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7 Steps To Getting New Business When You're On Holiday
A few years ago, we were having a lovely, relaxing holiday in Italy. Every day, when I sat by the pool, I'd see a man on a lounger deeply engrossed in his laptop, shooing away his children ...
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Business Networking: Undoing The Lessons Of Childhood
''It's not fair'' is the wail of every child. The usual response of Mum and Dad is ''well life's not fair!'' By the age of two we already have a well-developed sense of fairness ...
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Referral Marketing Is Actually Really Simple
Last month, I finished training a group through my Certified Networker course. Twelve regular half days has resulted in each of them having a Strategic Referral Marketing Plan ...
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Giving Is The Worst Way To Succeed In Business
Here's a surprising fact. The least successful people in business are those who give and expect nothing in return. So who are the most successful type of people?
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Referrals: Have You Heard Of 'Garbage In Garbage Out'?
It's not a term I've heard recently. I remember first being introduced to it at the same time I started using computer databases, way, way back in the 1980's ...
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Business Networking: Is It Really A Waste Of Time?
I had an early lesson in time management when I was a student nurse in the RAF that I suspect lots of us had with our first jobs. For many years, it stopped me from doing what was important ...
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Referral Institute: Was It A Good Investment For Me?
Someone asked me why I joined the Referral Institute. A more interesting question is what makes me stay in it? Has it lived up to its billing? Does it deliver what I want it from it?
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Networking Skills: How To Build Rapport With Anyone
You know when you have rapport with someone because you just feel in tune with them. They're your kind of person, you warm to each other, you speak each other's language ...
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I'm Just So Passionate About My Business!
I had to smile yesterday when John, one of my clients, recounted his negative experience at a networking event he went to earlier that week. He is an engineer by profession ...
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Networking Tips: How To Spot A Referral
Many people don't like networking groups where there is an expectation that they will bring referrals. When I question them further, often the fear is that they will not be able to find any ...
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Positive Regard: Does It Have A Place In Business?
As you can imagine, I get to hear a lot of people's opinions on what other people do wrong when out and about networking. This includes how they feel about that person ...
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Givers Gain®: Do You Give The Way People Want To Receive?
At my regular networking group, NNcoNNect in Northamptonshire, Paul Green adds a dimension to the usual 45-second member presentation slot by asking us a question unrelated to business ...
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Geeks: They Really Do Love Networking
This week, as I trawled LinkedIn to see what my network was talking about, I got caught in a loop of blogs, posts and comments from people who say they hate networking ...
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Double The Size Of Your Network Group In Just Five Minutes
I love it when I see what I advise coming good in practice. That's what it's all about isn't it? I help one of my referral partners run his own networking groups ...
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Shall I, Shan't I? The Art Of Making Difficult Decisions
Some introspection this week, hopefully with a useful model to help you too. I've been facing a decision that lots of small business owners face. Shall I expand or not?
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What Can A Relay Race Teach Us About Referral Marketing?
Referral marketing is about getting others to pass your message on to your ideal clients. A metaphor I often use for this is to liken it to passing the baton in a relay race ...
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Be The Change You Wish To See In The World
My very favourite quote comes from Mahatma Gandhi and it doesn't need a lot of explanation does it? If you want to influence others to do something differently, show them how ...
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Have You Planned To Be Busy This Year?
Being too busy is often seen as a nice problem to have, but you can believe me when I say it isn't. You've worked hard to build a solid client base and now you have to deliver ...
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Does Bystander Apathy Have An Impact On Networking?
Many years ago, I was driving along a road in Ealing and got caught up in a traffic jam. After a good few minutes, I leaned out the window to see what was holding us up ...
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Networking Skills For Your Team: Part 1 - Why Bother?
Many firms with partners, associates and even trainees send these people out to network in the local business community. It seems to me that this is treated as a baptism of fire ...
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Networking Skills For Your Team: Part 2 - Who Needs These Skills?
This facetious remark masks a truth that everyone in your organisation has a network and every interaction has the potential to generate business for your company ...
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Networking Skills For Your Team: Part 3 - What Skills?
When thinking about this third blog post in my series about networking skills, my original thought was to work through the list of skills different people in your team need ...
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Networking Skills For Your Team: Part 4 - Motivate Them
When planning this series of 4 posts, my original list started with motivation as unless your team want to generate new business for you, then somehow, they will always be too busy to do it ...
