 | The Power Of Referrals | 3 to 4 times more powerful, in fact ... | Posted on: 08/05/2013 By: Jacky Sherman |
Today's tip is about how to introduce your contact and your referral partner so that their relationship gets off to a great start! This way, you increase the chance that this introduction will turn into real business and reduce the risk of it all going horribly wrong ...
if you facilitate your introductions then your referral partner will do the same for you
Last week, I took you through a five stage process of giving a referral and so this week I'll expand on the last stage about introducing them to each other. But first, the most crazy thing I've heard offered as a referral:
“Here's a referral to John Smith; he needs your service but don't mention my name”
That’s absolutely not a referral! It’s not even a warm lead and with some services it can actually be harmful. For example I'm a mediator and often get asked to help when someone has been accused of bullying - can you imagine phoning up someone in this situation and offering them your services cold? Would they be happy with you?
With a true referral, you as the referrer stays in the relationship throughout the process. You need to protect your investment in both these relationships and you can often facilitate the actual close of business.
So my tip this week is to always facilitate the first contact between the two people. This can be done in a number of simple ways:
Send an email - for some types of introductions this may be the first contact. Check that both parties are happy with this style of introduction. Put the two people together with shared contact details and ensure they both know who is supposed to call who. Make a telephone call - arrange for your referral partner to call but identify a good time for both of them first. Never, ever just hand out their card and suggest your contact phones. They invariably never make that call. Arrange a meeting - this is by far the most powerful and is even better if you attend as well to make the introductions. This keeps you right in the relationship.
Always remember to follow up throughout the process. Ensure emails have been sent, phone calls have been made and meetings attended. Get feedback from both the contact and your referral partner and correct any mis-communications.
If you facilitate introductions like this for your referral partner then you can ask your referral partner to do the same for you too! That way, both of you are much more likely to form a quick bond of trust with contacts and you'll get three to four times more business from the introductions.
If you’d like to learn more about how to facilitate strong relationships across your network and enhance your reputation as a high quality referrer then it may be a great idea to call me on +44 (0) 7970 638857 or click here to ping over an email and I'll call you right back.
Until next time ...
JACKY SHERMAN
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