I got to know David Frey last year who is a top internet referral
author and coach for small businesses of all kinds. David is also the
second highest ranking distributor with
SendOutCards.com
out of 50,000
people or so. Many of you attended the "Ultimate Referral Webinar"
which we did about 5 times last year.
One of the best ideas I got from David was the "Let’s Do Lunch"
marketing campaign. The idea is simple. You identify 50-100
influential people (or any number) you want to meet and send them a
greeting card inviting them to have lunch with you. You send the card
once each month for six months. Obviously, if they call you to have
lunch, you take them off the list. David has tested this approach
numerous times and has averaged a 40% response over the 6-month
period. He also says that having your picture on the inside of the
card almost doubles the response rate.
A few people will respond right away and call you for lunch. Most
people get the card and think this person is just trying to sell me
something and toss the card. But what happens after people get the
card two or three times, they realize you are sincere and the calls
start to come in.
What you say in the card is important. I use David’s language with one
exception. David likes to give people a specific date, time, and place
to meet for lunch. I like to leave that part more open. Here is he
language I have been having my clients use.
"Fred, I have been hearing good things about you. I may be able to be
a referral source for your business. I would like to get to know you.
Let me buy you lunch. Give me a call when you have an opening
(telephone number). Signed, your name."
In the SendOutCards version, this card is already set up. The outside
of the card says "Let’s Do Lunch" in big letters. You open up the card
and on the right is a quote from David’s book about the value of
meeting people for lunch. You put your note on the left with your
picture at the top. It is first class and only costs $1.30 per card
which includes a real stamp and a picture of you on the inside. (If
you are already using SOC and don’t have that card, send me an email
and I will send you instructions on how to download David’s custom
cards and some of my own custom marketing cards to your account.)
(If you are interested in knowing more about
SendOutCards.com
and you
know a distributor, give them a call. My affiliate partners who are
SOC Distributors: Bill Cates, Dr. Len Schwartz, Peter Lantos, Tammy
DeLeeuw, Lou Bortoletto, Ray Vendetti, Scott Brooks and Michael Beck.
If you don’t know a distributor, give me a call or send an email and I
can show you how to get a free look at the system and send yourself a
card from my distributor account.)
You can obviously do this process without SendOutCards; it just takes
more time, effort and some creativity. You could have some custom
greeting cards made up for this purpose and ideally include your
picture. You would have to do some research and see what other options
are out there. If your picture is on your business card, that would
count as a picture and should increase your results by putting your
business card in the greeting card.
One other observation... Since you are saying that you could be a
potential referral source to these people in order to get their
attention, it is good to identify successful people. You can do this
with your own personal observation and due diligence. Another source
is the Chamber of Commerce. Call the Chamber or meet with someone
there and get the names of the top people in any number of
occupations. They know who these people are. Then you know you are
meeting the kind of people that you actually want to meet and would
most likely be able to refer.
I love the "Let’s Do Lunch" concept and have many of my coaching
clients using it. The main reason I like it so much is that it takes
so little time after you get it set up. You identify the people, you
send out the cards and you wait for the phone to ring! And it will!
You will get to meet influential people that are often very difficult
to see.
You have to give it a few months for it to work, but that isn’t very
long. And, you can start out small if you want and send out 10 or 20
cards. I tell people to send out 200 per month! With SendOutCards, 100
cards is $130 per month, they print and mail the cards for you with
your picture on he inside above your note. If you got to meet 40
influential people (100 x 40%) in your community over the next six
months, what would happen to your business? You would write some nice
business and end up with some potentially substantial referral
sources. All that for under $1,000 and you can spread the cost out
over six months!
Do I hear the phone ringing. Oh, it’s for you…one of the most
influential people in your community wants to have lunch!
Happy New Year…
PS: I am giving $15 off any
product purchase from
SidWalker.com
with this discount code: 151515. (If
for any reason the code doesn't work, make a note in the "comments
section" and we will make the adjustment. Offer expires 2/1/09.
International Orders see below.)
Toll-free: 877-985-3297
sid@sidwalker.com
SidWalker.com
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