 | People Who Know, Like And Trust You | Will Refer Business To You ... | Posted on: 13/02/2013 By: Jacky Sherman |
Is it truth or is it a delusion? People who know, like and trust you will refer business to you. You've probably guessed - it's an absolute delusion. Ivan Misner, founder of The Referral Institute put it beautifully when he said "how often do you get a referral from your mom?" ...
if you were superstitious, could you cook 13 sprouts when ordered to?
Look at your own track record. How many referrals do you get from each of your close contacts? Those people who know, like and trust you? How many referrals do you give to the people you know, like and trust?
Of course, if you want people to refer to you, they do need to know, like and trust you first, but you need to give them a bit more ammunition than that! You need to train your contacts on how to refer business to you. It's true! With the best will in the world how can someone refer you if they don't know how?
My 3 top tips for educating your contacts to refer to you:
Be clear on who you want to meet. Paint a picture in their minds of your ideal client. Give them details of what your ideal client looks like. Teach them the language of referrals. What phrases and subjects will their contact use that will help them spot a referral opportunity for you? When people say words like "I want ...", "I can't ...", "I Wish ..." or "I don't know who ..." the next thing they say may be an opportunity to refer, so make sure your contacts can fill in the blanks with the NEEDS that you fulfil. And what's special about you then? Feed your contacts stories and anecdotes that demonstrate your expertise and results so they can answer the question "what I like about [you] is ..." and then are able to to give an example.
Here's a story from one of my close referral contacts, Angela Rhodes, to give you an example. Angela runs Crispin Rhodes an HR consultancy. She specialises in very small businesses and has a cohort of celebrity clients who need HR support for their Personal Assistants, Housekeepers etc. They're often very temperamental clients with peculiar demands for their staff.
What I like about Angela is she is never phased, and will go the extra mile to meet the client's needs. She had a client who called her because they wanted to sack their housekeeper. It transpired that the housekeeper insisted on putting 7 Brussel Sprouts on each of her and her partners plates at dinner, even though she had specifically asked to have only 6 sprouts for her and 7 for her partner.
When Angela asked why she didn't just leave one of the sprouts, her client told her she didn't like to see food wasted like that. Angela ascertained from the housekeeper her reason for cooking 14 sprouts. The woman was very superstitious and couldn't prepare a meal with 13 sprouts!
Angela's solution> Prepare 14 sprouts and put one in the compost bin so that it was recycled onto the flowers and not wasted. A win/win situation and everyone is happy. Employment tribunal avoided.
On hearing this story I had ammunition to help promote Angela. Well I just did, didn't I?
One of the things that makes the Referral Institute special is that we don't just train you, we train your referral sources too! We build communities of business professionals who know, like and trust each other AND know who to refer, what need you'll fulfil and be able to recommend you with confidence.
If you'd like to read Ivan's book, "Truth or Delusion? Busting Networking's Biggest Myths" you can visit www.truthordelusion.com to find out more. If you want to know more about how I can help you build your referral network then why not call me on +44 (0) 1908 678229 or click here to ping over an email and I'll get right back to you.
Until next time ...
JACKY SHERMAN
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