Are You Referral Ready?

Do the people in your network know how to introduce you in person, on the phone, via e-mail, or in written communication? Personal introductions can be among the most effective word-of-mouth strategies if you train your network how you want them done.

Someone might know you, like you, and trust you enough to say good things about you when the situation presents itself, but that doesn’t mean they are actively looking for ways to get you the introductions you want. Handled improperly, an introduction can actually push potential business away. People like to buy, but they don’t always like being sold to.

Introductions are the difference between chasing leads and generating referrals. When you train your network how to make those introductions, you create a system whereby the message you want gets communicated and the prospects you seek actually come to you.

Most people have a dominant networking style: Laid Back (easy going but socially limited; waits to be approached); Involved (engaged in social activities irrespective of networking potential); Strategic (follows a plan to pursue networking and leadership opportunities); and High-Energy (personally and professionally connected in various community affairs). Which one best describes you?

Because networking organizations are guided by social energy, it is easy to find yourself in situations that have appeal but don’t necessarily fit your networking style. When this mismatch occurs, your results will be compromised.

Networking from a position of strength means defining and intensifying the style that already works best for you. To be Referral Ready, you consistently put yourself in networking situations that foster relationships based on who you are when you are at your best.

Help me help you!

Assuming you have a highly credible and trusting relationship with someone, chances are he or she will speak favorably about you to other people. But will they say the right things? Will they qualify prospects for you and open doors for introductions? Do they have the conversational skills to recognize and create opportunities for you? They will if you coach them.

An uneducated sales team can still open doors for you, just not as many and perhaps not always the right ones. Just as the key to sales is to spend more time with people who want to buy, the key to networking for prospects is to spend more time in front of those who are already pre-qualified and anticipating an introduction to you. The better you train your network, the more this occurs.

Train your referral partners to fluently use phrases that you listen for and conversation-starting questions that you might ask while you are qualifying a prospect for your product or service. For example, a commercial realtor might teach his referral parners to listen for these phrases:

• “I like my dentist, but I wish his office was easier to get to.” Chances are good that other people feel the same way.  An introduction would facilitate a discussion about the dentist’s satisfaction with the current location, and what alternatives exist should he or she want to move.
• “If we land that new contract, we’re going to have to hire more people.” Hiring more people often requires an expansion of space, and planning for that kind of growth is often done many months in advance.

On the flip side, the commercial realtor might consider teaching his/her referral partners these conversation starters as well:

• “Do you own or lease your building?”…the answer to that question opens a world of possibilities.
• “Are you planning on adding any locations in the future?”…because someone could be working on that for you right now.

When the right people learn how to listen to and start conversations on your behalf, you gain powerful networking benefits that multiply your potential results with minimal effort. If you take the time to train them, your sales force will become much more effective.

Formally or informally, networking is a regular activity for most business people. From health clubs and Toastmasters groups to structured meetings like BNI, networking happens, impressions are made, and relationships are built and developed. Sooner or later it is smart to ask yourself, ‘Am I getting a return on my networking investment?’

If you are not getting a return on your relationship time, it doesn’t make sense to continue doing the same things and expecting a different result. You are either moving toward your goal, away from your goal, or not moving at all. An honest assessment of your current networking activity is where it starts.

Make a list of all your current networking activities. Which ones are NOT working for you? Why? Which ones work well for you, and how do you define that? Do you prefer more socially-oriented or business-oriented activities? Try to determine why some activities are more effective than others.

By determining and eliminating what is NOT working for you, you free up time for activities that 1) you don’t really have time for now, and 2) could offer greater rewards. With the understanding that you tend to get out what you put in, position yourself to succeed with activities that you look forward to and support the kind of business and person you want to be.

Top sales people value recognition. It validates their effort and contributes to their overall sense of accomplishment. Based solely on the recognition you give to your referral sources or top referring customers, how motivated are they to refer you more business?

The moment you start taking a referral relationship for granted is the precise moment it starts to fade away. The “give first” cycle resets when you gain, and offering your best referral sources a little well-deserved recognition keeps the mechanism of reciprocity in proper working order. If your withdrawals on social capital continue to outnumber your deposits, a deficit situation throws the dynamics off balance.

Evaluate what you have done to recognize your top referral sources for their efforts. Did you publicly thank someone who has gone out of his or her way to help you? In the last 60 days, did you send a thank-you gift or card to a referral source who brought you unexpected revenue? Did you introduce the referral source to someone and endorse him or her in exceptionally glowing terms? Did you provide a written testimonial they could use for marketing purposes? Did you promote their business in a newsletter article or advertisement? Try to come up with two ways you can recognize the efforts of your referral sources.

They know you, they like you, they trust you, and they know how to refer business to you. Your referral sources have a lot going for them, and they might also have their own businesses to tend to. What they don’t always have is the motivation to keep seeking referral opportunities for you. Since they probably expect very little in return, a little recognition can serve the referral source and the relationship at the same time.

