by other people?
Think about the last time you chose a movie or tried out a new restaurant. Chances are, you took the advice of a friend, someone whose opinion you respect, someone you trust not to steer you wrong.
That same concept-the power of a recommendation by a trusted source can be key to dramatically increasing the reach of your marketing and growing your business. How? Leveraged networking. Why does leveraged networking matter?
It matters because your business needs to rise above-or at least augment-the “push” marketing media choices, such as the Internet, TV, radio, print publications, even special programming on cell phones. By its nature “push” marketing is intrusive (after all, pushing your message at people is its goal), and it consumes a lot of energy and resources.But when someone willingly accepts your company’s information or messages, this is permission-based “pull” marketing. Pull marketing is any method that draws people to you, such as blogging, seminars or leveraged networking.
Imagine if you had a circle of other business professionals asking for that permission from their customers and marketing your business for you. Because the members of this circle of “influences” are already trusted by their customers, their messages about your business are more likely to be accepted.
Meanwhile, to make this arrangement work in the long run, you’re doing the same for your allies and spreading word about their businesses. Leveraged, permissionbased “pull” marketing proves the old adage that “business is about relationships.”
Rainmakers Inc., the business networking organization that I founded, uses those relationships to bring its members an annuity stream of business rather than a one-time sale. Rather than passively flipping leads, we actively prospect for each other’s companies. As each member’s relationships with other Rainmakers grow, his or her network of contacts and potential clients grows exponentially.
If 20 other people are calling on the same vertical that you do and actively selling and marketing your products or services, and vice versa, a lot of good things happen:
- You get 20 more sales people spreading your message (for free). That’s leverage.
- The trust factor of your message compounds because 20 other people reinforce what you say. Remember that people will believe what others say about you more than what you say about yourself.
- The repeated frequency of your message makes the likelihood of conversion from prospect to customer more likely. “Bill said you’ve got a great product. Suzie said it too, and then Tom, and now Jim has said it. I think we need to get together.”
- This is closely related to 3: The diversity of message sources goes up. People are more likely to believe something if they hear it from multiple sources as opposed to one.
Let’s go back to the movie example. If you open up the paper and read a glowing review of the latest comedy at the Cineplex, you might think, “Maybe I’ll go see that.” Then during lunch that day, your friend raves about the same movie: “I never laughed so hard in my life!”
Suddenly you’re thinking, “Wow, I’ve gotta see this!”
The more people you have in your channel delivering your message to your target, the more likely conversion will happen.
Bottom Line: To paraphrase the African saying, it takes a village to raise the awareness of your business.
Tony Scelzo
Rainmakers Marketing Group
317-216-6345
Tony@gorainmakers.com
NOTE:
Acknowledgement
In the October 2008 Indy Smallbiz, Tony Scelzo’s article, “Leverage Your
Networking!” was actually an excerpt from the e-book, “How to Leverage
Your Networking” developed by Good Story Marketing, LLC and available
through www.goodstorymarketing.com. The e-book is based on an original
article developed in conjunction with TipTopics LLC and presented on www.
tiptopics.com .
Good Story Marketing helps individuals, businesses and nonprofit
organizations discover and use theirs to build awareness and revenue,
through such means as e-books, websites and strategic marketing campaigns.
Find out more at www.goodstorymarketing.com.
For more information, contact Steve Hall at Good Story Marketing LLC/
Wordsmith Ink phone/fax: (317) 602-7503; mobile: (317) 409-1670;
“Everybody’s got a good story. What’s yours?” Improve your life by visiting
www.goodstorymarketing.com/ebook_shop.php
Everybody’s got a good story.
TipTopics LLC offers peak-performance e-marketing solutions designed
to showcase each participant’s expertise and business services. They
provide personalized solutions including email campaigns, automatic
content hosting, exposure to new prospects, and custom video. For more
information, contact Bob Chenoweth at 1-888-438-8471.
