Champions Never Make Cold Calls

High-Impact, Low-Cost Lead Generation

Danny Creed

• Publisher: The Publishing Circle
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781947398689
• eBook ISBN: 9781947398733
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Communication
• Index: Business

Finding prospects is everyone's dilemma.

Champions Never Make Cold Calls tells you how to find prospects that turn into clients and how to do so without ever making a cold call. At the same time, you can quickly build a network of hundreds, if not thousands, of people who are excited to send you referrals.

Never again spend all your time networking and prospecting.

Champions Never Make Cold Calls shows you exactly how to build your Champions' Network with a simple step-by-step process. Included are processes for finding and acquiring your Champions—those who are willing, ready, and able to help you grow your business.

Have others do your high-impact, low-cost lead generation.

Never make another cold call—no matter what business you're in.

Build your own powerful network of Champions that will refer business to you for a lifetime.

The Champions' Network is your golden ticket for building a flourishing business.

Included are bonus phone scripts. Armed with this information, it's straightforward, easy, and comfortable to add people to your business-building network.

You need this book if you're serious about building your business!

CHAPTER 1

The Champions’ Power Referral Network

Building your CHAMPIONS, SUPER CHAMPIONS and ELITE CHAMPIONS

THE CHAMPIONS’ POWER REFERRAL NETWORK is a powerful, effective, and proven process that is based on the foundational elements of relationship building and communication. I will say this again later, but always remember that one of the greatest forms of financial leverage is through the contacts you have already created and those you will create in the future. Knowing the right people, knowing the right people who know the people you need to know, and being known by them, can open doors that can save you years of hard work. The quality and quantity of your contacts and your relationships will have more to do with your success than perhaps any other factor.

The initial rule is that you must condition yourself to always be looking for strategic networking and referral opportunities. ALWAYS! Always look for and meet people who are well connected to people you, in turn, need to connect with. Instead of the usual inefficient approaches to prospecting, networking, marketing, and telemarketing, I focus my efforts on this one question:

“WHO DO I KNOW,
WHO KNOWS THE PEOPLE
I WANT TO DO BUSINESS WITH?”

The answer to the question usually lies within the people and firms where:

A. I am already a credible resource simply because we have met, which means they are people who

B. already know me, or think they know me, and like me because there is no reason for them not to like me! (People refer people simply because they have met you, no matter how casually) and,

C. people and firms that I know that share my target audience and prospects.

A REMINDER: This may be the most powerful system ever devised for finding prospects and customers. BUT you must use it exactly as is explained here. Exactly! If you take any shortcuts, it more than likely will not work. If you do take shortcuts and try to second-guess the system, don’t come whining to me that the system didn’t work for you! It works, it works dramatically well, but you must apply it exactly as I offer it here.

The key to the system is in understanding all of the efficiencies that it creates. While most people treat marketing, networking, and referrals as three separate functions, the Champions’ Power Referral Network treats them as one single hybrid event. If applied exactly, you may be able to vastly exceed your personal and business goals and spend few, if any, marketing dollars.

In some industries, like professional coaching, for instance, it is not only acceptable, but people encourage salespeople to spend upwards of $2,000 for every warm lead that is generated. It’s usually suggested that this is accomplished through everything from direct mail, to telemarketing, to networking group fees, and more. Yes, all of these strategies work or have worked. However, all of them can also cost you a lot of your precious marketing budget if they don’t work. Heck, some of these require you to pay a year in advance, with no recourse if they don’t work.

Using the Champions’ Power Referral Network my current cost per customer acquisition is under $10.00. That’s correct, less than $10.00 per customer. Currently, my biggest marketing expense is taking my tier-two Super Champions and tier-three Elite Champions to lunch.

The Champions’ Power Referral Network is made up of three parts.

The concept behind this entire process is that everyone you know, or think you know, has an entire hidden network of people or customers that they know, and you don’t know. In other words, WHO DO YOU KNOW THAT KNOWS THE PEOPLE YOU WANT and NEED TO KNOW? Throughout this process, we will position ourselves in different ways to earn the right to be referred to these people when and if they ever need our product.

Let’s define each level of the Pyramid.

• Level One: CHAMPIONS’ POWER REFERRAL NETWORK: The Champions’ Power Referral Network is made up of everyone you know or think you know—everyone. Experts will tell us that everyone knows at least 200 people. This includes friends, neighbors, waitresses and waiters at your favorite restaurant, family members, etc.

Our goal is to document every one of these people by name, email, and phone number.

The purpose of developing and implementing the Champions’ Power Referral Network is to achieve “general positioning.” At this level, you create an army of people who, at some point in their lives will remember that you are someone they know and like who is in a specific business that they or a friend now need to work with. It might happen at a backyard cookout, or at a dinner party. When your Champion is told by someone at the same event that they are thinking about hiring someone in your area of expertise, they think of you. The result we want is for your Champion to say, “You know, I know someone who does that and they’re good at it. Can I recommend them to you?” They continue to recommend you to their acquaintances and their network whenever the occasion arises.

