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Referrals by themselves are worthless.
That’s the bold statement made by our guest this week, Bill Cates. Bill is an author and the president of Referral Coach International , a company dedicated to training organizations and individuals to acquire more customers through word of mouth, referral, and personal introductions.
Much like word of mouth, Bill believes that referrals in and of themselves are worthless unless they lead to introductions and connections. There is a lot of clutter in today’s world of emails and tweets, so just having a prospect know your name or the name of your company is not enough. You need to be thinking in terms of introductions and building relationships with prospective clients.
In this episode, Bill walks us through how to turn a referral into a connection, how to bake referrals into your company’s culture, and how to cultivate a new prospect relationship past a simple connection.
Turning Referrals Into Connections
There are three steps to what Bill calls his Referral Advantage Marketing System that take referrals to the next level: Engagement, Leverage, and Connection.
Engagement
This is the first measure you need to take to ensure that your prospect has a great onboarding experience. If you are engaged with your prospect by communicating your company’s value, your company becomes much more referrable. The prospect needs to feel like this engagement is an ongoing process and that they are receiving the attention they need for their business.
Leverage
Loyalty creates incremental growth, but real exponential growth occurs when you leverage that loyalty. By promoting referrals (such as reminding clients, “Don’t keep us a secret!”) you are encouraging clients to share the great experience they have had with your company. Even asking clients directly for referrals is a proven way to get them to do just that!
Connection
The key to this step is to formalize referrals. This is where the process breaks down for many companies – they have clients willing and able to refer them, they just don’t make it happen! You need to be able to walk your clients through how they can refer you and what that process looks like.
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Baking Referrals Into Culture
It’s not just about asking for referrals, it’s about creating a culture that thrives on connections. It needs to be hard-wired into your company’s DNA. Part of this effort swings the other way – you have to be the one giving referrals at some points as well.
Knowing when to be assumptive
Once you have been referred by a client to another prospect, you can be assumptive about creating a connection. It is best to ask a question like, “How would you like to introduce us (referring to the new prospect)?” This gives the client a clear path to introduce you to their referral and gets your foot in the door.
It is best to be assumptive about making an introduction only if you have received referrals from this particular individual in the past. If you have not received referrals in the past, you can make it clear that you have come prepared with questions about referrals.
These kind of questions include, “Who do you have in mind that could be a potential good match for us to do business with?” and “How can we craft an introduction that feels comfortable for all parties?”
This approach is bold and assertive, but also allows for collaboration. It allows you to move the conversation forward, but it allows the individual who is referring you to control the first interaction. The person doing the referring will want to buy into the introduction in order to protect their name by demonstrating you are a worthwhile person to introduce.