Every week, I give you tips on how to use our networking tools to make more money, so this is your quarterly reminder on the items that you should be reporting as Closed Business to Elevate.
The simple answer is that you should be reporting all closed business that resulted from your membership in Elevate. And here are a few examples of business that I closed so this will be clear in your mind …
Carol asked me to build a new website for her. That was a first tier referral. First tier is doing business with someone in the room.
Three years ago, Donna referred me to startup called VB. That’s a second tier referral. A second tier referral is a member directly referring me to someone outside the room.
VB referred me to BeSt. That’s a third tier referral credited to Donna.
BeSt referred me to their marketing company and we built the marketing company’s website. That’s a fourth tier referral credited to Donna.
The marketing company referred us to 10 of their clients. Each of those websites was a fifth tier referral credited to Donna.
What about closed business with visitors? How should that be recorded?
A few months ago a guest at this meeting introduced me to his wife many weeks after we met. His wife works at a large university. The visitor didn’t remember who invited them to the meeting. So I went to the guest list and saw that the inviter was Amy Noelle, so she got credit for the closed business.
We’ve now done business with 5 other departments at that university because of the original project. All of those projects get credited to Amy as well even though Amy did not directly introduce me because she made the original introduction that started that chain of business.
So if you do do business with a guest at this meeting make sure you look up who originally invited them because this should not be recorded as NYC other. It should be credited to the inviter.
(You can search for visitors and who invited them here: https://members.whyelevate.nyc/visitors)
What about closed business attributed to former members?
A former member introduced me to his wife and we build a website for her company.
I can’t credit the former member any longer.
So I went to the guest list, and looked up the person who originally invited that former member to visit the chapter. That person was Simone and now Simone gets credit for that closed business.
(You can search for former members and who invited them here: https://members.whyelevate.nyc/visitors)
Look for the Originally Invited by column. If this column is blank, you can report this closed business as NYC Other.
What about business that results from an idea?
I had lunch with Andrew recently, and he didn’t give me a referral, but he gave me an idea that I have been able to monetize. But that idea wouldn’t have been shared with me if I didn’t have my relationship with Andrew through this chapter. Now he gets credit for the money related to the implementation of the idea that he originated.
What about an introduction that helped you close a deal?
My marketing generated a lead that required a high level Brand Strategist, and that’s not a position that we had staffed before. Seth introduced me to a person who worked with me in the sales process to close that deal. I could not have closed the deal without this person, so while Seth didn’t introduce me to the client; he introduced to someone that made the acquisition of that business possible, and now he gets credit for that quarter million in closed business.
What about a sales lead that came by way of work you did for a referral?
Seth referred me to a company and we built their website. Another company saw the site we built and loved it; and we closed a deal with them. Since we would have never built the original site without the referral to Seth; we would probably have not built the site for the other company, so that closed business gets credited to Seth.
So when do you use NYC Other?
Recently I subbed at another NYC meeting and met someone there, and I sold them a website, so that gets recorded as NYC Other because no member in this chapter was involved in creating that closed business.
Another example of NYC other is that a former member introduced me to the Quentin’s Friends website. I posted my ad there and recently got a tenant for my 11 Desks coworking space. This is NYC Other because when I looked up the former member’s original inviter it predated our online system, so I was not able to determine who to credit; thus I marked it as NYC other.
Again, the simple answer is to record all closed business that you can trace back to your membership in this chapter.
And to that end, it’s critical for you to have methods to be able to backtrack the full lineage of every relationship you develop to properly credit the person that started the chain here at Elevate.
If you ever have any questions about this, or require further coaching, please let me know. Now get out there and make more money … and then record it!
