Rob's Blog

You're good. You have a well-thought-out referral marketing plan and you regularly get referrals from a range of special referral partners, right?

WRONG. Or at the least, unlikely.

Why? Because very few people have any kind of strategy for generating referrals beyond 'we deliver a great service and we ask for them occasionally.' Is it any wonder most people claim to grow their business by referral but struggle to get as many of the right kinds of referrals?

I'd like to give you some food for thought on an area of weakness for many referral marketing disciples - the follow up. In strong contact networking groups like BNI, you have one of the most powerful referral generating mechanisms in the world. But you still have to do the follow up and make the sale.

Depending on the complexity of what you're selling, the sales cycle and the ticket price, it may pay to go into some detail with your fact-finding on this new prospect. Here are 12 of the best questions I've used in the past to help me make the right kind of approach in the right kind of way to make the right kind of sale!

1. Who do they follow, admire or like?
2. How do you know each other?
3. Why is this a good referral for me?
4. How do you think they will respond to my approach?
5. What's the best way to get their attention/onside?
6. What drives them?
7. Will your referral partner/introducer be contacting the prospect?
8. How will contact be made?
9. How might they react when I approach them?
10. What are they likely to say?
11. What's the best place and time to contact the prospect?
12. What possible objections might I have to overcome?

Answers to just a few of these will put you in a better position to make the sale. And the more you can educate your referral partners, the more these questions are answered for you.

To learn more about how to craft a referral marketing plan that will double your business by referral in 12 months, guaranteed, here are two ways forward:

1. If you live in the East Midlands, and can get to Nottingham, Derby or Leicester in the next few weeks, come to one of our Referral Institute Success Masterclasses. Simply click a date to the right here - we run them once a month in each town.
2. If you live anywhere else, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it about you joining my intense six week Networking and Referrals Mentoring Program. It's incredible!
   

Here's to more referrals for all of us - there are plenty to go around if you know what you're doing. Get some education!

In my role with the world's leading networking and referral training organisation, The Referral Institute, I'm on a mission to raise the level of networking in my region - the East Midlands.

There are close to 100 opportunities to network in around the Nottingham-Derby-Leicester triangle and beyond. That's 100 clubs, events, groups, organisations, get-togethers and associations that bring people together for support, information and business generation.

Many of these groups I've had the honour of speaking at in the past. Those that make the biggest difference to their members and guests tend to be the ones who in some way educate and train people to network better.

Whether that means a speaker of note or some kind of professional development input, people benefit hugely from both the opportunity to network and the opportunity to learn.

I'll be interviewing the leaders and organisers of many of these clubs, groups and events over the next few months. Yesterday I spoke at Access2Business, ran by the incredible Karen Kennedy.

After a very successful relaunch of this highly successful club of senior decision makers and business owners, Karen is putting her intimate blend of education and connections into growing A2B into a dominant networking brand in this region.

Her next event on on 3rd December. With a dedicated core of high level business developers and connectors, this is one of the premium groups in the East Midlands. Karen herself will also be doing a presentation on 'The Many Intangible Benefits of Networking!' Get yourself there and tell her I sent you!

If you want more referrals to grow your business, then your objective from your networking and your business relationships should be:

To generate referrals and positive word of mouth from other people you know.

However, this doesn't always work. You want people to say great things about you and recommend you to others. You want people to introduce you to great prospects. But does it happen like you want it to happen? NO.

Put yourself in their shoes. Imagine you have somebody in your network who wants you to refer them. They tell you about their business. They tell you what to say and ask. So why don't you refer them? Here are ten reasons why not:

1. You haven't got the same soul or passion they have for their business.
2. They don't give you a clear target market or articulate exactly what they're looking for.
3. You don't deal with their kind of clients.
4. You don't know any of the kind of prospects they're looking for.
5. You don't understand what they do well enough.
6. You don't like them.
7. They sound like lots of other people, so you don't know how to set them apart.
8. You're scared of making a mistake.
9. You already have someone to give those kind of referrals to.
10. You don't have the time.

So the good news is that you can identify what the problem is. The bad news is that all of these are your fault! In my next blog I'll tell you why it's all your fault and what you can do about it.

In the meantime, read this fantastic article from Mike Macedonio, who is President of the Referral Institute. The foremost authority on referrals I've ever met and an incredible individual. You'll learn when it's inappropriate to ask people for referrals and introductions. Gold dust!