Generate New Sales by Leveraging Your Network

Speaker: Nicholas "Coach Nick" Papadopoulos; How to Generate New Sales by Leveraging Your Network

The PDMA's September 17th Meeting Explored How to Generate New Sales by Leveraging Your Network. The speaker was Nicholas "Coach Nick" Papadopoulos, founder of Sky’s the Limit Corporation and motivation specialist.

Download the PowerPoint from Nicholas "Coach Nick" Papadopoulos' presentation from the September 17, 2008 meeting.

“The best sales people never make cold calls,” and “Be good to the contacts in your Rolodex and they’ll generate a new a whole new Rolodex for you.”  This is the sage advice given to a novice businessman, Nicholas Papadopoulos, 20 years ago by his then boss.  These rather simple but important best practices made quite an impression and became the foundation for Papadopoulos – also known as “Coach Nick” – and would have a tremendously positive impact on his success in business.   

Speaking before a room of regional marketing and sales professionals gathered at a meeting of the Philadelphia Direct Marketing Association (PDMA) on September 17, 2008, Coach Nick – founder of Sky’s the Limit Corporation and motivation specialist – shared his trade secrets for generating new sales by leveraging a network.      

Coach Nick discussed the importance of business referrals, how to ask for them, and how referrals can reduce a business’ sales cycle by 50 percent versus the same effort dedicated to making cold calls.  He used the analogy of bank deposits to make the point about investing in relationships.  “Over time, you have made those investments like deposits.  At some point you may need to make a withdrawal – asking for help, referrals, or recommendations,” Coach Nick explained.

“People do business with people they like,” he continued.  “Deposits – such as adding value, doing favors, keeping commitments – build relationships and credibility and ensure that you stand out from the crowd and stay on a contact’s radar.”

Coach Nick recommends building up your “All-Star” team – your biggest and most influential fans and advocates, those that go out of their way to help you.  He advised,   “Do this right and you will have an abundance of referrals.” 

A six-step process for receiving referrals was shared:
1. Follow the law of reciprocity – If someone has been your advocate, do the same for them. 
2. Gain permission… make sure before asking for a referral that you gain agreement that it is earned.
3. When you ask for something be specific.  Follow basic “help me to help you” guidelines.
4. Have the contact make the introduction on your behalf, and make it easy for them to do so by providing details about yourself and your request.  Don’t make it hard for someone to help you.
5. Keep your “All Stars” updated as to what happened after you have referred them. Close the loop.
6. Send a hand-written note or thank-you gift.  

Coach Nick stressed that there is no better time than during an economic downturn to leverage a network by making deposits in relationships.  “Small deposits can go a long way toward increasing your business success.”

Thank you to our Meeting Sponsor

United Envelope