Posted by Nathaneal | Wednesday, August 19, 2009
As you can tell from the tittle…Today we are going to talk about one of the most profitable, reliable and cost efficient source of business you will ever get access to…
And that’s Referrals
The Specific Referral Strategy we are going to get into today requires joining a local business networking group like your Chamber of Commerce. Then following the simple formula I am about to share with you to easily get the other members to refer you new customers month after month….
I honestly don’t have time to go into how to create full scale referral attracting campaign today. But if this strategy works half as well for you, as it has worked for a hand full of my elite coaching clients…you are going to be more than excited about the profits it puts in your bank account.
So today you and I are going to go over one very simple yet hardly ever used, proven strategy for getting a predictable surge of referral business whenever you want it.
Saying that, take out a pen and paper or something to take some action notes on. Unless you are already a member of GuaranteedProfit.com’s free level of membership.
If you are…you will have continual access to this and a bunch of other strategies that are going to help you grow your business. If your not stop what your doing and go to the blue box at the top right hand side of this page. That way you can take advantage of all the business building information you get with this free membership.
One Simple Step-By-Step Formula for leveraging your local networking group to Get More Referrals.
1. Make a List of the 10 largest, most successful companies in your business networking group that also serve your target market but are not competing with you.
(You can get access to this information in the membership directory)
2. Call them up or find them at the next event.
3. Connect with the owners or whoever is in the company that is in the best position to give you referrals on a continual bases.
Remember this isn’t a sales call, you’re not closing someone. You are a fellow member so there is a natural level of Rapport. All you have to do is make a friend.
But when you do connect with that person, make sure you get to know him or her on a personal level. While you’re doing that, find out when that person’s birthday is.
The birthday is important because the next step in this strategy is to take them out to lunch on their Birthday.
Between the day you connect with them and the day of their birthday, you want to make a couple of calls just to connect with them and see if there is anything you can do to help them in their career and business life.
A little side note: The most powerfully networked individual business people I have ever met are givers and they are constantly looking for ways to add value to their friends lives….so the clue is if you want to turn your membership at the Chamber into measurable results (like referrals) then start adding value to the lives of the other members.
And although you don’t have to wait until someone’s birthday to take them out to lunch, my test have found that when you take someone out for their birthday:
The Referrals you can get using the Law of Reciprocity because of the lunch is (for their b-day) can actually be doubled.
I don’t have time to get into Cialdini’s book the psychology of persuasion right now but what I am referring to is the fact that people have a natural tendency to want to do things for you after you have done something for them.
And when you do something like take someone out to lunch for their birthday, it becomes more memorable since most of the time the only people who remember and acknowledge (your potential referral partners) birthday are people who are very important to them. Such as close friends and family.
And sometimes even then, some of those people who are very important to your (potential referral partner) still might not give them as much recognition as you have by offering to take them out to lunch for their birthday.
So calling them up before their birthday and inviting them out to lunch does two things:
1. It quickens the deepness of rapport you have with them as if you were a close friend or family and…
2. You magnify the law of reciprocity to work in your favor because so few people remember their birthday and go out of their way to acknowledge it.
So you are setting the stage or preparing their state of mind to be more open to working with you and referring business to you.
Plus it always feels good to make others feel special. And making someone feel good is a great way to kick off a good business friendship. And it’s much more fun to do business with people who are your friends isn’t it?
So anyway, when you take them out to lunch it’s important that you are genuinely interested in them.
Remember, up until now the only questions you have asked about them are personal questions and questions about how you can help them.
So start asking questions such as:
How they got started in their business
What are some of the key reasons they have reached the level of success they have reached
What are some of the things that make them different compared to all the others that do what they do.
What are some of the key things they want to accomplish this year
And so on
About 60% through the Lunch you want to ask them for referrals.
Important note: you will not have nearly as good of a turn out from the above mentioned strategy if you ask in the beginning of the lunch or at the end. You want to ask about 60% through lunch.
The way you ask them is saying something like…
One of the ways I want to grow my business is by only working with the best kinds of customers or clients.
Who would you call on if you were in my position?
Now it doesn’t matter if you get 1, 10 or 40 referrals because it’s going to be how you handle that referral that is going to open the flood gates to thousands of referrals automatically heading your way from your new referral partner.
Remember its 100 times easier to get a Referral from someone who has already given you one.
From http://www.guaranteedprofit.com/category/blog/
