Question:
"I was in the process of signing up for PowerCore but I got to the place where it says that I cannot be a member of another close-contact group?
I am exploring of joining other groups so this may be a problem for me- could you elaborate more on this stipulation?"
1: There are 21 different types of associations.
We each need to belong to three.
2: A marketing plan has four components:
- Advertising,
- Cold-calling (a referral marketing plan switches this to GateOpeners),
- Referrals,
- Customer Service.
Think of this as a four-drawer filing cabinet. In each drawer there are six hanging files - and ONE of them is an association.
- The association in the Advertising drawer is one where every member is a potential client.
- The association in the GateOpener drawer is one where members will never do business with you personally, but they each have the opportunity to send you one new client, every month, like clockwork.
- If this isn't a referral marketing plan, then in the cold calling drawer every member is again, a potential client.
- In the Referrals drawer, the association needs the broadest possible cross-section of people.
- If you belong to your own association (you don't have to), that's in the Customer Service drawer.
Example:
Renea Ash is a photographer - her favorite thing to do is family portraits. In her advertising drawer she could belong to an association for new adoptive parents, because they all want new family pictures.
Renea's largest income segment is professional headshots. One of her GateOpener classifications is business coaches. She could join a Coaches association - and cultivate 10 members who each refer her to a new client every month.
Renea is a Member of the Roswell 400 PowerCore Team. These are NOT her prospects -- though some of them will opt in. This broad cross-section of people refers her into many client areas.
Renea is not a member of PPA (Professional Photographers of America) but if she was, it would be in her Customer Service drawer.
The purpose of the first two is to go deep into a segment.
The purpose of the referral network is to go wide. It is the combination of depth + width that gives a business marketing stability.
3: Close-contact has three defining characteristics:
- One person per profession (i.e. no competition at the table)
- Meet regularly, with an attendance requirement
- Tracks the business created between members.
It is a conflict to belong to more than one close-contact network because they will both have a real estate agents, and a mortgage lender, and an insurance agent, and a financial advisor, and ...
- To choose between them isn't loyal to either group.
- To give a client both business cards isn't a referral - it's advertising.
If you want more about #2 - we offer How to Build a Referral Marketing Plan as an extra-extra workshop once a year. (Coming up in September.) It's a Member-benefit for PowerCore Members; $150 for non-members.
The companion workshop is How to Work an Association - also once a year, also in September this year (same day) also a Member-benefit or $150.
Okay - that's enough from me!