This afternoon on Periscope I shared a marketing approach that will open your eyes and make you sit up straight in your chair! I touched upon this at the Denver ROI2015 Convention (pictured) and will expand in more detail with you during the live stream.
Without exception, this is one of the most powerful methods I’ve used over the years to build my law firm. It works for almost any business and I’m confident you’ll thank me after learning more about this business development approach.
Here is the recorded Periscope. The live stream show notes are below.
Show Notes
Partner With Clients and Business Owners
[please share using the social media buttons below if you think this business tip will help others]
Getting another business to endorse you and your business is extremely powerful. When a business recommends to its clients that they should do business with you, the potential client receiving this message is often already sold on your company, products, and services. There’s no need to “sell” your services. Here’s what I mean.
Example:
Let’s say your name is Barb and you’re an accountant. You want to build your practice. You would approach your friend Larry, a local lawyer. You ask Larry to send a letter, which you write and pay postage on, to his clients. The letter might say something like the following (Sam is one of 750 past and active clients of Larry, the lawyer):
Dear Sam,
I’ve never written a letter like this before, but I wanted to share my good friend, Barb Jones, with you. She’s an excellent accountant who I have known for years. In fact, we grew up together in the same neighborhood.
As an accountant, Barb’s accounting services have helped us at the firm. Her professional and reasonably priced work has saved my law firm a great deal in taxes over the years. It amazes me how Barb comes up with expense deductions I didn’t even know existed. When she told me about a new type of employee retirement plan that not only helped my employees but reduced my taxes even more and helped better set me up for retirement, I wanted to return the favor and share Barb and her services with you.
Sam, I truly appreciate the professional relationship we’ve enjoyed over the years. As a way of saying thanks, and rather than sending over a Starbucks Card, I’ve arranged for something a bit more special. What I’ve been able to do is coordinate (or paid for) a free hour of Barb’s accounting time for you. You can meet Barb on my dime, and there’s no charge or obligation. Take a full hour to ask Barb any accounting questions you might have. Here is Barb’s private number xxx-xxx-xxxx. Give her a call and tell her I asked you to call. She’ll take it from there!
Best regards,
Larry
The letter should be personalized and if the lawyer is unable to do a database merge, have him send you the contact information and do it for him. Then, present the letters to the lawyer for signature and mailing. Again, you’re paying for the postage. Also, instead of using a letter, you can use email, a blog post, video or live stream. What’s important is to get the endorsement out to the lawyer’s clients.
Now that the lawyer has endorsed Barb, it’s important she walks her talk and provides exemplary service. In 6-12 months, Barb can do the same type of letter for Larry, the lawyer. See how this works?
We’ve used this approach over the past 30 years with an accountant, doctor, website designer, consultants and real estate agents. It worked extremely well in every single case.
The key to making this work is to combine complimentary services. If you clean carpets then partner with a real estate agent. If you are a website designer, then partner with consultants and professions who help new businesses with their startup needs. The only limit to running this type of successful campaign is your imagination. Almost every product and service have a complimentary market. Tap into that market and things will start happening exponentially fast!
Other examples:
Carpet cleaning – Real Estate Agents
Website designer – Consultants and professions who help new businesses with startup needs
Lawn and garden- Painter or interior architect
Restaurant or bar owner – Real estate (new buyers moving into neighborhood)
Dry cleaner – Restaurant
Hair saloon or flower shop – Clothing store or boutique
Workout coach – Health food or nutritional store
