In all of my referral training, I’m an advocate of always sending or taking something along with you as a leave behind, small gift or “value item” in communicating or at a meeting that would serve as a means of showing you care.
The whole concept here is that when you deliver or send an “item of value” especially selected for the person you’re visiting, it increases your credibility and likability. Additionally, that value item has a “voice” that continues to “shout your name” and build “top of mind awareness” for you well after you’ve left the scene.
Since most of us are working to create relationships with other business people, there’s a huge wealth of possible business and growth topics that could fit your need for these gifts. Think about it, these days we have practically every book or topic that has ever been recorded now available to us via the internet. So I’ve built my own approach to getting ready to send or bring value items into my meetings, and they always bring amazing results.
Specifically, there are so many topics that are of ongoing interest to almost everyone. Topics like leadership skills, goal setting, motivation, business planning, famous book summaries, sales skills training, internet marketing and so much more. I subscribe to a number of news sources and blog aggregation newsletters to keep a steady flow of fresh new valuable content passing in front of me to choose from.
Keep This as our little secret…
When I find a standout piece of great information, I simply download it as a printable PDF and save it in a desktop file for later use. Its right there at my fingertips to print whenever I’ve a meeting coming up or need a valuable attachment to send along with an email.
Now here’s another best practices tip for you. In order to be always prepared for a meeting, I will print out multiple copies of key, universally valuable articles and add them to a file folder I place in the driver’s seat back pocket of my car. I’ve been doing this now for years, and I’m always prepared for a meeting with something I can “gift” from that pocket.
Next, with this file riding along behind me, it causes me to always be aware of whose office I may be driving past on the way to a planned meeting. You see, I’ve learned that one of the greatest ways to make a big favorable impression on someone is to actually make an unscheduled “stop-by” on the way to my other planned destinations.
So then, on the way, I’ll make a quick stop, pull something out of the file and scribble a little greeting on it for the unsuspecting person whom I want to make a connection with. In doing this, attach a business card and then just leave it at the front desk of the business asking that it gets passed along into the hands of your intended recipient. When this arrives at the person’s desk, it always makes a huge impact and I guarantee they’ll take your next call or even reach back to you to say thanks.
Here, “Scarcity” makes you standout…
You’ve heard that “people don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Well here’s a way to really make a break through in your relationships, stand out and set yourself up for getting new referrals from the people you are giving to…
Take a few minutes and start now by building your own “value gift repository” and put that powerful folder into your car. Its fun to think about the responses you’re going to get when you implement this!
Doing this today is even easier. when you take a look at www.engagepro.com. There, we’ve assembled both a repository of 150 downloadable articles of interest for you to print or share. As well, this economical and easy to use tool also has an AI enabled Intelligent Connector” within it that lets you add the personal interests of your connections to quickly find content to match and send to them.
Take a free look for 14 days and see just how powerful it is!