Cashing in on your customers sphere of influence

pMost business owners and budding entrepreneurs carry around enough wisdom and famous onliners to fill a book.nbsp; Whether any of them apply that hard won knowledge is debatable.nbsp; Very few do of course.nbsp; One old adage is its not what you know but whom you know or a more recent example its not who you know but who they know.nbsp; Well in these days of online social networking who you know and who they know is becoming a fundament business ingredient once again. This modern variation on a tried and tested theme finds large corporations falling over themselves to leverage social media, and many of them finding it tougher than they thought./p
pThe art of networking and referals has been a key tool of many successful business owners in recent years.nbsp; They understood the key concept that people have a sphere of influence or in other words people know people.nbsp; There is something called Girards Law that states that the sphere of influence actually numbers 250 people.nbsp; And of course dont forget each of those has 250 people in their sphere of influence.nbsp; The maths gets big and the business implication very interesting ./p
pThats all fine and dandy but how do you sell to them?nbsp; Well it becomes a bit easier to understand when you understand another key rule or guiding principle.nbsp; It is the same principle that is driving a large amount of business momentum in social media and places like Facebook today.nbsp; It is the beautiful truth that people prefer to do business with and refer business to people they like and trust.nbsp; Do people tend to trust large companies?nbsp; Typically not.nbsp; So when they try and sell without any relationships in the social networks they fail big time.nbsp;/p
pTo build your sales and lead funnel you have to develop a network based on trust .nbsp; That trust is created by good humour and good results.nbsp; In other words you get happy customers that remember you and like you, and refer you to good prospects in their sphere .nbsp;/p
pDo not spend time worrying and analysing the results you get.nbsp; Some leads even when coming from referals will bomb.nbsp; Therefore you develop a system of handling your leads and you treat them all professionally The results will come, dont force it./p
pSo how can you build this network of friendly customers that will eventually be falling over themselves to help your business.nbsp; Here are a couple of tactics that work well./p
pGet new prospects and turn them into customers in every day life.nbsp; If you bump into a potential customer at the local PTA introduce yourself and find out everything about strongthem/strong.nbsp; There are 2 important underutilised skills. The art of great questioning and the art of listening.nbsp; Most business owners just talk about themselves and how great they are. Nobody is interested.nbsp; Then once they have told you about their business ask them what a good prospect for their business would look like.nbsp; Grab a business card and a later on follow up with either a prospect or a helpful piece of information relevent to them.nbsp; This one way relationship can eventually go two way and that can bring business your way./p
pSecondly get your best customers, those that spend the most or are the most loyal and set up a networking social event and get them to invite people they know from their business network. Remember it is best not to entertain multiple customers as their guests might be your competitors !. nbsp; If you have a high value product line then this sort of investment can work well.nbsp; Maybe run some a href=http://www.spectrumgolf.co.uk target=_blankcorporate golf events/a and to make them memorable hand out a href=http://www.spectrumgolf.co.uk target=_blankgolf gifts/a at the end such as some a href=http://www.spectrumgolf.co.uk/shop/umbrellas.html target=_blankpromotional golf umbrellas/a marking the day and what you do/p