I think my recommendations are better than any brochure or resume I could write. Customers describe us differently, and their perspective may be more valuable to prospects.
When you ask a customer for a recommendation, you encourage them to evaluate your relationship. Most of the time we are so busy doing it, doing it, doing it, we don’t have time to focus on what the work means. Defining importance is good for the health of the relationship.
Story matters. Describing what happened has more power than a pile of superlative adjectives. Running an outplacement firm, I found that when asked to supply a reference, explaining the story in addition to giving the contact information led to the interviewer not calling the reference a surprising amount of the time. The interviewer had what he needed to know.
Short is good. Blogging is teaching me that a lot of the detail I treasure just isn’t that interesting. If someone wants to know more they ask.
There’s drama and truth in “just the facts, ma’am”
Do you have a process for generating meaningful recommendations?
Please join us for:
Talk Your Business - How to make more and better sales right away! Wednesday, November 10th, 7:15am to 8:30, Intelligent Office, Rockville, and
How to Scale Your Organization - Build, Borrow, or Buy? Thursday, December 9th, 7:15am to 8:30, Intelligent Office, Rockville
http://www.saleslabdc.com/leadership
November 2, 2010 - LinkedIn Adopts 'Recommend' Over 'Like' http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1866328/linkedin-adopts-recommend Now product recommendations as well as personal recommendations.
ReplyDeleteDick:
ReplyDeleteOffering a recommendation for someone is like shining some of the light from your reputation and accomplishments on them. Powerful. Adds to their credibility.
However, when a recommendation contains a story of accomplishment and results, it has depth and the reader can see how this person can benefit them.
Visualization of the benefit is similar to seeing that classic picture of a champagne glass and, with the benefit of some commentary about the image, it shifts to an image of two faces.
Best way to get a recommendation is to ask for it - after completing an assignment.