Asking for referrals like anything can be tough for even the most confident consultant or trainer.
Yet, we can increase our referral ratio when we develop our own process for staying in touch and on the radar of those who are our advocates and ambassadors. No one wants to feel pushy or intrusive, yet we all like to feel thought about and appreciated.
Follow this check list or modify according to your situation and watch the referral opportunities roll in.
1. Develop a repeatable process making it easy to be referred.
2. Become more proactive at giving first. Always ask others, “How do I know when I am speaking with someone you would like to meet?” And, “How do I know your ideal client or someone who can use your services?”
Give first and build on the relationships and the referrals will come. Even if you can’t always give the other person a concrete referral, you are letting them know they are on your radar and you want to know how to introduce them when the opportunity may arise.
One of my father’s great lines has served so well in receiving referrals, “Give without remembering; receive without forgetting.”
3. Strive for introductions with your strongest clients and advocates. In conversations, you may ask
What made Mr. X come to mind? How do you know him and what will make him take my telephone call? How can I help you make the introduction more actionable?
4. Receive every referral graciously. How you receive the referrals you get will either encourage or discourage your clients from giving you more. Keep the source in the loop. Say thank you. Know as much as possible on how your referrer knows the person he/she is referring you to.
5. Create Continual Centers of Influence. Whoever is in your niche or COI pool, devote time each week to meeting and nurturing them. Meet for meals. Share your value story. Learn theirs. Discuss how to recognize prospects and how you’ll make the introductions for them. Devote a certain time weekly to this and you’ll build your own personal marketing force.
7. Take clients to events they would like to attend. Get to know them better at events and gatherings that they have a special interest in and ask them to bring a friend. Think out of the box in where you attend and your strategy to cultivate and grow the relationship more.
8. Strive to build relationships with clients/prospects and COI’s of each generation and in their preferred method of communication.
9. Work to improve your own client and advocate service. Ask them, what you can do to better serve their needs. When we go beyond their expectations, they want to refer you.
10. Develop continual good will. Always- send a thank you note that is personal and handwritten.
Because it is a lost art, and takes time to do- it will get remembered and rewarded over time.Walk around with your own note cards and envelopes stamped ready to write and mail.
11. Be someone who asks great questions and build strong relationships with your clients and COI’s. Help them to think differently– teach them something; create a vision and you will see referral opportunities present themselves.
12. Always have your ideal client profile in mind and be able to educate your potential referrers.Create your niche template and also your general target market. Keep the descriptions brief and to the point and be able to make it easy for someone who knows you refer you in a way that creates action.What you are doing is helping your referral source introduce you effectively.
13. Be someone who is always adding value to your clients and COI’s. Do things that continually delight and surprise them by getting to know them better.
14. Do something out of the box. One training consultant I know would always use a pie chart analogy when having meetings with clients. After the meeting, he would send the client their favorite pie. When they would be enjoying the pie and telling the story of who sent it– it would always lead to referrals. People like to refer those who go out of their way for them with service.
15. Always strive for likeability and reliability- your clients already work with you because ‘you’ are the expert- the go to resource, you have a great track record of performance- you are a relationship builder.
16. Always deliver great service; be helpful and available, be consistent with your value proposition, continue to consistently nurture and touch them.
17. Keep top of mind awareness through your own process, system and action plan.
18. Four action items for every quality encounter:
* learn something from the client or connection–by asking great questions
* give something- idea, suggestion, something to help their business
* ask for something- get permission to follow up; send something; their preferred method of communication
* follow up in a creative way
19. Find a ‘power hour’ daily to drip on clients and COI’s-to stay in touch and be on their radar.
20. Ask your clients and contacts to help you as you work on your branding and marketing-for example, if you ran into them with a friend, how would they describe you after you walk away-
* ask them what they like most about the work you do
* how would they differentiate you from others
Incorporate this checklist into the next three months and track your progress. Take the action step and see what develops.
