Firstly there are those who simply don’t respond at all.

Then there are those who respond and politely decline.

Then there are those who respond and accept my invitation with as much brevity and efficiency as possible.

Then there are those who respond and accept and are delightful and sometimes funny.

Wow, what a full spectrum of personalities. Mostly “big” names but some who a positive and fun to work with. I suspect that the range of responses above reflects that spectrum of fun that each person has both at work and at home.

And busyness does not seem to be a factor in terms of having fun: one contributor, Mike O’Hagan, a serial entrepreneur who has all but lost count of how many businesses he has on the go, responded not only positively and with good humor but also attached his first article. Wow.

And as another serial entrepreneur, Tony Falkenstein says, “If you are not in business to have fun and make a profit, why are you doing it?”

I’ve created a 30 day free marketing plan training course and it starts April 2 so if you have an interest in getting more clients and making more money then pop over to Free Marketing Plan and enroll.

And share the love! If you know of anyone in business who wants more clients just forward the link or this post to them. The more the merrier.

Some lead generation systems take a long time to generate leads e.g. Social Media.

Some lead generation systems are expensive e.g buying media advertising or list buying and direct mail

Some lead generation systems are complex e.g. running webinars

Some lead generations systems are hard work e.g. joint ventures

Some lead generation systems may cause you to feel stressed e.g. writing articles (if you hate writing) or getting interviewed on radio or TV

Please note that I consider ALL of the above worthwhile however I don’t recommend you start with any of them.

Instead, start with a referral system. And if you follow my recommendations then you’ll find that generating new clients via referrals is fast, is free, is simple, is easy and you can feel relatively relaxed while doing it.

This link – click here for the replay – will take you to a replay of a webinar I ran recently that has generated rave reviews and shows you how to put into place several proven referral systems (see below for reviews of the video). Give the video a few minutes to buffer then you can scroll forward and backwards or pause etc. If you are impatient (like me) then fast forward through to around the 15:30 mark which is where the “meat” (apologies to all vegetarians) starts.

And if you get to the 57:38 mark then you’ll find two bonus resource offers. Now before you email me to tell me that I’m evil for including an offer in a blog post let me just say I don’t care if you view the offer or not, let alone act on it.  I mention it for one reason: the offers are time sensitive and have officially expired but if you elect to take one or more of them then when you are asked where you heard about the offer from then simply type “blog” and the order will be honored.

Either way, if you want ideas on how to put new lead generations into place that are fast, free, simple, easy and relatively relaxing to put into place then view the video.

Here’s what others have said about the webinar/video…

“That was most excellent! I took copious notes and have since written them up properly. I look forward to making a plan based on them and then it’s all action! Many thanks.”

Christine Fromont

“The session gave me detailed examples of getting referrals, how to make offers and a plan to get more business. Thanks for the great webinar, I’ll definitely be adding referrals to my marketing mix!”

Lakshmi Gosyne

“Tom Poland is the real deal. His webinars provide real value with the option of getting more for a reasonable price.”

Mark Rosenberg

“This is a very eye opening webinar. It’ll really will help me in my new small business. I can’t wait to get some referrals using Tom’s processes.

Lauren Kleparek

“This webinar was definitely worth my time – my industry is network marketing so referrals is my BUSINESS.  So this was good for feeding my mind with marketing ideas as we are not permitted to “advertise” so you have to be inventive.  Many thanks

Jane Macaulay

“Thank you for the webinar yesterday – it was very informative and worthwhile for follow up action – the Godfather action approach is excellent – have a great day.”

Coral Smith

“Hi there, I wish to thank you for your seminar. The advice makes so much sense. The “Godfather” offer is so powerful. Thank you again. Best wishes.”

Lee Hanna

“Thank you very much for showing me how easy referrals can be. Awesome! Thank you again – you are wonderful!”

Charlotte Campbell-Lamerton

“I’ll always knew I wasn’t (and didn’t want to be) a salesperson, but this advice on being a marketer feels natural and I’m excited to get started.”

