Book Review: The 60 Second Referral
I have a confession to make. Even though I’ve written about how powerful a (/joe-girard-selling/), I don’t have a systematic followup system working for me. I’ve always procrastinated in creating a followup system because the whole idea overwhelms me.
- Who should I contact and how many times?
- How to contact them?
- What to talk with them about?
- How to plan it all out?
- How to keep track of everything?
And so, I’ve always been stuck because of this overwhelm. Sure, I send out emails when work seems slow. And write newsletters and blog posts every so often. But I’ve not invested time in being disciplined to create a followup system that works like clockwork. Because I always thought it was too much work. It was all too hard. How wrong was I!
(http://www.marketingbestpractices.com/ “David Frey’s Marketing Best Practices”), one of my marketing mentors recently asked me to read this short 128 page book “60 Second Referral.” And the book is a real gem. Quick to read. And gives easy ideas you can implement right away.
The whole book is pretty good with tons of ideas. It reads like a super brainstorming tool. You’ll never be out of ideas as to how you should followup and stay connected with others. But my favorite parts were:
- Page 18
- and the Appendix
Page 18: 5 Key Circles of Relationship
On page 18, the tells you how you should segment your list. Seriously - you don’t want to send the same message to your aunt that you send to your client - do you? So how should you segment your contacts? You segment all the contacts into one of 5 lists:
- Clients
- Prospects
- Business associates (vendors, suppliers, partners, lawyer, accountant etc)
- Friends and family
- Aquantiances
And then create a distinct plan of followup for each of these 5 circles.
Appendix: Sample Plan for Your Perpetual Contact System
A whole another book could actually be written on the Appendix. Because the appendix gives you a sample plan for each of the 5 circles of relationships! Sit down with the appendix and create a timeline for following up. And within no time, you’ll end up with a superb well tuned referral system that will keep you with more business than you can cope with!
Action Summary:
- Segment your contacts in 5 groups.
- Create a schedule - a plan to follow up with all of them.
- Buy the book “The 60-Second Referral” by Anita Williams to get choke full of ideas on how to follow up effectively.