To some people, the “Swap & Drop” referral method described in the previous article may have read like a lesson in shameless manipulation. After all, it looks like what I am doing is this: Asking people to call me back because I might have a referral for them and proceeding to sell them my services.

Did you think that was a little manipulative?

C’mon, admit it! Did you?

If so, you completely missed the point.

If you were to try to manipulate your contacts using this Swap & Drop approach (”swap” your business cards with them, then “drop” a special kind of a greeting card in the mail), you wouldn’t be able to get far. People are quite savvy and can see your plot right through.

The reason this method worked for me was because of what I call The Referral Intent. Simply put, I really did want to find out more about them and find a way to help them.

Zig Ziglar says that you can have anything you want in life as long as you can figure out a way to help other people get what they want.

Well, that is absolutely true.

Business owners and professionals attending networking meetings want referrals. This is obvious: They all do. That’s why they invest their time and money to go there. And most of them leave these networking meetings disappointed by the lack of results.

If you can find a way to plug them into your own network — however small that network may be at the moment — you will start building a relationship of trust, which will eventually result in more referrals for you. And how can you refer them if you don’t know that much about them or their business? That’s why it’s critical that you meet with them in person or on the phone and get to know them.

Alas, the technique that I gave you last time can be used to manipulate people. And some lowly life form of a salesperson may try that only to discover that this approach backfires and ruins their business — and rightly so.

I suggest you use it to add value to your network.

It’s your intent that defines the outcome.

I gave you the tool. Now it’s up to you to decide how you are going to apply it.

A personal story… I thought it was about time I gave you one.

Business networking is something a lot of people love to hate: It is time-consuming, expensive, and in most cases very inefficient.

I can bear the “time-consuming”…

I can even live with the “expensive”…

If – and it’s a big “if” – it produces results!

…

Which it typically doesn’t.

Most people who attend networking meetings are only interested in themselves. They don’t care about your product or service; they just want to pitch you theirs.

Now, for the record, I am not opposed to networking: I am a member of the Rotary Club, I am a Toastmaster, I visit various Chambers of Commerce and Boards of Trade. I have and still do belong to several business networking groups. I also go to a number of industry shows and events.

So I am not anti-networking.

What I am is… anti-networking-with-no-results-to-show-for-it.

Here’s how I went from networking with no results to networking that produces a constant, predictable and measurable inflow of prospects for my business.

I attended a breakfast meeting at the local Board of Trade. They had the usual: 30-second presentations by all businesses in attendance, the cookies and the coffee, followed by “natural” networking.

I met 13 new people at that meeting. I came back to my office with 13 new business cards in hand. Once I entered all these contacts into my list, I sent them a simple greeting card that said this:

Dear [name of the person],

If was nice meeting you at the networking breakfast earlier today.

I really enjoyed our conversation about [topic we have discussed]

I’d like to learn more about your business so as I could know who is a good referral for you. Please call me at (000) 000-0000 when you receive this card. 

Thank you & I look forward to speaking with you.

One week later, 6 people called me to thank for the card I sent them.

Let me tell you something important about my business: It DOES matter who calls whom first. In this case, they called me, something that has never happened before! 6 people out of 13… that’s 46%! Not too shabby in my books. With such a response rate, this is serious business.

And as of the time of writing this, out of these 6 people, 2 became clients and one has referred a number of other businesses to me. 2 out 6 is 33%! Any way you slice it, it’s a fantastic ratio.