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Life Health > Running Your Business

The power of 5

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Did you know that this year December has five Saturdays, five Sundays and five Mondays? What did you do with those five extra days? Here are some suggestions to use the power of five to reconnect with friends, acquaintances and colleagues, check in with clients and reach out to prospects.

Offer and receive. Start by calling everyone you know. See what they’re up to and if there’s any way you can help them. Most likely, they’ll ask how they can help you in return. Tell them that you’ve adopted referrals as the way to build your business. Find out if they have ideas about people you should meet.

This is a great time to begin a dialogue. Stay in touch. (You don’t want to hear from someone only when he or she needs something—we all know who those people are.) Call your current customers, too, and give them a reason to refer you.

The power of five. Do the referral math. Connect with 20 people (that’s five times four) and ask all 20 for referral introductions. Receive 10 introductions (that’s five times two) and convert 50 percent to new clients (that’s five new clients!). This is the referral work you should do every single week.

There’s money there. According to the Chinese system of feng shui, the five-five-five phenomenon is called the “money bag.”

So what did you do with your extra days this month? How will you use the power of five in 2013?

Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that December has five Saturdays, five Sundays and five Mondays only once every 824 years. In fact, every December has three days occurring five times.

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Joanne Black is a professional sales speaker, sales webinar leader, and author of ‘No More Cold Calling: The Breakthrough System That Will Leave Your Competition in the Dust” from Warner Business Books. Visit www.nomorecoldcalling.com. © Copyright 2011 Joanne S. Black. All rights reserved.


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