Matthew Kimberley

Matthew is a sales expert and formerly head of the Book Yourself Solid, School of Coach Training. He is also the author of the bestselling personal development book, How To Get A Grip. Prior to teaching he was a service business owner of a recruitment company in Belgium.

He’s been in business for years and has worked with thousands of small business owners to improve their business and generate more sales.

Expert session

Tactic that has had the biggest impact on Matthew’s success

Setting priorities in reaching out to contacts through CRM

Result if you follow the steps in Matthew’s session

Get better quality leads from Facebook ads that are directly driven to your income objective and more likely to purchase your product or service

Full session with video, notes, audio and discussion inside EHQ Club. Learn more

Expert session snapshot

Transcript

When you are wearing your CEO hat, as it is, as opposed to your kitchen porter hat or you’re going to the post office to send some invoices hat, you basically got two jobs, like any good CEO has only two jobs.

One is to make decisions, which is strategy. And the second one is to nurture and maintain relationships, with suppliers, with vendors, with customers, with regulators, with the press, with anybody that’s going to help you maintain the flow of your business.

And I don’t think there’s a successful entrepreneur out there who would say I did it all on my own or if they are saying that, they’re probably lying, right? So we are maintained by our network, were build up by our network. We’re short up by an hour, we’re supported by network.

And there’s always someone who can help you get what you need. If you can’t get it yourself, let’s say lady, you want to eat at the Ritz next time you’re in London, you want to go to the Ritz, right? But they’re fully booked.

But you happen to know the owner of the Ritz and you’ve got a very important day. So you give him a call. And he says, Liam, great to hear from you. Of course, I’ll give you a table, my friend.

That’s never ever going to happen to you if you don’t know the owner of the Ritz, if he doesn’t know who you are, and if you don’t have a good relationship.

If you want to get on stage at the next industry conference, but you don’t know the meeting organizer or the booker, it’s highly unlikely, or one of the previous speakers or the MC or the host, it’s highly unlikely you’re ever going to be invited because you don’t have the relationship in place.

And if you want to bid for tender, for large government project, which is going up and you don’t have an in there, you’re not going to win it, I’m sorry, but you’re not.

So relationships are categorically everything. They will help you immediately make more sales with endorsements, with referrals. But they will also make your life so much easier for growth and sales and reputation further down the line.

So this is all about focusing on your network. You need to start with a list, you should have one already. It’s your CRM system, right?

But in your CRM system, you’re not going to have just your prospects. You’re also going to have people of influence. The editor of the magazine, the head of the Chamber of Commerce, the organizer of the conference, the owner of the Ritz, anybody who you know today that can make your life and your business better with a friendly phone call, right? So you’ve got to already know them.

The trouble in those relationships is they disappear. So you invested in them and then life gets in the way and then you become that awful person that only calls when you need a favor. So we don’t want to be that person.

So step one is very simply take three or four names, very first thing when you get into the office is, you look at your list of important contacts.

And I suggest you keep between 90 and 500. I have about 300 in mind today, and I use a CRM system they tagged especially important relationships, not prospects, but people who can get me to more prospects.

And the first thing you do is you take the first three or four of them and you just get in touch. Drop them a line that you share your compassion.

And all this means is a simple text message that says, Hey Liam, I’m thinking of you. Hope you’re well. Or, Hey Liam, happy birthday or congratulations or commiserations, or how’s your leg, or did your daughter graduate, or are you going to be at motor next week, can we grab a coffee?

These are super simple little gestures that say, I’m thinking of you. When you’ve contacted those three people, I always suggest that you include a little question in there as well like, do you want to have a coffee? How’s your father? Whatever your questions are, right?

And then as soon as you contact them, you put them to the bottom of your list, or using your CRM system, you click the button that says already contacted. And then a month later, you’ll be reminded to contact them again.

So we want to keep in touch with these people at least 10 to 12 times a year. That’s step one. Send them a postcard, when you’re on vacation. You can contact three people or 200 people, it doesn’t matter.

The principle is you refuse to allow these relationships to age more than 30 days without contact.