Book: Endless Referrals, by Bob Burg
Endless Referrals
Network your everyday contacts into sales
by Bob Burg
ISBN 0-07-146207-4 (3rd ed, paperback)
Having gone through a majority of the Toronto Public Library's books on networking, I'm starting another reading sprint into relationship marketing. *Endless Referrals* is a good primer on how to network by focusing on what you can give to others, and it has great tips for how to ask for referrals. The key point of the book is that people give business to those they know, like, and trust, and the book is filled with things you can do to build that trust.
Reading the book, I was reminded of the two nuggets Dave Forde shared during my BarCamp session on networking for introverts. He mentioned the F-O-R-M questions (Family, Occupation, Recreation, Message) and the Feel-Felt-Found method for addressing objections.
The book repeatedly emphasizes the importance of personalized notes with pictures and contact information on them, so I might use some of my idea capital to have some printed. I'd like to send many more notes than I normally do. Alternatively, I could have my picture printed on my business card, and just include that in all my correspondence.
Pages 16 to 19 list ten networking questions that work every time because they make people feel good.
- How did you get your start in the ... business?
- What do you enjoy most about your profession?
- What separates you and your company from the competition?
- What advice would you give someone just starting in the ... business?
- What one thing would you do with your business if you knew you could not fail?
- What significant changes have you seen take place in your profession through the years?
- What do you see as the coming trends in the ... business?
- Describe the strangest or funniest incident you've experienced in your business.
- What ways have you found to be the most effective for promoting your business?
- What one sentence would you like people to use in describing the way you do business?
Chapter 8 discusses how to use the Internet to help build your network, and has good examples of how to use blogs and instant messaging to reach out to more people.
Chapter 15 has good tips for starting an effective and profitable networking group, which might be useful for a few people I know.
Good book. Worth reading and recommending to other people.
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