How to let members post their own referrals

Right now, the best way to let all of your members post their own referrals is to give every member Admin status. Then they will simply use that Admin function.

For large groups, we still recommend that the main Admin be the only person to utilize the other Admin functions. For smaller groups, allowing this kind of freedom can be quite empowering…as long as people don’t get lazy!

Our first beta for ChapterTracker proved that even in a very successful, serious chapter, members would forget to properly enter referrals, causing the numbers to be off by about 40%!! Amazing. Putting referral entry back into the hands of the Admin helped a lot.

Hopefully every member of a small group would be serious about participating…assuming the revenue generated is of value to them…and committed to monitoring their networking business.

Admins and assigning spheres

If you are a chapter Admin, you will need to go to the Update Users screen and assign yourself (and other Admins) to a Sphere. You do this when you add other members…but we skip this step when you first create your chapter.  

Regarding spheres, here’s a re-post from our Referral Marketing Blog.  What are your thoughts on the subject of Spheres? 

Let’s rethink our business sphere relationships

The term “business sphere” generally means people who are in similar or related industries.  Networking groups tend to use this general language to formalize the bonds between members who have common business interests.  But members are often confused or torn between spheres, unsure of the proper interaction. 

A key phrase in the previous paragraph is “common business interests.”  Within a small, sales-oriented group, our interest is not an industry.  Our interest is in making a sale. 

Thus, a business networking Sphere is best defined by a common sales target.  If you and I both call on the same type of person, then we can more easily qualify the customer and introduce each other.

In the illustration below, we find that six basic spheres will nicely accommodate 24-48 members (with 4-8 members per sphere).  This is a manageable division for the average chapter.  One member may actually participate in 3-4 spheres, with one sphere serving as home base. 

Two initial, overarching spheres would be labeled B2C and B2B.  Some chapters fight to be one or the other, but most chapters contain a blend.  Even with this simple division, a number of members would be able to stake a claim to either sphere.  That’s fine.  Spheres are not intended to exclude members, but to highlight areas of potential strength. 

Two spheres likely to arise from the B2C sphere are the subspheres Residential Real Estate and Health.  Folks in Real Estate sell to homeowners and other people in the home buying process.  Health members also sell to individuals, as do the members who remain in the more general B2C sphere.  Their success lies in selling to common clients.

The B2B sphere may hold an equally wide variety of members.  Subspheres include IT, which also sells to the CFO and operational side of a business, and Marketing, which does not.  Marketing’s tie-in to the other B2B members is often strongest when selling to business startups and relocations.

Financial and legal professionals are good examples of chapter members that are likely to serve either B2B or B2C clients.  They anchor whichever of those spheres they consider to be their primary focus. 

A great prize for any networking chapter is the member who can either get the ball rolling on a deal that impacts many members…or the member who calls across functional areas within a company and can involve several spheres. I have an idea of what some of those occupations would be, but I’d like to hear your thoughts.

New Year = new goals

You’ll note that your goals in ChapterTracker rolled over from last year to this year.  It’s a handy feature, but please don’t let your members be complacent. 

Set some new goals!  And don’t let members participate without them.  For simple suggestions on goal-setting, check the User Guide…and ask the networking gurus in your organization for input.

ChapterTracker.comTM brings meaning to referral marketing

New Website Helps Your Business Networking Count

 

Time and effort are the real cost of belonging to a business networking group.  Serious members want to see how their relationships are building capital.  How do you measure your personal value in the group?  What, exactly, is every other member contributing? 

 

ChapterTracker.com^TM is a handy online program that tracks the profitability of business networking groups.  Individual members see exactly what they get in return for the time and money invested in their chapter—insight that is crucial for small business owners and salespeople who depend on word-of-mouth marketing. 

 

“ChapterTracker^TM captures important information in a reasonably easy manner,” explains Emile Paradis, Owner of the Referral Institute in Atlanta, Georgia.  “Other methods require a lot more effort and don’t provide the reports and insights.  This tool will help members be much more effective with their relationship marketing.”

 

“For small organizations and individual chapters, this is a no-brainer.  They have full access to a system they could never afford to build on their own,” says Jay Rowland, CEO of the Referral Marketing Association (Refma).  “The program is very affordable…a 20-member chapter will pay only $20 per month…and its features will keep growing with time.” 

 

Chapters may try ChapterTracker.com FREE for two months.  Refma encourages interested chapters to begin before January 1 in order to have full data for 2009.

 

“Larger networking organizations will want to participate for similar reasons,” adds Rowland.  “Competitors are coming together to sponsor a robust, standardized program that will benefit the entire industry.  (The user interface can be designed to look like their existing website.) This is the best place to prove that your way of doing business really works.”  

 

People who manage networking groups for a living tend to focus on recruiting members, and to a lesser degree training.  This focus leads them to track only membership (rosters, dues, etc.) and scheduling (calendars, email, basic info, etc.).  Individual chapters are left to develop their own performance-tracking system.  ChapterTracker.com fills the void with a relational database that tracks a wide array of statistics.

 

Profitability (revenue) is the first thing a visitor to a networking group wants to see.  Visibility into a chapter’s results will quickly boost that chapter’s credibility, and that of the entire organization.  Demonstrate your profitability, such as your average revenue per referral, and those key visitors just might join…or simply feel more comfortable doing business with you.

 

If you are a true networker, of course, you will tell every networker you know about ChapterTracker.com.  As a networker, that’s what you do, right?

 

For more information, visit www.ChapterTracker.com.

 

Refma invites networking websites to join

Free membership will link and promote independent networking websites   

 

In every major city, a handful of business networking enthusiasts work tirelessly to maintain websites and blogs full of information relevant to local readers, independent of any specific networking organization.  The Referral Marketing Association (www.Refma.org) invites those “webmasters” to submit their sites as a resource for association members. 

           

With the recent launch of ChapterTracker.com^TM, Refma has made a commitment to help users track and grow their relationship capital.  Efforts to date have focused on the program itself.  Future efforts will tie the program into the broader networking world…including local networkers who are “in-the-know.”

           

During 2009, Refma plans to give these websites the recognition they deserve by linking to and promoting their efforts.  We will also seek to elevate the best of the best to national prominence.  Hopefully some financial benefit will follow, though we make no guarantees…and our investment will be proportional to the number of chapters that subscribe to the ChapterTracker^TM program.  

           

To join Refma, webmasters must simply email the association (jrowland@Refma.org) and include their web address, blog address, contact information, and a brief statement about the geography/market they intend to serve.  For more information, contact Jay Rowland, CEO of the Referral Marketing Association.