(shared by my mentor and good friend Eddie Esposito)
When thinking about how to motivate people to refer you, bring people into your sales pipeline, or reward them for the good things thy have done for you the action is the same; use your assets! You’re probably thinking what on earth is he talking about and you would be justified.
You see, when thinking about an entrepreneur’s life we are told, coached, and taught to keep your business and personal life separate; attain balance. While I agree that there are a lot of times to turn off the business, our biggest tool as entrepreneurs is ourselves and the assets, we bring with us and it’s not money assets.
For example, before I stepped into the world of business and life coaching with The Referral Institute, I was a chef. I had an unusual niche in that profession as I specialized in private planes. As such I flew around the world, and had the opportunity to meet and cook for many of the world’s top business people like Bill Gates and Paul Allen, rock stars like Paul McCartney, Elton John and Tina Turner, and 4 former US Presidents, and recently the First Lady.
Those experiences are an asset for me. I use that ability and those experiences to host dinners that make it easy to for people to introduce me to prospects. If you wanted to refer me some business which do you think is easier for you; invite a prospect to meet me for coffee to talk about coaching, or to invite them to my house or your house where a former chef with my resume would cook dinner for us all and we could talk a little business at the same time?
I can also use that same skill to host or cook a dinner where we engage prospects for you. I can use the skill to reward people for doing things for me, I can collaborate with people that wanted to refer you but needed an easier way. The possibilities for that are endless. My skill is my asset that I can use for you, my network, or me.
All of us have assets. Mine happens to be a gift in the kitchen, a good friend has a boat for fishing, another has a box at the football stadium, and another is a great gardener. All of these are great assets that allow us to include others and they come with a bonus. It’s things we do because we love it. We would do it regardless so may as well incorporate the business with it. That will certainly be a more pleasant way to work and surely save us a ton of time because we don’t have to anything other than what we would normally do.
Who’s up for dinner?
