(Transcript of Rene’s moment of business education for the Winchester BNI on Friday morning 11-16)

How referable are you? One of New York’s top coaches who has been a business coach for over 30 years came with the following observation: There are 4 rules that will determine  how likely it is that people refer you. What you need to do, is not if you know these rules, because some of them are quite obvious, but, how much do you actually DO these things. So please, rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 to determine how referable you are.

Rule 1: Be on Time for all appointments.
If you make someone wait longer than 30 seconds, you give them the feeling that you do not respect them. So make it a habit to always arrive a bit early.

Rule 2: Do what you say you will do.
And if you have said that you would do something, and you are not capable of fulfilling that promise, call the person and tell them.

Rule 3: Finish what you start.
People really respect it when you are known as someone who will complete what he or she started.

Rule 4: Always say ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you’.
Manners are really appreciated, and the habit of sending hand written thank you cards goes a long way.

How did you rank? If you add your four scores up, do you go over 35? If so, and you do not get a lot of referrals in our group, come have a one on one with me, because there is obviously something wrong.

(transcript from Rene’s educational moment of Friday November 9)

A couple weeks ago I was talking about the first two levels of Leadership. I realized that I never completed the whole concept for you.

Level 1 of leadership is leadership by position. You are a leader, because the organization you work for placed you in that place. The people below you will do what you ask, but typically without passion.

Level 2 of Leadership is leadership because people WANT to follow you. Or in case you use this skill in a sales situation (since leadership is about influencing people), because they really like and trust you. You get there because you care for the people around you.

In level 3, you are a Productive leader. You get results. These are typically leaders that have learned to set goals, with plans and commitment to reach them. Now be careful, some leaders reach this level while skipping level 2. They will be productive because they do everything themselves. As a business coach, these are often the small business owners that I get as clients who are desperately trying to keep ‘all the balls in the air’, working many hours a week, and no longer growing beyond that point. They have not learned to trust their people. You might also recognize some leaders around you who never managed to leave level 2. They like their team too much and consequently are too nice to keep their team accountable.

Level 4 are those leaders who have learned to Leverage. They are consistently teaching the people around them, and thus they are the leaders where growth turns exponential. The leaders that never leave level 3, can only produce more by working harder. But it is only by being a leader at level 4 where you can grow production by ten times or more.

Level 5, an extreme rare level, is for those leaders that create and nurture other leaders.

Where are you as a leader? Do you think you are stuck at a certain level? The great news is that all these levels can be learned.

(from Rene’s educational moment at BNI on Friday November 3rd)

By now you should all know that the number one reason that marketing fails is due to not hitting its target market. Are you addressing your right target market? How do you know?

Here is a simple way to figure out if you are focused on your target market: Make a list of your top 50 ideal accounts that you don’t have yet. For example, if you are in business to business, what are the top 50 businesses that you would like to sign on next? Then ask yourself, what do these 50 have in common?

Note that over time this list will change. Some you sign up, some say ‘no’ to you. That is okay, just keep adding names back into the list so you have 50 again.

What is your top 50 targeted suspect list?