Detroit Rock City! Yep, Sue and I strapped on the seat belts and headed north on a couple of weeks ago. We visited the Troy office of our client Hall Render. (OK, not really Detroit, but a corporate suburb.) It was great to spend time with the attorneys and staff there and hearing first hand what their needs were with respect to marketing.

First of all, we were welcomed by everyone there. Hoosiers aren’t the only hospitable ones! Thanks to everyone for welcoming us and making us feel comfortable. Accompanying us on the trip were Eric and Heather, Hall Render’s crack marketing team . . . and some pretty cool Willow clients. It really is nice to have clients that you enjoy being with professionally and socially!

I learned local market planning with my first real Boss in the agency world – Marty Lave. The concept is a simple one . . . to get a grasp on the culture, environment, business climate and the people, you have to meet with them in person. We had regularly scheduled meetings with our out-of-town clients for this reason. And it is effective. While in Troy, we took advantage of the time to meet with a few suppliers as well – Crain’s Detroit Business. Our first meeting was with our advertising representative. The second meeting was with the reporter handling the legal beat in Detroit. Both meetings were great. And quite honestly, they both enjoyed the opportunity to meet with us face-to-face after having interacted via phone and email so much. Technology is great and it can make us more productive, but I’m even more so a believer today than ever before that people do business with people. And people like interacting with people.

Lesson learned? Spend less time on the phone, emailing and texting. Spend more time meeting and greeting. Shake hands. Smile. And take it all in. Makes for a stronger relationship, both professionally and personally.

And did I mention the great conversation with Sue on our road trip? Our stop at IKEA? Seared ahi? Our detour through Toledo? Let’s meet in person and I’ll share all the stories with you!

Referrals are the most overlooked marketing tactic today. Seriously. It’s one thing to connect the dots and put your buddy in touch with a good friend that sells cars. Or for my wife to share her hair stylist’s name with a friend that notices her new do. It’s another to incorporate a proactive referral program into your business efforts.

People hate to ask for referrals. It makes them uncomfortable. One of the best examples I could ever give for an aggressive referral program is that taught by Northwestern Mutual Insurance. If you know them, you’ll remember they have branded themselves as “The Quiet Company.” They don’t buy Super Bowl ads. They build success around generating referrals.

His name was Bill. After being married for a couple of years, Becky and I thought it might be a good idea for us to look into getting some life Insurance. That’s when Bill came into our lives. He was a referral from a friend. Sure, he helped us with our insurance needs, provided counsel and guidance as to what kinds of coverage we should be looking into and coached us through the process.

But what I admired the most about Bill was his skill, and I do mean skill, at asking us for referrals. After every meeting Bill would wrap things up asking us if we could think of three people, young couples like us, friends, family, neighbors, that we might provide to him as a referral. Bill has such a smooth style with his request it never failed to send Becky and I running for our address books. “Sure, we knew tons of folks!” And before it was over, we were sharing names and numbers with not just three, but 5 – 10 couples that we’d be happy to make an introduction to for Bill.

As the years went on, it became difficult sometimes for us to provide Bill new referrals since we’d shared everyone in our Roledex by now. I even remember filling a twinge of guilt when I couldn’t think of more than three names to share!

If you aren’t comfortable with asking for referrals and you don’t have a proactive referral program in place, you’re missing out on a significant opportunity for growth for your business. Give us a call. Let’s have coffee and we’ll share some ideas on how we can help.

Oh, and if you would . . . toss me an email with the names and email addresses of three associates that you think would like to learn more about how a proactive referral program can help grow their business too!