Do you know who the people are that will most benefit your business?
Do you have a very clear picture of your ideal customer?
Do you know the professions that you would most like to form alliances with?
If you don’t know this, it is quite difficult for others in your network to be able to help you and bring them to you.
There are 2 ways that I would recommend for you to get clear on who and what you want and start to use your networking to find them.
The first one is to get clear in your own mind three different levels of customer you are looking for and start asking people if they know them and/or can introduce you. I will explain each type and give you an example as it may apply to a real estate agent.
1) Who are you every day customers? Your “standard” clients? This is the steady stream of income that keeps the door of your business open.
Applying this to a real estate agent may be that this is a couple whose children have left home so they are looking to sell their home and find something smaller.Or a person with a single rental property.
2) Who are the clients that bring in repeat business for you? This is the type of client that you would like to find maybe once a month and that will increase your business substantially?
Applying this to the real estate agent may be a property renovator or developer who has 2 -3 properties each year to put on the market and wants to list them all with the same real estate agent.
3) Who is the customer that, if they came into your office, you would come close to kissing their feet they will bring you that much business? This is the type of client that you would only need one of per year to lead to your business being as big as you want it.
Applying this to the same real estate agent this could be the manager of a major property developer who release 1,000 apartments and properties for sale each year and wants one agent to manage the whole process.
Whatever your business, you need to make sure that you have a very clear idea of the different levels of customers that apply for you. If someone asks about your target market, tell them. If you build a relationship with someone networking and they ask how they can help you, give them the names of people that you would like to be introduced to. You will be amazed how often you get exactly what you are looking for.
The second way is to have your top 10 “hit list”. Who are the 10 people that you would most like to meet in the whole world? Have these people written on a list and start to think of ways that you may be able to get an introduction to them. If you are not sure of the names of people, think of the top professions you would most like to meet a representative of to either improve your own skills or business or because they will be a source of referrals for you. Once you get some success, you will soon start doing the research to find the names and make your wish list specific. Try it, you may be as surprised and amazed with the results as I was.
I had heard this idea a few times from people that I respected and trusted. I was quite sceptical but decided that I had nothing to lose by giving it a try. I wrote 3 things on my mini list to start; 2 professions and 1 name. Within 3 days I had met the person whose name was on the list, within 2 weeks I had ticked off all 3. I decided this was quite powerful so went for my list of 10 and am constantly updating it.
Ruth Thirtle is passionate about helping business people to achieve even greater levels of success. She is a success coach, NLP Trainer and regular speaker at networking events with her company “Your Abundance Now” www.abundantyou.com. She has also worked with the world’s largest business referral organization. She knows the power of maximizing word of mouth referrals and understands how this can greatly help small business. To arrange your complimentary 30 minute coaching call and see what Ruth can do to help you achieve even greater levels of success, contact her on info@abundantyou.com. | 