Listening to your customer is no longer a passive activity that businesses can get around to when they have time. Thanks to a renewed emphasis and the availability of online resources, it is becoming a more integrated and strategic part of the marketing process. Since satisfied customers can be such a huge source of referrals, building an active process for listening to them is a key component of Referral Ready.

Unhappy customers have always used negative word-of-mouth to a greater degree than happy customers have used positive word-of-mouth. The problem is that today, an unhappy customer can broadcast a bad business experience to the entire world with the click of a mouse. Rather than complain privately, customers can choose a more damaging public forum.

Make a list of five A+ clients or clients whose relationship you want to improve. Take them separately to lunch or breakfast, with the intent of asking a lot of questions about your product, your service delivery, and ways to improve your marketing message. LISTEN to what your customers tell you, positive or negative, and take notes so you can refer to that information later. Follow up with a note that expresses how the information was used.

Businesses that tap into and learn from their customers have a distinct advantage. By investing emotionally in client relationships, the Referral Ready business learns first-hand how to better market to clients, how to solve problems before they start, how to make changes with end-user benefits in mind, and how to generate referrals from people who will gladly evangelize about your business…if they feel valued.

Branding your business has many advantages, and among the most important is GETTING MORE REFERRALS.

Think about your own purchasing decisions and how loyal you are to certain products. Once your brand is established, it allows you to win “mindshare” as people speed up their decision-making processes and confidently choose your products or services above all others.

When there is a mismatch between your marketing message and what clients actually think, confusion is the result. You might have the highest quality product on the market, but if your potential clients draw a different conclusion based on your web site or business cards, their perception becomes reality. A confused mind says ‘no’.

Think about the brand associated with your business. Are you the fastest, the lowest priced, the most user-friendly, the most cost effective, or the most universally accepted product on the market? Whatever your claim, analyze the way your business cards, web site, blog, brochures, and office space support that claim. Look for consistency in the way your branding message is communicated.

When you brand your business consistently, you take responsibility for the way your products and services get positioned in the mind of the customer and you back it up with behavioral and visual evidence. Referrals favor the business that owns and communicates a distinct message.

If you want to be Referral Ready, you need a strategy for building relationships that feeds your network and allows you to manage it systematically. Perhaps the most user-friendly system was advanced by Dr. Ivan Misner, the founder of Business Network International (BNI). His system is also known as the VCP model, which stands for Visibility, Credibility, and Profitability.

If two people know each other on a first name basis but not much else, they are at the Visibility stage. If they have actually scheduled and kept appointments together or done business with each other, they are probably in the Credibility stage. If they consistently find ways to refer each other business, they are in the Profitability stage.

Most people equate the networking process only with Visibility, spending more time and energy into building relationships than they do enabling those relationships to yield mutually beneficial results. The “work” part of networking is applying the entire VCP model to your current and future relationships. Visibility is only the beginning.

Now think about the people in your own network. Do you have a strategy to move the relationship to the next stage? What types of activities might best move a relationship from V to C? From C to P? What role does time play in the movement of relationships from one stage to another? In terms of your networking activity, at what stage in the process would you consider your time best spent?

With a process like the VCP model, you can do more with fewer and existing relationships than you can by randomly adding more people to an already crowded network. Success is in the system, not in the number of people you meet. Building relationships has always required the investment of time in other people, not just meeting them.

Your networking activity becomes more focused and effective when it is consistent with your business goals. Goals that are SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time Driven) carry the most impact for you and your business.
Without clear business goals, your networking activity loses its strategic advantage. Meeting more people will not necessarily lead to more connections, referrals, or closed sales. As long as this is out of alignment, the results you gain will be minimized.

Can you think of 3-5 SMART business goals that you want to reach over the next year? Try to determine how networking can contribute to reaching each goal. Who can help you? Who can introduce to someone else who can help you? What networking organizations are best suited to connecting you with those people?

Referral Ready means having a networking plan that is integrated with and supports your business goals. It starts with knowing what you want and reaching out to others to make it happen…while at the same time helping others get what they want.

Surely there is something beneficial about being in relationship with you that goes beyond a financial or business transaction. Your referral sources place value in those benefits. They accumulate over time and contribute to the depth and overall health of the relationship. As a result of the benefits you offer your referral sources, how motivated are they to refer you more business?

Reduced to transactional terms, a referral relationship can still serve both parties. But the human factor is what makes me choose you over another referral partner, and you can figure every one of your referral sources has the option to feed another business besides yours. It is their relationship with YOU that makes the difference. Strengthen the relationship and the rest happens naturally.

How you can show your referral sources–the people who are already inclined to refer business to you–the benefits of being in relationship with you? Could you introduce people in their company to influential people in your network? Could you help them secure a new vendor? Could you help them close a deal based on your recommendation or testimonial? Could you attend a trade show or function they were hosting? Try to come up with things you can do for each referral source that adds value to the relationship itself.

Sales people are attracted to compensation systems that offer both cash and benefits. Your referral sources are your sales people. They value their relationship with you, and the benefits of that extend beyond the last referral or the next referral. Perhaps in between is your best opportunity to demonstrate to your referral sources the real benefits of working so diligently on your behalf.