There are very few absolute guarantees in marketing, and I’d recommend running in the opposite direction of anyone who says otherwise. However, I’ve come across a system that is almost guaranteed to get more leads into your business. If you follow these steps consistently, the leads will come.
I can’t take credit for this system; it’s from a book called Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port, which I highly recommend. It’s also been tweaked by Matthew Kimberley, a leading business coach who ran the Book Yourself Solid company for some time.
I love this system and I’ve had great results from it, so I wanted to share it with you. The basic idea is that most people aren’t great at building a strong network and keeping in touch with them. But doing this is one of the most powerful ways to grow your business. It’s not hard if you follow a process and stay consistent.
Here’s how it works:
Step One: Reach Out to People You Want to Meet
Make a list of business people you’d love to get to know. In “Book Yourself Solid,” they call this the BYS list of 20. These don’t all have to be potential clients; at least half probably won’t be. They could be peers or mentors who can support you and refer you to others. Be ambitious and brave when building your list.
Tim Ferriss explains in The 4-Hour Work Week (another must read) how he became friends with presidents and celebrities simply by being brave. Want to make friends with The Rock? Go for it. You have nothing to lose.
Keeping this list to 20 names means that it’s manageable and stops you getting overwhelmed. Each day, reach out to the first person on the list. Here’s the key: Don’t try to sell them anything. Just say hi and let the friendship build over time. Start with a compliment or insightful question. Once you’ve contacted that person, move them to the bottom of your list and reach out to the next person on top of your list the following day. This is simple, so I just use an Excel spreadsheet.
Once you’ve built a relationship with someone on your list, move them over to your keep-in-touch list (see step two).
Step One takes five minutes per day.
Step Two: Keep in Touch
As you get to know more people, you’ll need a way of capturing their details and keeping in touch with them. Most people are bad at this; they go to networking events, meet loads of interesting people, and forget all their names by the next day. This won’t be you.
You’ll need a separate list for these people’s details, which will be much longer than your BYS list of 20 from step one, so I recommend using a CRM like HubSpot (it’s free and excellent). Message each person in your CRM once a month—just say hi without trying to sell anything. After speaking with someone, set a task in your CRM to follow up again in a month’s time.
Each day, speak to as many people as you can—five to ten should be manageable and shouldn’t take more than five minutes. This means you’ll keep in touch with 300 people every month with minimal effort.
Step Two takes five minutes per day.
Step Three: Like, Comment, and Share
Spend some time each day going through your social networks and any forums or groups you visit online. Get involved in conversations, add value, like posts, comment, offer help—be generally helpful to people in your network. This is another way of keeping in touch with them.
This step takes ten minutes per day.
Now it’s Your Turn
By spending just twenty minutes each morning on these three things, you’ll dramatically increase your network and the number of leads you’ll get will increase over time if you’re patient and consistent.
Remember not to go in with a hard sell; just get to know people and try to help them. When they come across someone looking for your service, you’ll be the first person they think of.
I have a calendar entry set to do these three things every morning, and trust me, it works. The majority of new clients I’ve picked up over the past two years can be traced back to this system.
Bonus Tip One: Ask for Referrals
If you want to take this a step further, every week, consider asking one person if they know anyone looking for your services. This is yet another way to get in touch with people and most people are happy to keep you in mind.
Bonus Tip Two: Content Marketing
All the tips above are based on a one-to-one approach which works well but does have a ceiling of how many people you can reach. The best approach is to pair the above tips with a good content marketing strategy.
This involves regularly posting useful, informative and interesting content on the social networks where your clients are. This is another way of keeping top of mind. Also, sending out a regular email newsletter to your network is a great content marketing approach.
In terms of what’s the best content for these, this is beyond the scope of this article, but I’ll make sure to cover this in another post.
So that’s the entire plan! Give it a go—you might be amazed by the results you’ll see.