Brainstorm a list of 20 ideas to a current challenge – daily: I was talking to a very successful financial advisor on Tuesday asking him where his business was coming from this year. He told me two things: a new accountant who had sent him 15 referrals and he had been doing seminars to property and casualty insurance agents who had been impressed enough to start sending him business (remember: most people don’t network so don’t know many people; you might as well be the one to get the business). I’d never heard of someone presenting to P&C agents before and it got me wondering if there were groups I should present to that I’d never considered or simply not spoken to in some time.

It prompted me to do some brainstorming of my own. I was also reminded this week of a great idea espoused by Earl Nightingale: take a blank piece of paper first thing in the morning and brainstorm 20 answers to a pressing question (ex. how can I double my income? How can I use my time more effectively?) I did my list yesterday while driving (don’t tell my girlfriend; she’ll think I’m being reckless).

Brian Tracy says in The Psychology of Sales, that if you will make lists like this for 90 days and use some of the ideas you come up with each day AND you read for 30 minutes/day in your field, you will double your income in 3 months. That’s a bold statement and worth taking him up on, right? I was surprised how useful my first list was – the point to brainstorming is not to judge your ideas but to write them down. Tracy also suggests writing down the opposite of your ideas as that could just possibly be a better idea once in a while (ex. make more calls to more people or fewer calls to bigger fish?)

None of us needs to reinvent the wheel on great ideas. Give your brain a chance to come up with some. It will.

Thanks for reading. Please share it with others.

Author: Matt Anderson

www.TheReferralAuthority.com

Avoid the 15%!

Yesterday a client showed me an article in the MDRT (Million Dollar Round Table) magazine about getting referrals. It annoyed me because it made getting them sound so consistently simple.

The gist of the article said:

a)    Ask your client: are you really happy with the work we are doing?

Closed-ended questions teach you little. Most people are polite and will mutely nod their heads to a question like this. It does not indicate whether they want to refer you. Most people are not looking for a fight and will NOT say: “Really happy? Well. I’d give you a C grade. There are times when you are slow to get back to me and I don’t always understand what you are explaining. And when we do hear from you, you’re trying to sell us something.”

No, most people will nod their heads.

The solution is to ask an open-ended question about the value you have brought and you will hear in the tone of the client’s voice whether you have earned the referral. That gives you a green light to move on.

I suggest an open-ended question along the lines of: “What has been most useful for you from our work together so far?”

b)    Would you recommend me to others?

Again most people will feel obligated to say yes whether they truly feel that way or not.

c)    Can I call you back in two or three days with the names of those people?

This totally rubs me the wrong way. I would avoid this person like the plague if they approached me this way. AND all you’re getting with this strong-arm approach is a bunch of names and numbers of people who have not suggested they even want to hear from you.

These are the fifteen percenters. Sandler Sales Research found that if you simply have a name and number where you call them and name drop, it only leads to business 15% of the time. Name dropping is surprisingly ineffective in this situation.

The goal is to get these warmed up so the person has actually said ‘yes I would like to hear from this person.’ Then it leads to business 50% of the time. That’s a quality referral. And it’s a much more fun way to run a business.

Thanks for reading this.

Author: Matt Anderson

www.TheReferralAuthority.com

Getting more appointments: It would be silly of me not to share this

Nate, a very successful referral coaching client of mine was expressing how he still felt a little uncomfortable sometimes approaching some of the more affluent people he knew that he wanted to help. He found them a little intimidating. So I suggested he try something I have found that works well and am now finding works well for my clients too.

Whenever I’m talking to someone I believe I can help professionally, I tell them: “You know, it would be silly of me not to mention that I specialize in working with (people who do what you do) insurance and financial professionals and helping them get more referrals.” Usually then I’ll ask them some questions about their referral business to see if they are interested (since I’ve never met anyone I couldn’t help – have you?).

So after church one day, Nate went up to this one highly accomplished acquaintance and said:

“I know we’ve known each other for years and I think you know that I’m a financial advisor, but it would be crazy of me not to mention that I specialize in helping executives such as yourself in making sure they’re doing all the right things financially. I really believe it would be a good use of your time if we were to get together for lunch some time.” The man agreed and he has since become a great client.

The reason it is ‘silly’ is because you are 98% sure you can help this person. That’s what should make it easy to bring up in conversation. It is about belief in yourself and what you do for a living and following the imperative that most of the time we need to ask for what we want!

Recruiting? “It would be silly of me not to mention that I might be able to help you professionally. My company is always looking out for high caliber individuals who enjoy working with people and want to make a difference in the world. We work in the abc industry and I’d be happy to chat more with you and see if it might be a good fit.”

Selling a product that helps fit a need? “Based on what you were saying about x, it would be silly of me not to mention that my company helps people in this situation/with this problem.”

As with all ideas, play with the wording until it sounds like something you would say. Also, try it more than once. There’s no magic pill. Let me know about your success stories!

Who else might enjoy using this idea? Please forward it on and share the wealth!

Author: Matt Anderson

www.TheReferralAuthority.com