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For someone that has published multiple books on referral marketing this next statement might sound a little crazy: Referrals aren’t for everyone.
Let’s look at my average client: The owner of a successful financial services firm worth millions.
This person doesn’t want to do ‘more’ necessarily. Instead they are looking to create different layers of success in their life that don’t require more time. With increased financial resources comes more options to grow. Enter referrals.
There are basically two types of referral strategies that can and sometimes do operate concurrently: surprise and planned.
Surprise referrals are great, but they sure are hard to put into your annual plan wouldn’t you agree? This is where we enter decision mode.
To be successful consistently and confidently as a business owner you need to know that you are going to be able to predict client acquisition and retention on an organizational level. Referrals can be the foundation and an evergreen source of growth and resilience for you and your team…if you want them to be.
Just like with any other form of marketing, referrals thrive on consistency and accountability. We have to be able to track, evaluate and then predict any form of marketing if we want to be able to sleep at night. Of course, we can’t guarantee anything, but we can get pretty darn close if we hold to those above principles.
If you want referrals to be your foundation, for them to scale with you and your team over the years, you need to move past surprise and into the realm of professional commitment. You and your team need to build them into your operation and into your daily habits.
Note: I am not, in any way, describing a system of increased ‘begging’ for referrals. The incessant and horrible direct messaging on this and other platforms and email is annoying at best and worth fleeing on bad days. We are talking about introductions to ideal client prospects that you want to meet and that are willing to meet with you.
If you want it here is what needs to happen: You must be able to answer the three core questions of sales and marketing
- Why should I meet with you?
- Why should I buy from you?
- Why should I refer you?
Those answers will help you prepare for success in any form of marketing and are critical for referral success. Your answer to the first question is why (or why not) you experience scalable referral marketing success. Not only do you need to be able to answer that question, but more importantly your referral sources need to have it nailed in a simple way.
Here is where commitment comes into play: You need to continually improving your answer to ‘why should I meet with you’? If I only have an answer for that question to my network when they are ready to buy and don’t already know someone like you…that is going to throttle opportunity.
How do you get better at it? You need to be worth introductions earlier in a prospects buying process and even before they are consciously in it. If you are interesting enough to meet with successful people when they aren’t buying…you are going to be in the mix when they are.
The reality is that there are no shortcuts without spending lots of time and/or money. If you don’t want to ‘buy’ your appointments via advertising…you are going to need to be consistent and disciplined with building yourself and relationships.
You might also want to consider buying my latest book Can I Borrow Your Car to get more information about doing exactly that.