The prospects who attend feel as if they know you and want your assistance.

With today’s technology, events are inexpensive to run.  But if you’re going to do all the work to create great content with high value, you want to be sure that the people who are interested in it know it’s happening and how to sign up.

You won’t get the number of qualified leads you deserve if only 5 people attend! Here’s where social media can help.

Now I know what you’re thinking. I’ve been there, too. “Social media can’t possibly help me. I don’t have much time for it, don’t do it regularly, and am not connected to that many people.”

So what?

I ran an event just last month that had people I’d never heard of before in attendance. They found it from re-tweets of my tweets, comments others had commented on, and our postings across LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. These people weren’t connected to me anywhere. Social networking made it happen.

How? Let me share my strategies with you.

1.    Post the event details on your website – This is your opportunity to say as much as you’d like about the event, including every fact. Point all your comments back to your website for additional information and registration. Not only do interested readers learn more about the event, now they’re in your website, too.
2.    Comment and tweet – This goes without saying, but here are a few extras to ponder. People tend to prefer one social network over the others, but no target markets as a whole typically favor one over another. Given this, you want to be sure you talk up your event on every one you use. Comment about it in your LinkedIn status. Discuss it on Facebook. Tweet about it. Carry your comments over the course of days and weeks preceding the event, right up to minutes before it begins.
3.    Post everywhere – Lots of people don’t realize that you can post events to LinkedIn and Facebook in special “Event” sections. Once you do, people connected to you are notified, and others outside your group see them when they use key word searches. Your network can forward the link on to others in their groups who might be interested, too.
4.    Use links – as you comment and post, include links to the details on your website. Keep the postings brief and quick to scan. If you’ve hit someone’s hot button, they’ll click through to learn more and sign up. Use a tool like www.bit.ly or www.tinyurl.com to shorten long links.
5.    Sign-up on LinkedIn – as people from your target segments enroll, shoot them a quick email and ask them to click in LinkedIn that they’re attending. Send them the direct LinkedIn event link to make it simple. Now all their connections see that they’re attending, expanding your message within your target market.
6.    Leverage your network – ask your top clients and peer network to comment and tweet about the event. Give them brief phrases they can simply copy and paste. Have them note on LinkedIn that they’re interested in attending the event. Your message will reach out into their contacts, further extending your reach even though they aren’t attending.

Once your content is perfected, events are a numbers game. The more interested people from your target market that you can attract to your event, the greater the number of leads. Social networking can get your message out, bringing participants and leads to you!

Kendra Lee is a top IT Seller, Prospect Attraction Expert and author of the award winning book “Selling Against the Goal” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group works with companies to break in and exceed revenue objectives in the Small and Midmarket Business (SMB) segment. Ms. Lee is a frequent speaker at national sales meetings and association events. To find out more about the author, read her latest articles, or to subscribe to her newsletter visit www.klagroup.com or call +1 303.773.1285.

Knowing this, more and more sellers are asking for referrals as a primary approach to filling their pipelines.

But they aren’t getting the number of high quality referrals they’d like or need. The techniques we’re hearing aren’t working consistently. That’s because so often we leave it up to the client to guess who they should refer us to. If you really want to be successful building your pipeline with referrals, you need to take a step back and think about what types of introductions you really want.

Just any old referral won’t get you your next hot prospect. When you leave it up to your customer to figure out who they think would be a good referral, they won’t consider all the qualification points you do.

They might not recognize that they’re a great client because they’re:

• Focused on issues that fall within your offerings’ sweet spot
• Using your solutions exactly like you want other customers to
• In a specific industry or a certain size company
• Treating you as a trusted advisor

Suddenly you find yourself with a referral that’s less than ideal. It’s too small a company, has a completely different set of needs than you address, or is outside your industry expertise.
Because the referral came from one of your top clients, you either have to figure out how to say “thanks, but no thanks” or follow-up then explain to your customer why it wasn’t the best fit. It’s possible you could actually waste as much time following up on this unqualified introduction as you would cold calling!

A poor referral from a great client puts you in an awkward position – all because you were trying to shorten your new business development cycle through referrals. Mediocre connections won’t help you fill your pipeline.

No, you only want top quality referrals. Your desire is to get introduced to companies and contacts that really need your offerings and will want to talk with you. You’re looking for new connections with the characteristics of your best clients.

Don’t limit yourself to asking for referrals that are similar in size, industry, or region.
Broaden your expectations to seek introductions to people who’ll implement and appreciate your offerings like your best clients do. Ask for contacts who’ll want to work closely with you and welcome your expertise and recommendations.

To get referrals that fit such specific qualifications, you need to frame who is a great connection when you ask. Tell your customer what types of companies make the best match for your offerings.

There are two parts to framing your referral request:

• Say, “someone like you who…” – and fill in the blank with the profile of your ideal referral.
• Then add, “someone who needs …” – and include the classic challenges, issues or needs you address.

What you’re doing is creating a picture of your ideal referral for your client. Now as they mentally search through all their colleagues, they can easily determine which ones to recommend. You’ve taken the guesswork out of it.

Call me a referral snob if you will, but if we’re going to ask for referrals, spend precious time following up on them, and then work them with due diligence, don’t we deserve to get only the very best introductions? I sure think so!

Kendra Lee is a top IT Seller, Prospect Attraction Expert and author of the award winning book “Selling Against the Goal” and president of KLA Group. Specializing in the IT industry, KLA Group works with companies to break in and exceed revenue objectives in the Small and Midmarket Business (SMB) segment.

So just what is referral marketing and how can to promote your business in front of everyone else’s?

It’s basically a systemised approach that turns every single sale into the buying power of many. This is done by establishing a specific set of strategies and tools designed to bring you new customers, clients, leads, and repeat business without other advertising methods. However, when combined with other systems such as advertising and direct mail, you will have a very powerful system of customer generation.

There are usually two things that stop small businesses from working referral marketing consistently and powerfully:

1. Lack of system
2. Fear of rejection

If you provide a product or service that helps solve problems and meets the needs of your customers or clients then surely you owe it to others to spread the word.

If you think about the act of referring it really comes down to these two simple things:

1. Provide a product or service that is liked and needed
2. Administering the referral expectation

If you’re not already convinced you should be actively employing referral marketing then here’s why you need to do this:

• Referrals are credible right from the start. When a trusted friend or colleague tells you about a business you transfer that trust to this company…even if you’ve never heard of them before.

• Research has proven beyond the shadow of a doubt that people who are referred to a business tend to spend more money. It’s probably because people tend to refer those that are ready-to-buy and not merely price shoppers.

• Referrals are extremely cost-effective and even a fraction of what you might pay in advertising costs in some cases.

Referrals are essential to your business so don’t overlook them.

To get your referral system in place and multiply your customer base contact us today.