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Greetings!
Welcome to the premier email newsletter for referral-minded independent sales professionals who want the Big Picture.
First things first: I would like to wish you and your loved ones the most inspired best for the new year.
*To guarantee that the most exceptional and motivated sales professionals and sales managers are not missing out on the excellent ideas from this ezine consistently, be a resource and please forward this on and recommend that they sign up on my website: www.thereferralauthority.com
Date: January 2, 2008
Word count: 1043
Reading time: 3-4 minutes
Benefits of Taking Action: You are dropping the ball not knowing the answers to these, I promise
In this issue:
1. 3 Vital Referral Questions to Ask Yourself Today.
2. Matt's Free Quote of the Day Program.
3. Seminars for You and Your Company to Get More Referrals.
4. What's your plan for getting more referrals in 2008?
3 Vital Referral Questions to Ask Yourself Today.
Last week I was having coffee in Worcester, England with a man called Richard, the head of an organization that is bringing me in over the next two weeks to do a couple of referral seminars for its members - all small business owners in synergistic industries. In talking to him about his own company over recent weeks, I had asked him three questions. He told me that the answers he had come up with had helped him enormously in determining where he wanted to focus in 2008 and they will help you enormously too!
Question 1: Where specifically did all of your business come from last year?
Richard knew he was getting most of his business from referrals but he was startled to see that in the past three years ALL his business had come from referrals.
Identifying specifically who recommended you is a helpful reality check for us because some professionals and clients we know are ones we like a great deal and even enjoy spending business time with but they are not actually helping our business grow. We need to be aware of who these people are.
a) I am not saying referrals are the only way to add value in a relationship
b) I am also not saying that friendships with other professionals and clients are not worthwhile.
c) What's also true is that often there are people we like who have not referred us because we need to ask them (we mistakenly think they will volunteer to do so), be specific about who we want to be introduced to and coach them what to say (steps 4 and 5 in the 6 Steps to an Effective Referral Conversation e-zine on 8/7/07).
Question 2: Who are your top referral sources?
What also surprised Richard was that it was only 10% of his clients who had referred him business in the past three years (along with some other centers of influence). He has never asked any of them for referrals even though he's been in business for over 25 years. As I dug to find out if he'd done anything to find referrals, he did say that he told stories to clients to "drop hints" about other companies he wanted to do business with. For example, if he was talking to a happy client who knew the owner of the BMW dealership, he would mention how he was working with the owner of the Audi dealership in the hope that his client would connect the dots. I am sure there are occasions when this helped. However, the numbers don't lie: 10%!
Two studies done in the financial service industry in 2004 found that while between 84-93% of happy clients said they would have referred business to their advisor if they had been asked, only 11% had been asked! In other words they were not volunteering to do so either.
The moral of the story: ask for what you want!
The real points here are:
a) How many of your clients are you asking?
b) If you're not, why not?
c) What are you going to do differently this year to improve the relationships you have so you can ask confidently and comfortably?
ALSO: from your top referral sources: What are you doing to keep these relationships strong and flourishing?
The contradiction in all this is that yes, we should be asking all of our happy clients, but the reality of the 80- 20 Law still remains that 80% of our business will come from a top 20% of people. However if you haven't asked all your happy clients, you'll never know who that top 20% could be!
Question 3: WHY are they your top referral sources?
This was also a revelation to Richard. "I noticed looking at the names that these were almost all projects with companies that were overseas and that I had spent lots of time with - lots of quality time on planes, at their office and over meals. It was the personal connection we made on these projects. The 10% are the ones I got on best with. We became friends." I call that the Likeability Factor. Richard was getting referred by the companies that had gotten to know him better and realize what a great guy he was.
What a huge discovery!
Step Two for Richard was to then ask himself: how can I spend more time with my clients and do less work virtually so they can get to know me better as a person? How can I find more ways to be face to face with my clients to build those relationships?
Can you relate to that one??!
Question 3 is so important. What difference did you make with that referral source that they like you as much as they do to refer you?
The truth is you gave first before you received.
I know for me, some of my best referral sources are people that I met at pivotal stages in their business either early on or where their frustration level was to the point where they knew they had to make some positive changes. I am sure you will find the same - that you met certain clients at a crucial time in their lives and therefore they really appreciate how you helped them. For others it may be specific ways you excelled in customer service and/or how you treated them - all things you can replicate with all your clients once you're aware of their power and what they are! A client of mine got referrals this holiday season from top clients by personally taking gift baskets to them. Obviously he'll do something next year to impress them as much.
Action Plan:
Go though these 3 questions so you can make sure you focus on your referral sources better. This is where you want to use the Referral Radar for top referral partners (see my e-zine from 5/29/07 or ask me to forward it to you) and to make it a weekly habit to keep track of how you're keeping in touch with top referral sources.
Be a resource. Who else do you think might get value from reading this? Please forward this on.
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