Enjoy this gift from your co-Author Sam Rathling, who wrote and published “GIVE: 16 Giving Strategies To Grow Your Business” in March 2013. This book has more than twenty-five, 5-star reviews on Amazon and achieved #1 best-selling status in the Small Business category on Amazon in it’s first month.
You can be assured that you will pick up some great tips and tools to use in your business by reading this bonus chapter.
In the previous chapter on giving goals, we looked at setting goals for activities that primarily revolve around helping another person. In this chapter we will explore the concept of a giving meeting. In the beginning of this book I shared with you my story upon first arriving in Ireland. Do you remember Patrick, who I met first at a networking event, then arranged to meet me for a coffee? Patrick and I are still in touch and he is a very valued client in my business, he now works in international sales for ASEA, (an amazing product), and is no longer in the print industry. Do you recall that he spent 90 minutes in that meeting focusing 100% on me and what he could do to help me? That is what I now refer to as a giving meeting and this is how I approach every new connection and prospective referral partner or potential client.
This again may involve a shift in your mindset and way of thinking about the meetings that you hold from now on. Because every sales training presentation you attend and many books you read about how to get new business involve how you can get your sales message across to the other person. Often you will read or hear tips on how to communicate your features and benefits to them in a way that helps them to buy from you. Yes there is some focus on the other person, but this usually involves asking questions to understand their needs so that you can hen pitch your solutions, products or service to the person in front of you.
The giving meeting is an act of helping another person. The sole purpose of your time you spend with the other person is to understand their business, and what you can do to help them first. A real giving meeting is a 100% dedication to the other person and their business.
This chapter will give you a template to work from with a set of questions that will enable you to really give and help them. In order to help the other person you need to understand their business and open up opportunities for you to help them, refer them and create a long-lasting relationship.
The following questions are to be used in a giving meeting to establish rapport, build the relationship and understand how you can help them. Once you know this information about the other person and you feel comfortable referring them to your network then it will be much easier for you to help them in some way:
Question 1 - Tell me about yourself and how you got into this business
This question allows you to relax the other person, they will feel comfortable sharing their background and history and you can learn a lot from the person by having them talk about what they did before. The advantage for you is that you get to find out what contacts the person may have based on their previous career. You are not going to use this information now, but it should be stored and recorded after the meeting. When you have helped this person first, they will want to help you back in the future. By understanding their contacts from past roles, you may secure an opportunity of an introduction further down the line.
Question 2 - What is it that you love about what you do?
This question allows the person you are trying to help to talk about their passion. You will quite often see body language change and a more animated response. Everyone loves to talk about their passions and what they love to do. This again is part of the relationship building process. If you know what they love about their work, you know that they will be most responsive when you refer them a contact or a piece of business which involves what they love to work on.
Question 3 - What are the main products and services you offer to clients?
This question is more of a fact-finding exercise. If you’ve not had a chance to do your homework on the company before the meeting then this is an opportunity to learn about the products and services on offer.
Question 4 - After you have delivered your products /services what results does the client see?
This is really asking the question what value do you add. This should be where you find out the benefits of working with the company you are trying to help. Quite often the products and services are the main focus of a meeting like this, but if you truly want to help the person then you need to know how they deliver results for their clients. Do they save client’s money? Do they reduce stress? Do they give peace of mind? It is really finding out what the clients they work for are left with after they have delivered their service or products. What do they feel, think, do or have AFTER the company has delivered their work.
Question 5 - What makes you totally unique and different from your competition?
This is all about USP’s (Unique Selling Points). The person you are meeting needs to clearly communicate their points of difference if you are going to be able to help them. The issue is that most small businesses cannot really identify their absolute unique selling points. They use descriptions like ‘we give really personal service’, however that really is not a unique selling point. It may be true, but all of their competition is out there saying that too.
Question 6 - What professions or categories of business are you looking to talk to?
This question is all about identifying potential strategic alliances or referral partners for the person you are trying to help. You could introduce them to an end customer who spends with them once, or you could introduce them to a connection who could pass them multiple clients. An example of this would be a video production company. You could introduce them to an SME who wants to make a video for their website, or even better would be to introduce them to a marketing agency who outsource all of their video production work. Which is the more valuable contact? The second one of course because of the potential number of clients that it could bring. The more you help them with strategic alliances and referral partners, the more will come back to you.
Question 7 - What are the names of the top 20 companies you would love to do business with?
This is a question that many small business owners cannot answer off the top of their head. Quite often the target market for a company starts with ‘Anyone who…’ or ‘Any company that…’. If you can get a list of the dream clients that the person in front of you is looking to do business with than you can be much more specific in your quest to help them. Go back to the giving meeting I had with Patrick, he asked me this question but I was prepared and had already created a top 100 prospect client list from business directories and LinkedIn. I was able to name companies that I wanted to work with and he was able to facilitate an introduction for me to someone on the list. If the person you are meeting is not prepared, ask them to list for you the last 10 customers they did business with. This will give you a chance to see the types of companies that they help. In addition the assumption would be that if they have already done business with one haulage/logistics company that they would like to be introduced to more haulage and logistics companies. Then you can start to help them be more specific.
Question 8 - What questions can I ask a potential client to help open up the opportunity for you?
