Small Business Today Magazine AUG 2014 SIVER STONE EVENTS | Page 34

EDITORIALFEATURE

Converting Contacts

to Customers: Part 2                     
By Gail Stolzenburg

D

uring the past 20 years while interviewing
some of the world’s most famous speakers,
authors, trainers, and motivators, I found
they all had one thing in common – they
were willing to share their knowledge without any
reservations. That’s one of the reasons for their
greatness and another reason is they spent much
of the conversation time asking questions.
In the last article, I talked about some of the
questions during networking that you should ask
to build trust and rapport and help you both
decide if this could be a good business relationship. But, the real question you may want to ask
is, “What words do you use to start generating
business?” Well, you may be surprised at the answer. Most successful entrepreneurs begin by
helping others rather than promoting their own
products and services. It is called the law of reciprocity, servant leadership, tit for tat, do unto others, or Givers’ Gain.
My friend and mentor, Bob Burg, author of
“Endless Referrals”, along with John David Mann,
wrote a great book entitled “The Go-Giver”
which is an inspiring tale about using the Five
Laws of Stratospheric Success for putting others’ interests first and adding value to their lives
which creates unexpected returns. They went on
to write a second book entitled “Go-Givers Sell
More”, a practical guide that makes “giving” the
cornerstone of a powerful and effective approach
to selling. I’d recommend that you read both of
these informative books.
One of the core strategies of BNI, the world’s
largest and only global business referral organization, is V + C = P, which stands for visibility +
credibility = profitability. You can apply this technique by developing a matrix listing each of your
business associates and rating them on your visibility, credibility, and profitability with them. Then
determine the next step to move them from visibility to credibility or credibility to profitability. You
can also apply this strategy to your customers or

32 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE [ AUGUST 2014 ]

My friend and mentor, Bob
Burg, author of “Endless
Referrals”, along with
John David Mann, wrote
a great book entitled
“The Go-Giver” which is an
inspiring tale about
using the Five
Laws of Stratospheric
prospective customers. Men have a tendency to
jump immediately from visibility to profitability by
saying, “Glad to meet you, why don’t we do business together?” Women do a much better job
of working on visibility and credibility and building
trust and rapport, but sometimes they