You are in your weekly PowerCore meeting; you have given your 1-minute InfoMinute, focused your complete attention on the 7-minute Presenters and participated in the Referral Trigger Exercise; now it’s time for Referrals, and you are thinking, “I have nothing to give.” Do you make up a connection? Refer a friend or client without permission? Skip? NO – That would be credibility assassination. What about scheduling a lunch with a Team Member whom you want to know better or who is a GateOpener for your business? And then use that face time to learn more about them. This would give you the information you need to bring referrals and connections for a Team Member to the next meeting.

Use these 3 ways to triple the value of your lunch connections:

1. SCHEDULE one lunch each week with a different Team Member. Spend the time learning the words that will help you connect them to your own customers; find out who their GateOpeners are; and ask what their preferred method of connection is. Then use that information to determine what you might bring to the table at the next meeting that will benefit their business: perhaps a personal introduction to one of their GateOpeners, forwarding a Team Member’s handout to someone who would gain from that information, or inviting a Guest in their Contact Sphere. Lunch to Learn and then Connect.

2. INVITE a Team Member to lunch with a customer so that they can meet and get to know each other in a comfortable and casual setting. It is the personal introduction we make between two people that makes it a the PowerConnection. Since you open the door to a relationship they build, you are seen as a valuable resource to both of them. Lunch to Connect and then Build.

3. STRENGTHEN your Contact Sphere by inviting this week’s Visitor to a GateOpener Lunch. The most profitable formula for your close contact involvement is to have 10 of your own GateOpeners at the table every week. What better way to show Visitor’s the value you have for them (and build your business more effectively) than to schedule a GateOpener Lunch? Take the lead, schedule a lunch, and invite other Team Members who are in your Contact Sphere to attend. Then, spend lunch time getting to know about the Visitors’ business and describing how effectively you make connections for each other. This is a great way to attract new Members. Lunch to Build and then Profit.

It’s the time outside our weekly meeting when we really get to know our Team Members better. It’s knowing them better that allows us to generate referrals and connections for them every week. Lunch, coffee or breakfast meetings are the tools to use. Lunch to learn, connect, build and profit.