Michelle Bolger

“Great value & great strategies.”

Alexia Brbich

“I’ve found this webinar useful for myself in my day to day job, as well as for my husband’s business.”

Sonya Brocklehurst

“Tom hits the ball out of the park again….If you’re serious about growing your business and you are not working with Tom…you are working too hard.”

Nick Camarote

“Thanks Tom, enjoyed the webinar especially the Prius Factor.”

Erin Chambers

“Great  ideas and systems– very motivating — a must for all small / medium businesses.”

Bruce Condliffe

“Very informative and clever strategies. Like so  many things its all obvious – but only when someone helps you to see it initially. A good hour well spent.”

Ron Cresswell

“A simple action orientated lesson that is so clever it’s an ‘I can’t believe I didn’t think of that myself’ moment.”

Mike Crump

“A really interesting presentation with good practical tips.”

Jenny Deonarain

“Useful and practical webinar.”

Allister Doo

“Good pace presentation with stuff I can use right now: especially who to joint venture with.”

Barbara Elliston

“A useful, thought provoking presentation.”

Russell Evans

“Some really useful information.  Thank you for your time.”

Tania Garbes

“Tom Poland has some good ideas for referral systems.”

Neil Gaynor

“Hi Tom, thanks for the great info this morning. I now have a ‘process’ I can use instead of my previous haphazard system I’ve been using.”

Eddie Gibb

“Succinct points – great examples.  Makes sense – Just Do It!

Jenny Hare

Thanks Tom, appreciate your clarity and easy delivery in presentation.  I am just starting out as a health practitioner and you have given me lots of fantastic ideas to get started on right now to generate clients.  Appreciate you offering your accumulated wisdom for free to those of us starting out.

Helen Lorimer

“I attended and marketing webinar by Tom Poland and I now have a heap of ideas to launch a new product I’ve been work for some time. Great Value.

Jeff Maltby

This was my first webinar and I have gained so much from it. I feel highly motivated to put Tom’s suggestions in place immediately and will be planning my strategy as soon as I sign off. Thank you.”

Katherine McMillan

“Really appreciate your business advice Tom. This has been a couple of hours well spent.

Andre Mendes da Costa

“Really informative and helpful.  Many thanks!”

Juliette Millar

“Some great ideas in your presentation, Tom. Thank you.”

Allan Mitchell

Tom, great stuff! A very well presented webinar that has spurred me into action to spruce up our referral systems.”

Greg Morice

“Tom’s training provides practical tools you can implement immediately.”

David Morrison-Jones”

“Great useful easy to implement ideas, well worth the time.”

Steve Munford”

“Wonderfully positive presentation which has given me a range of ideas for developing our marketing strategies and offers.”

Andrew Nicolson

“Really stimulating thank you and  your communication style is direct and refreshing.”

Genevieve Orr”

Tom’s webinar was full of sensible ideas and thought generation points, good to hear directly from a kiwi and not an American “one size fits all system”. Will definitely be utilizing this webinar info to get better clients for my landscape design/build business (rld.co.nz). If you haven’t listened to Tom, then log in, be quiet and do it!!!

Phil Oster

Very practical and informative webinar.  I feel very motivated now to get out there and get marketing (not selling). Thanks!”

Tom Kerryn Parke

“Great strategies for increasing our referrals – which is something we will be concentrating on this year.

Steven Pawley

“I am constantly looking for marketing techniques and the content in this webinar was more than I expected. Thanks!”

Llanasa Peachey

“I have got some really good ideas on how to implement a referral system in my clinic. Thanks!”

Karen Phillips

“This has given me some good ideas on where to start with a referral system.”

Alison Shaw

“Thanks for helping to clarify referrals v WOM. Nice simple approach. Plenty to do.”

Geoff Smart”

I really enjoyed webinar, very helpful to a newbie.”

Max Thompson

“Tom has a very relaxed manner and presents his ideas very succinctly and clearly with lots of real life examples. Thanks for the informative webinar.”

