Business Referral Network Blog

Word of mouth advertising can be one of the best forms of advertising available. However many people get stuck in a rut and assume that they people they network with know what they do and who a good lead for them is. An effective 60 second commercial, delivered with spunk at a meeting can energize the room and have a long lasting effect on your business.

1. Keep it short and focused. You can give a presentation and tell people about all of the interesting features and benefits your company offers. But, this isn’t the time or place for that – yet. Experts suggest keeping your networking pitch to under 60 seconds. A brief message that catches and holds the attention of the people in the room is perfect. If you sound like you are quoting brochure or ad copy, most everyone will tune out. Keep it focused on achieving your desired goal – getting the people in the room to be looking for opportunities for you.
2. Brainstorm words and images. Think about what sets your company, your services and you apart from your competitors. Then, come up with words and images that illustrate these ideas.
3. Lead with the benefits. A stranger doesn’t care about you or your company. They don’t care about your products or services. They don’t want to know how long you’ve been in business or about your experience. They care mostly about themselves. If you’re going to interest anyone in yourself, your organization and what it provides, you have to make your networking partners understand how to explain to their customers/prospects WII-FM, or what’s in it for me? So, open your 60 second commercial with how your work benefits others.
4. Be real. Though you’re presenting your self and your company, don’t even think about selling the people in the room. If they want what you have they will ask. In other words, don’t treat your 60 second commercial like a sales pitch. Instead, focus on building a relationships..
5. Tell a compelling story. People love stories and storytellers. They engage us and let us feel free to interact and converse. Telling a story with your commercial is a great way to interest the listener and ensure the conversation moves forward into the details of what you do. For example, tell a story about someone finding a solution to a problem – the solution, of course, is your company or product.
6. Don’t tell too much. Rather than divulging every aspect of who you are and what you do, you must create a 60 second commercial that compels the listener to ask more. The best ones transition into conversations driven by the listener’s curiosity. This has the dual impact of engaging your fellow members and enabling you to go into greater detail on your products and services.
7. Stay flexible. No matter how much time you spend developing the perfect pitch, you’ll have to adapt it to each group, change it up to include other products and services you offer.. Also, it’s vital to keep it updated and practice it regularly.
8. Be specific about who you want to do business with. “A good lead for me is…” makes it easy for the people in the room to remember when they come across people. The more specific you are, potentially the fewer leads you will receive but they will be of higher quality.
9. Create a memorable hook. People remember things like jingles, tag lines and humorous sayings. I remember (and still remember the persons name 10 years later) Wayne from Infincom closing a 60 second commercial with “Everything we do we Dudley Do Right” and a company called Royal Plumbing cleverly saying “A Royal Flush beats a Full house every time”
10. Leave Behinds. It is very important to leave behind for everyone a flyer, brochure, catalog or at least a business card. Even if people know who you are and what you do this is another opportunity to reinforce your message.

Overtime we all become a little lazy when we attend a weekly networking meeting. It is very easy to assume that the people in the room know all about your business but studies show that very few people actually can accurately repeat the benefits of doing business with you to a prospect. Better they have something to refresh their memory each week.

Networking meetings can be an effective method of developing a network of eyes and ears – people who are looking for business opportunities for you. If you treat it like the expensive advertising it really is.

Terry Mickelson has a unique understanding of local search marketing, search engine marketing, search engine optimization, link popularity building, social media and they way they interact with one another in real life to generate traffic and increase revenue. Since 1998 Terry has been helping companies from mom and pop’s to fortune 500’s get found locally and nationally in the search engine results pages. Terry can be reached at 480-626-4807

One of the things many starting sales people struggle with is communicating with others what they do and who they do it for. Until you can clearly communicate your message it is very difficult to generate word of mouth leads. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the networking groups spread out across the country.

In a typical networking group you have the opportunity to stand up and introduce your self and your company. You have 60 seconds to deliver a message that is easy to remember and so clearly communicated that the people in the room can carry it with them. The goal is to have these people remember you when they are in front of a client or prospect and to be able to advise them on why they should talk to you.

Years ago I was in a networking group where each week a member would stand up and say “ hi, my name is X and I am with Mary Kay. A good lead for me is anyone with skin”. Need less to say she did not get many leads so she left thinking that the club and networking did not work.

My good friend Patrick Peters of Senior B2B Networking, LLC taught me many years ago that there is a structured way to create an effective your commercial.

Start with the basics – What do you want to communicate?

1. 1. Name
   2. Location
   3. Services
   4. Profit/non-profit
   5. Credentials/cross training
   6. Patient to staff ratios
   7. Philosophy

2. What is important? What ever you want people to remember, give it to them last.
3. Always include a call to action: A good lead for me is….
4. Will they remember you? Use stories and experiences.
5. Use your tag line if you have one. (if you don’t get one) Your tag line should follow your commercial and explains your product or service.

Now put it all together.

Hello, my name is__________.

Introduction and body of commercial. Use your top 5 basics and include a story or experience if possible.

A good referral for me is ____________

Your tagline

As an option you can repeat your name and company name again, especially of there are new people in the room.

Follow this plan and keep on tweaking until the people you network with can clearly communicate to others what you do.

Terry Mickelson founder of PageViews, Inc. has the search engine optimization experience and implements best practice methodologies to achieve top placements for client sites. PageViews, Inc. is based in Scottsdale, AZ.