• Level Two: SUPER CHAMPIONS’ POWER REFERRAL NETWORK: Your Super Champions’ Power Referral Network is different than your Level-One Champions’ Power Referral Network. Your Super Champion is someone who knows people that you need to know. Your Super Champions’ Power Referral Network is focused on the influencers you know or would like to know. These are people who are highly influential within their industry or the marketplace. You may have met them briefly at a Chamber of Commerce event, saw them in the newspaper, or you played in a golf league with them. We are going to strategically tap their reservoir of contacts with at least two powerful techniques which, if implemented correctly, will cause your Super Champions to gladly offer specific personal referrals for you. Great Super Champions for me have been real estate brokers, insurance professionals, business brokers, financial advisors, Chamber of Commerce leaders, and so on. Again, a perfect Super Champion knows lots of influencers and people that you need to know.

One to two good leads per month.

• Level Three: ELITE CHAMPIONS’ POWER REFERRAL NETWORK: The Elite Champions’ Power Referral Network group is a completely different level of CHAMPION. The Elite Champion is someone who would make a profitable partner. The process of finding your Elite Champion group is specific and strategic. Elite Champions share one key element with you: Each of you has complimentary customer and contact bases. You’re both looking for the same “perfect” client. The only difference is that the budgets you seek come from different pots. This relationship is direct and there is a benefit for each of in offering your respective services to each other’s clients and contacts. Great Elite Champions for me are high-end financial advisors, CPAs, and counselors.

One to two leads a year from each of your Elite Champions’ Power Referral Network partners. When you get these leads, you know they will be spectacular leads and that they’ll come from people who will usually pay premium rates.

CHAPTER 2

Building Your
CHAMPIONS’ POWER REFERRAL NETWORK System^™

1. PHASE ONE: Make a list of everyone you know or think you know. This will eventually be your Champions’ Power Referral list to work from. This list may be long. That’s okay. My first Champions’ Power list was composed of 270 names.
2. The list should include friends, family, friends of the family, people you met at a BBQ in the neighborhood, waitresses or waiters from your favorite restaurants, people that you have a business card from, people you met at a trade show, most of your existing customers (the rest we’ll talk about later), and prospects who have said NO. Everyone, and I truly mean everyone, goes on this list. Here’s where you put that stack of business cards that’s been setting on your desk for months. Every one of them should be on your Champions’ Power list.
3. You’ll want to note three things necessary for your initial implementation process:
   a. Name
   b. Email address
   c. Phone number
4. Think about this list as a form of networking. In ordinary networking, everyone usually approaches it strictly as a way to gather cards and give away cards. However, the way I’m asking you to think is to change how your mind perceives networking, even if it is as simple as considering all the people that you meet daily. I believe in a simple process that we call The Three Eyes of a Businessperson. The concept is that every salesperson/businessperson, in order to be successful, must possess three specific set of eyes. Or they must have people in place in their business that possess each of these “eyes.”
   
   
   One is the Eye of the entrepreneur. This eye is always looking to the future. Looking forward. Looking for opportunity and options. This eye is eighty percent or more opportunity focused.
   
   
   The second eye is the Eye of the manager. This eye manages and measures all past results. For instance, this eye keeps track of what you sold yesterday and last week and last month and last year, then compares this to previous years. This eye is key to any business. The third and final eye is the Eye of the Technician. This eye is focused on the here and now. It’s focused on the day-to-day tasks of just getting things done. They’re always in the present and working on the job. So, when you think about building your Champions’ list through networking, you now have switched the eye that you are using. Previously, when networking you entered the networking event with the Eye of the Technician. Now you will put the Eye of the Entrepreneur to work for you. This step will allow you to advance in how you do and look at things.
   
   
   You acquire names differently
   Ask for names differently
   You ask for appointments differently
   
   
   The more people that you meet the more opportunity you have to meet the “right” people
5. A key rule: You never know and should never second guess if your friends could be customers. And you should never second guess who your friends and acquaintances might know. Who they know might astound you. This, by the way, is the main “secret” to making this system work. Why? Because everyone always underestimates who their friends, acquaintances, neighbors, and relatives know.
   
   
   I’ve taught this system to thousands of business and salespeople, and initially I always ask my students, “Do you know all the people your brother or sister know?” Most people will tell you they don’t. The fact is, we all have individual experiences. When it comes to networking effectively, tapping into other people’s resources is one of the most underrated and overlooked opportunities available. The goldmine of potential business and sales leads will astound you.
6. PHASE TWO: With this list, we take action.
   It’s time to SMILE and DIAL. CALL ALL OF ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Introduction: The Fail-Proof System
• CHAPTER 1: The Champions’ Power Referral Network™ Building Your Champions, Super Champions, and Elite Champions
• CHAPTER 2: Building Your Champions’ Power Referral System™
• CHAPTER 3: Building Your Super Champions’ Power Referral Network™
• CHAPTER 4: Building Your Elite Champions’ Power Referral Network™
• CHAPTER 5: An Additional and VERY Important List
• CHAPTER 6: Options and Rules of Professional Networking
• CHAPTER 7: Final Thoughts
• CHAPTER 8: Champions’s Power Referral Network Telephone Scripts for Recruiting Champions
• ADDENDUM: DISC / Psychometric Profiling and Its Application for Networking
• BONUS: Chapter 1 from Straight Talk—Thriving in Business
• About the Author
• Back Cover