You could be standing in the middle of a referral opportunity for the person in front of you, but unless you know what to say in the situation you could blow it. This question is really to get an idea of what the person you are trying to help would say if they met someone looking to buy their product or service. By having 2 or 3 key questions to qualify the opportunity you will make it much easier to pass on the person’s details to a potential client. It also means that the referral is more likely to happen and be the kind of opportunity that they are looking for because you have been armed with the right questions to ask. I have an electrician in my network who I use personally and refer to other people. He helps companies to reduce their electricity bill through an energy audit. Every time I see spotlights in a venue, office, or house I simply ask “Do you know how much those are costing you?”. This starts a conversation and allows me to move into a potential referral situation where I can help him with a new client.
Question 9 - How can I introduce you? What do you want me to say on your behalf?
If you can get a one liner, easy to remember from the person you are helping it will be so much easier to create an opportunity for them. For the electrician I simply say “I know a great electrician who can save you up to 80% on your electricity bill through a free energy audit. I highly recommend him and he’s saved me a fortune!”. When you are in your giving meeting, try to identify what to say on behalf of the person you are helping to make it easy to refer them. This is especially important if they work in the type of business where everyone already has a supplier such as an Accountant or a Printer. It has to be more compelling than just “I know a great [insert profession] can I get him to give you a call?”
Question 10 - Can you tell me a story about how you recently helped a client?
If you are stuck on question 9, or if the person you are meeting is stuck then this may help. Facts tell and stories sell, so this is where you can get the person to share success stories and how they help their clients. From this you may also find a good one liner introduction. It is far easier to remember a compelling story than a list of features and benefits, and combine this with emotion and you will have an easy way to help the person, simply by relaying the great story about how they help their clients.
Question 11 - What am I going to hear or see in my everyday settings that could indicate an opportunity for you?
This last question is really to help you determine triggers that you may see or hear when you are out and about that will make you think of this persons business. If you go back to the electrician, he has trained me to look out for spotlights whenever I am in people’s homes or in a commercial premises such as a hotel or an office. He knows how much he can save a venue or household. So every time I see spotlights I think of the electrician. Armed with my one question “Do you know how much those are costing you?”, combined with my how to introduce you ““I know a great electrician who can save you up to 80% on your electricity bill through a free energy audit. I highly recommend him and he’s saved me a fortune!”
Question 12 - Where do you network?
This is a great question to ask a new person in your network, they may be attending events that you were not aware of and they may be happy to take you along and introduce you to potential new contacts. Share each others interests and networks outside of the main business and you never know what you might uncover. Either way it will really help you to form a strong relationship, find common ground and lead to future opportunities.
So you get to the end of the giving meeting, and now you have lots of information gathered from the other person. The final thing to do is to close the meeting by summarising back to the person what information you have taken down. You could also then arrange a follow up meeting date where you agree to meet up for a second time to go through the actions arising from this first meeting.
It is likely that during the 12 questions you determined a number of ways to help the other person. Now it’s all about follow up. The most important thing is that if you agreed to take action or do something for them that you actually do it. Having this follow up meeting brings some accountability in and will ensure that you DWYSYAGTD! (Do What You Say You Are Going To Do!).
The Giving Meeting Template Download
To make things easy for you and to help you with your Giving Meetings, I have created a template for you to download. Simply visit this link and you can download a free PDF template for you to use in your giving meetings.
http://meetsamrathling.com/giving-meeting-template
One suggestion I have for you to make your giving activity produce results, is that you create a document for your own business using this template of questions too. Imagine at the end of a giving meeting the person you are helping asks how they can help you back, or later in the relationship they are looking to help you in some way. The best thing to do is be prepared for this as it will happen.
The Quality Referral Template Download
My recommendation is to send back your version of these questions in a document so that they have a complete overview of your business and how they can help you. Imagine if every time you met someone new in your network, that they took away with them the list of answers to these 12 questions for your business.
Once again, I am going to make this real easy for you (a theme running throughout this book!). You can download an editable word document for you to complete for your own business, I call this a 121 Toolkit. It’s something you can use in both giving meetings and in other meetings that involve you presenting your business to a potential referral partner, strategic alliance, supplier or client.
I have been using this myself for years, and more recently have been giving this to clients and other people in my network and to date it has produced some staggering results. One of the best stories I know about this document involves a lady based in Manchester in the UK. She had been struggling to get new clients into her alternative healing business. People in her network just didn’t ‘get’ her business and didn’t know how to refer her.
After hearing about this 121 Toolkit, she created this document for her business in preparation for a 10 minute presentation she was giving the following week to her networking group. At the end of the presentation she gave a copy of this 121 Toolkit to the group to take away with them. Bear in mind, she had not received a single referral in 7 months from this group of people. The week after giving the 121 Toolkit in hard copy to her networking group which detailed more specifically what she was looking for, she was given 19 referrals!! Yes, she went from zero referrals in 7 months, to 19 in just one week! Now if that story doesn’t motivate you to get one of these for your business then you may as well stop reading now, because there is more great stuff to come in the other chapters too.
You can download your 121 Toolkit template here:
http://meetsamrathling.com/QRT
So now you know how to make your giving meetings work for you, and of course the person you are looking to help with their business. In addition you have a great tool to use for your own business to really focus the people in your network on how they can help you back. It can take some time to put together a great 121 Toolkit but it is well worth the effort for the results it will deliver back to your business.
Next we are going to spend some time on Giving Gratitude, as I am sure when you start giving help to others you will start to hear the words ‘Thank You’ a lot more, and you will also need some great ideas on how to say ‘Thank You’ to others when the new opportunities and clients start rolling in to your business.