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Insure Your Business Against Being Ill
It's fair to say that the last 4 months have been the worst since I've been in business. Two emergency admissions to hospital meant I spent very little time on my business ...
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Second Guessing Can Cost You Referrals
It's fair to say that within any networking scenario, a large proportion of potential referrals to good people running great businesses are missed. There are many reasons why ...
View ArticleI Don't Need Training, I Know How To Network!
I recently spent the day with my Referral Institute colleagues from around the UK. We meet every quarter ...
View ArticleLarks vs Owls: Who Are The Most Virtuous?
At a recent networking breakfast, I joined a conversation where people were moaning about the time they had to get up ...
View ArticleReferral Marketing: Taking The Surprise Out Of Your Referrals
When I'm promoting referral marketing, I stress the need to have deep relationships with people in order to get success ...
View ArticlePounce: Great For Tigers, Not So Good For Their Prey!
Most people admire the tiger except, of course, when you're going to be his dinner. Have you met tigers when you're out networking?
View ArticleReferral Marketing: How I Connect People
I'm not particularly artistic but I am creative with referral marketing and love making new connections ...
View ArticleCommand Attention At Your Networking Meeting
Daniel Goleman says you can only hold someone's attention for around four sentences before their mind starts to wander ...
View ArticleFor Those Times When Life Sucks
The deaths of Victoria Wood and Prince has stirred a lot of comments about an unusually high rate of celebrity deaths in 2016 ...
View ArticleLet's Look At Things Through The Round Window
If you grew up in Britain in the 60s, 70s and 80s, the words ''through the round window'' will take you back to your childhood ...
View ArticleThe Two Reasons Your Referral Network Is Asleep
I'm in the process of reviewing who is in my close referral network from the thousands of people I have in my database ...
View ArticleSo You Really Hate Networking?
If you mean you hate networking in the sense of going to a breakfast or lunchtime networking group meeting then don't go ...
View ArticleWorking with the Referral Institute
It was a big decision when I decided to buy a franchise in the Referral Institute, but I was already a client ...
View ArticleDesign For Trust: Overcoming Your Stranger-Danger Bias
According to Airbnb, most people are trustworthy, we just don't know it yet so we need to design for trust ...
View Article3 Top Tips When Asking For Advice
Many of us are in the business of giving advice. It's how we earn our living as consultants, trainers and coaches ...
View ArticleCoping With Change You Don't Want
As an ex-nurse, I am well aware of the side effects of chemotherapy. I've witnessed it many times, but now it's become personal ...
View ArticleCollaboration: Working With The Enemy
I was watching Drew Pritchard of Salvage Hunters fame on television the other evening and I got to thinking about collaboration ...
View ArticleBusiness Networking: No Pressure To Refer
I'm always fascinated by business networking groups who insist one of their main benefits is no pressure to refer ...
View ArticleMusings On Strategy: Marshalling Your Resources
Some time ago, when I was first learning about business strategy, Mike Burdett gave me a definition of strategy ...
View ArticleBuilding A Referral Relationship
It's Friday morning and I'm knee deep in follow-up phone calls from my Referral Masterclass last Wednesday ...
View ArticleStand Out From The Crowd: Be A Specialist
As you can imagine, I go to a lot of networking events and I rarely go to one where there isn't at least one accountant ...
View ArticleManaging Mistakes By Being Assertive
I was listening to Jo Pogson give a short presentation on being assertive the other day. It really struck a chord with me ...
View ArticleI Don't Need Any More Work At Present!
It's a vindication that your marketing is working, yet it is a dangerous place to be and a crazy thing to say in your business network ...
View ArticleThere's More Than One Way To Skin A Cat
There's more than one way to skin a cat doesn't involve hurting kittens, but is to do with getting valuable feedback from workshops ...
View ArticleNetworking Tips: Don't Sell To The Room, Ask For Help Instead
There are many great networking tips I could share with you and today, I want to talk about not selling to the room ...
View ArticleReferral Marketing: Are You Engaged?
I met with one of my referral marketing partners Andy Mee, from Business Doctors this week. We're planning to run a seminar together ...
View ArticleFrustrated With Your Results? You Need Some Dopamine!
I lost it big time this week. As a company, we've invested in Infusionsoft and I've been looking forward to it for a while now ...
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