Chris Wallace

“Tom had fun, I had fun, and I’ve had a great experience! I’m stunned at how you are sharing such amazing information for free.”

Karl Wright

“Tom – great value as always – you always surprise me with what you give away – even if you talk too fast!”

Michele Zwillinger

“The multiple referrals system idea revolutionized my way of thinking about referral marketing. Thank you.”

Bozena Chorazewicz

“I’m very impressed with the information presented at this webinar. I will certainly attend any others in the future. What a delight to just not be ‘sold’ to!”

Sue Meyer

“This was a greatly refreshing seminar – Tom is a great, engaging speaker, love the voice! And of course, a great marketing leader.”

Trina Lo

“Thank you for respecting my time by presenting an excellent systematic approach to referrals! I like that you gave practical examples of HOW to implement them instead of only providing the WHAT.”

Paul Guyon

“Many ideas and the time just flew by. A wealth of knowledge and great ideas around referral marketing. Concrete, easy to understandable tips around referral marketing. Thanks so much!”

Francie Kane

“Thank you for making referrals interesting and motivating me to get started.  Looking forward to learning more from you.”

Ak Err

“Great job Tom – Loved the Godfather idea – Will certainly look to implement ASAP. Love seeing an Aussie teaching the world.”

Scott Osboldstone

“Many intriguing approaches to generating referrals. Great webinar!”

Sam McNamee

“I really appreciate all these valuable ideas, methods, tried and true marketing ideas. Your God Father strategy gave me a big ah ha moment!”

Marilyn Schauber

So if you do read my blog and you want to keep reading it please let me know via email or posting a comment.

Also, I’m launching a new (free) course to show people how to put together a Marketing Plan that actually works.

You site should be live by the time you get this so pop over to Free Marketing Plan and check it out .

Strategically Yours

Here’s the link: cool free stuff on 80-20 Center’s Facebook page

1. Mobile internet access, which is now huge, will become gigantically humungus. Tablet apps, smart phone apps, social media apps, Qr-code readers are all just the start. For example: Of the 800 million active Facebook members 350 million access that site through their mobile phone. Ebay generated US$5 billion in sales during 2011 from mobile devices including smart phones and tablet PCs such as iPads.

2.  Video will become the main communication medium of almost all effective online marketers (which should include you). Video is like www on steroids.  Acceptance of video as the benchmark communication standard will accelerate in part due to www.YouTube.com where 2 BILLION videos are viewed each day. Mind boggling. People want to feel engaged and entertained and video does that a whole lot better then text alone (tip: use both).

3.  Banner adverts will overtake direct mail as the world’s #1 source of cost effective marketing for low ticket sales items. Re-targeting, which is the ability of a banner to almost literally stalk you around the internet, will become insanely and justifiably huge.

4.  More and more operational software will move off desktops and servers and head for the cloud.

5.  As Eisner said “Change is like a steamroller and you get to chose if you want to be a part of the steamroller or a part of the road”. Digital marketing is that steamroller and pardon me for mixing metaphors but there will be an increasing gap between savvy digital marketers and the others. And that gap will eventually become a chasm the divides the wealthy business owner from those that simply survive.

BTW: if you don’t know what re-targeting is, or what the cloud is or what a Qr-code reader is … you are in danger of becoming a part of the steamroller and you should seriously examine my Killer Marketing Club so you can stay current.

We recently re-activated some of his clients through a simple direct mail campaign.

Keith asked if he should include a PS requesting referrals in the post-service thank you letter. After some chatting I said yes.

Here’s why:

The chances of a client responding to that form of referral request is not great. Perhaps one a month or one every three months.

However it’s impossible to tell how much business might come from the one response.

Case in point: last year my good friend and Time Queen Robyn Pearce referred me to a potential Joint Venture partner. The potential JV partner politely said “no, I don’t do that sort of thing” but referred me to a second potential JV partner who said “you bet, let’s do it!).

I ran an event for her (we’ll call her “Sue”) and got no new clients. “Ah well. Ding! Next please …” I thought.

