Are You Referral Ready?

When you do business with a customer, you begin a relationship with someone whose needs can extend well beyond the scope of what you do. The CPA is in position to recommend a good financial planner. The financial planner is in position to refer a good estate-planning attorney. The estate-planning attorney is in position to refer the excellent lockbox services of a local bank. Your business falls somewhere along a chain that occurs naturally in the purchasing cycle and provides clues for building networking strategy.

If you don’t understand where you fall on the chain, you lose the opportunity to feed the chain and refer other service providers. Referral business requires an awareness of what forces bring customers to your door, and where they go when they leave. Without that knowledge and awareness, customers will find their own way. Rooted in the generosity of helping your clients, building relationships with service providers along the chain is simply good business.

Three major things happen when you build your network this way: 1) you position yourself to better serve your clients; 2) you build a network that you know you can consistently serve; and 3) you take responsibility for building a system to drive referral business to your door. That is a win-win-win solution.