One of the most frequent questions I get is “How can I get more business from my network?” So I thought I would share with you some insights into Visibility, Credibility and Profitability.
This a process that we all go through as we build relationships and is fundamental to creating a flow of regular referrals in our business.
Firstly, lets define the three elements:
1. Visibility: This is when people know you and they know what you do, for example, when you attend a networking event and there are several people in the room who know you by name. A good measure of this is when you don’t need to pass business cards to those people as they already know what you do.
2. Credibility: This is when people know you and they know what you do and they know you are good at what you do. Typically, your current customer base should fit into this bracket. However, you can be credible with people without doing business with them. To be credible with people you haven’t done business with you will need to have a strong relationship with them and more often than not have helped them either personally or in their business, perhaps in a non-transactional way. Building credibility with people often means sharing personal information with them, perhaps family, favourite places to go on holiday, hobbies etc.
3. Profitability: This is when people know who you are, know what you do, they know you’re good at what you do, and they’re willing to recommend you to other people. This final stage can be the foundation for a truly profitable referral based business.Being recommended to a new customer by an existing customer can be a very powerful introduction and we all know how great it feels to receive that level of introduction.
Success in your network is not just about being visible with the people you meet. To truly build a profitable network you need to go through all three stages and build strong relationships with your referral partners.
Here’s some additional points to note:
1. You can be at different levels with different people and a good exercise to go through with your current network is to categorise each of your network connections in terms of Visibility, Credibility and Profitability. Once you know what level you’re at with each of your connections you can begin to work on those relationships to move them into Profitability.
2. For those of you that are members of networking groups or clubs, please note that simply asking for introductions to people is unlikely to work until you’re credible with the people you’re asking, so building credibility is a vital step that must not be overlooked.
There is one final point which I’d like to make and that is to add in another word betweenVisibility, Credibility and Profitability. That word is Regularity. I believe that to be credible with someone you need to be regularly visible with that person, and to be profitable with someone you need to be regularly credible with that person.
As you can see, profitability is not a short-term process it is a long-term referral marketing strategy that can win your company massive amounts of business by building strong relationships and credibility with the people in your network.
Relevant Reading:
What does Trust really mean
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Remember, there are only three types of people – those who make things happen, those who wait for things to happen, and those who talk about why things don’t happen for them. Which one are you?
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