Let's talk about referrals. They are the lifeblood of your business. You know you need them and hopefully you're good enough to deserve them. But you don't ask for them!

One of the four main reasons you don't get referrals is you're not entirely sure of the best and worst times to ask. There are critical moments of truth when you have a 'green light' to 'go for it!'

When you're building your business by referral, you can undo all of your great positioning and relationship building work by asking at the wrong time. So here are four of my favourite, really good, safe times to ask:

There was some research done by Professor Albert Mehrabian many years ago that is trotted out in many training seminars. Trainers will cite that communication is 7% words, 38% tone and 55% body language. ALL WRONG, I'm afraid. It's been discredited many times now, notably here.

I've been saying for some time that the ratios are roughly 'third third third'. Which means that the words you say are much more important than you think.

This brilliant short video shows the power of words. When you ask for referrals, ask for the sale, attempt to persuade somebody or gain buy-in for your idea, choose your words carefully. When you want to get a prospect to say yes, a customer to buy, a networking contact to engage with you, consider the word part of your message. It's vital!

That's why many of my business-building Pocket Guides are about scripts and wordings, for your networking conversations, your sales situations, your referral opportunities, your elevator speech and your rapport building. Check them out here>>

In any profession, industry, sector, walk of life, there is a distribution curve of performance.

There's that 2-3% of people who bring up the rear. They never do anything and they're tough to manage. Like pushing milk uphill. These people sell the least, object the most, create the most problems, take up most of their bosses time and are the least motivated.

Likewise there's that top 2-3% of star performers who are simply world class. These people make the most money, sell the most stuff, have the most influence, get the best results and seem to have the most luck.

Then of course you've got that middle swathe of people who are average. Perhaps slightly above, perhaps slightly below. As well as applying to certain industries, it applies to certain skills. In every team there will be the best performing networker, presenter, seller, typist, coffee-maker etc.

If you want to be a better networker, you can do it. If you want to be world class, that top 2%, here are three world class tips...

Let's talk about referrals. You do all this networking to either win direct business or cultivate relationships that will lead you to direct business. This second strategy is referrals.

The problem is that few people can tell you what a referral is.

Getting terms mixed up can make you sound a bit confusing when you ask for help. What you think is a referral might be a lead to someone else. You can see how it will help to get people on the same page. Would it help you to get a definitive answer on this?

Most people will tell you that their business comes mostly from referrals, recommendations, introductions and word of mouth. Yet could you tell me:

• Where each of your referrals comes from.
• How to identify and develop your best referral sources.
• Exactly how many referrals your need.
• What kind of referrals your're looking for.
• The amount of business you generate by referral.

Considering this is your best source of business, shouldn't you be a little more on top of this kind of information? Read more and I'll show you how it works...

If you want to achieve anything of significance in life, you usually have to take a risk. Came across this great video this week while looking at Peter Winick's blog on Thought Leadership Leverage.

If you want to be the number one, 'go to' compelling and obvious choice for what you do, you're going to need courage. You're going to fail, so you need resilience to come back. And you're going to be walking into unknown territories, so you'll need to take risks.

It doesn't matter if you're an accountant, lawyer, banking professional, entrepreneur, writer, coach, consultant or motivational speaker. You have competition. People can choose not to use you. Which means you're going to hear the word 'no' once in a while.

Let's talk about presenting yourself in an attractive, compelling way.

You see, people need to 'buy you' before they buy what you're selling. People will always buy people before they buy products and services.

If everything else is equal, people will buy from the people they like rather than people they don't like. So you've got to understand that 'selling yourself' is a powerful weapon in business.

So if you want to sell yourself and make people buy you, what can you do? Three steps:

Why do people go networking? Forget the silly reasons like 'because we have to' or 'because everyone else is'. Forget 'because I have nothing better to do' or 'because it's the only way to win business'.

I'm talking about developing your networking strategy so you have proper, strategic reasons to attend networking events and spend time with online networking sites. I'm talking about walking into networking events with a real purpose, a proper reason for being there and a set of networking goals or objectives. In other words, a powerful 'reason why'!

There are lots of good reasons to do business networking, but every single one boils down to either PLEASURE, PROFIT, PROFILE or PROVISION.

Let's break these down for you so that you can make that transition from amateur networker to professional networker...