Business Advocates: How to develop and grow your business

Are you developing and training your business connections to be your advocate?  It isn’t enough just to have someone refer you to someone else.

What you have to do is to make sure that your connections know you and your business to the point that they truly advocate for you.

The definition of an advocate is:  “a person who speaks or writes in support or defense of a person, cause, etc; a person who pleads for or in behalf of another; intercessor.”

How can you apply this definition to your own business?  Let’s look at some ways to train and develop your connections to be your advocate:

–Plan and conduct 1-1 meetings on a regular basis. I recommend at least 1-2 times/year.

–Be prepared to relay a success story of how you have helped a client.

–Glean essential information from them so that you will be able to make referrals when talking to others.

–Create a spreadsheet list of key connections along with their industry, email address and phone number that you can pass along when meeting with clients and prospects.

–Always keep your connections top-of-mind every time you meet with a client or prospect.

–Ask your clients and prospects what other things they have need of; what are their future plans that might spark need that you can make a recommendation of a business associate.

–Become known as the “go-to” resource of connections for your clients.

I firmly believe that the primary EDGE that I have over my competition is that my clients know that no matter what product or service they are looking for, they can call me with confidence to ask for a referral.

Peggy P. Edge (c) 2015