Then Sue was called by an international conference organizer who was looking for a speaker and she put my name forward.

Short version: I gained extra market place credibility by speaking on the same platform as some truly great international experts and gained 10 new clients.

I then ran another event for Sue and gained another 5 new clients.

Two of those clients have without prompting introduced me to other JV partners one of which has already agreed to proceed.

“What’s the point?” you ask.

It’s this: 15 new clients and ongoing sales and referrals from the same, 2 successful J.V. relationships which I can go back to every year to attract more clients and referrals, plus 1 more J.V. ready to go and 1 more in the waiting … all from 1 referral who said “no”.

Morale of the story: NOTHING beats marketing activity. Even if you stink at it, NOTHING beats you being active in the market place.

You’ve got to be in to win.

There, I’ve said it.

Now the explain: this morning a client of mine who is offering very good marketing training had a rejection from a graphic designer.

Said graphic designer really needs new clients. My client can show her how to get them. Guaranteed.

So why didn’t the graphic designer go ahead with paying over the $300 to get proven, double guaranteed, effective strategies for getting new clients? The potential return on investment here is mind-numbingly spectacular.

Well the reason she gave is that she didn’t “click” with the presentation. “Good content”, she said. But it just didn’t “feel” right.

All too often people are their own worst self-defeating enemies.

I mean, how hard is she making it for herself? She desperately wants new clients, the price of proven advice is low AND it comes with a money back guarantee.

Helloooooo???

And she’s very likely someone who keeps asking “the universe” for help. Good luck with that as a marketing strategy.

People confuse feelings with intuition. The former is an emotion whereas the latter is devoid of emotion; it’s a “knowing”.

So please, don’t let what is simply a programmed chemical release in your brain sabotage your success.

I prefer to learn from people I like but I also have no problem in learning from someone who is grumpy, ugly, obnoxious, impatient, temperamental, bald, fat, thin, pimple-faced, slow, fast or standing upside down in a clown’s suit picking their nose.

SO LONG AS THEIR ADVICE WORKS.

End of story.

That’s how I describe effective marketing.

It’s not so easy to get right but my oh my, when you hit that sweet spot and the orders come in (22 in the last 24 hours) it feels soooooooooooooo good!

(Shameless self promoting plug: I’ve got a brand new Super Quick Start Marketing Program commencing later this month. You can check it out by clicking here: Quick Start Marketing Program – use the Coupon Code “NEWCLIENTS” to reduce the price to a super low AU$15.)

The feeling (of seeing the orders/cash flowing in) must be similar to hitting that little tiny eensy weensy golf ball and seeing it soar straight down the middle of the fairway.

Apologies to golfers, whom in my experience appear to be irrationally fanatical, but I hate golf so I’ll never know what the aforementioned experience feels like.

There’s a couple of reasons I hate it.

The first one is that I’m impatient and I have to wait too long in between whacking the ball. With badminton, squash and tennis … all of which I love … I get to belt the hell out of the shuttle/ball every second or two.

The second is that yes, it must be a good feeling when the golf ball sails down that fairway but my observation is that amateurs have 100 attempts that result in frustration and despair for every one that creates a feeling of pleasure.

These are not the sort of “attempt : pleasure” ratios that I want to partake of.

I’d rather stick to better ratios like the 1:1 ratio that food, beer/wine and … dare I say it … sex provides (okay … maybe closer to 9:10 but still a whole lot better than golf.)

Anyhow, back to the subject at hand (so to speak).

Get your marketing right and almost EVERYTHING else gets easier because the flow of money is easier. Like golf, it takes practice to get it right but also like golf, if you practice with the wrong technique you’ll never get better results.

And so if you want to get the right marketing techniques to practice then you’ll want to check out my new Quick Start Marketing Program that I mentioned above (if you sign up use the Coupon Code “NEWCLIENTS” to reduce the price to a super low AU$15.

And no, do not invite me to your golf club in the hope that I might suddenly see the light. You’d have more chance of converting the Pope to Islam.