As Templeton explains, maintaining regular contact with your customers is crucial — if there is any secret to referral success, it’s this. Of course, setting the ball in motion is the real trick. And that’s what Templeton does. Through “The Referral of a Lifetime,” he gives you an outline to get the ball rolling along with what you need to know to keep the momentum going for a long time to come. Templeton makes going after referrals refreshingly simple. He makes it practical. “The Referral of a Lifetime” is a down- to-earth approach to referral marketing, something that is often missing in those thousands of online articles that attempt to explain the process. If you want to unlock the power of your next referral campaign, you need to read this book first. You can learn more about “The Referral of a Lifetime” at thereferralbook. com or find it on Amazon. Now, this side arrangement wasn’t with some random stranger, but with someone I’d known since they were a kid. A few weeks before our work agreement was up, they put in their two weeks’ notice to pursue another opportunity. This left me in a bind for those last two weeks. To my employee, it didn’t seem like a big deal — after all, they gave two weeks’ notice — but to me it was huge. Little will they ever know it cost them big time. Just two days before this person gave notice, I was scheming to help them out. They had done such a good job so far that I wanted to give them a boost in life; I was going to write a check for about $6,000 to pay off their student loans. Unfortunately for them, because they didn’t honor their commitment and they put me in a bind, that extra money is now off the table. I see this kind of miscalculation with CEOs, employees, family, and friends. I’m even guilty of it myself from time to time, but that doesn’t make it right. In my experience, the vast majority of people have an issue keeping their word. If you can and others can’t, it helps you stand out from the crowd. What do you do when life happens and you simply can’t keep a commitment?
When this happens, you need to go to the other party, explain the situation, and make a new deal. Of course, people do this all the time, but it’s typically minutes before the deadline or after the deadline has already passed. Both of those are too late. The best time to make a new deal is the moment you know you can’t meet the terms of the old deal. By living your life in an ethical manner and keeping your word, people will trust you more, and with more trust comes greater opportunity. MISTAKE 2: BEING A BULLY So, you’re going to miss your deadline or you can’t or don’t want to continue a contract or agreement of some kind. Instead of owning their position, I watch people from all walks of life try to bully their way into a better deal. The bullying tactic often works if the other person is weak or simply doesn’t care, but it can cost you dearly in the long run. This mistake is common and can go hand-in-hand with the above mistake.
this happened because I was in no position to argue about whatever terms were thrown my way, but you’d better believe I worked hard to make sure that person couldn’t bully me in the future, and when the timing was right, we were done. In this case, that person was a victim of self-inflicted bad luck. Just because you have the upper hand today doesn’t mean you’ll have it tomorrow, so you should treat people the way you want to be treated. I’ve found that the way people in power (even if the power is going to be short-lived) treat those who are not in power speaks volumes about the person in power’s character. MISTAKE 3: NOT TAKING OWNERSHIP When something goes wrong in life, you have to first be introspective. What did you do wrong? How could you have made this situation go better? I just signed an agreement that now appears to be a bad deal based on bad info I got. I’m not responsible for the data, but I am 100 percent responsible for not spending more time making
I’ve been bullied many times over the years by employees, customers, and vendors. Sometimes
Continued on page 6 ...
Have You Heard the Good News?
1 John 3:1 — ”See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.” Matthew 5:15-16 — ”Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Ephesians 5:2 — ”And walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”
5
www.thenewsletterpro.com
BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS TO HELP SMALL BUSINESSES SUCCEED.
208.297.5700
Made with FlippingBook - Online magazine maker