Beyond Referrals Read online

  6. Your sales are often larger. Example: In the life insurance industry, a sale (“case size”) resulting from a referral is twice as large as those that come from other sources. Work from referrals and double your income! There’s a novel idea.

  7. Your new prospects and clients are more likely to follow your suggestions. Prospects and clients you meet through referrals will follow your suggestions because they know their friend or colleague has had a good experience in following your recommendations.

  8. Referrals beget referrals. A client obtained through a referral is more likely to give referrals. And since many clients will give you multiple referrals over time, your business growth is exponential.

  9. It’s a fun way to do business! You can create a “referral lifestyle” where the prospects you call want to hear from you, want to meet with you, trust you more from the start, and even call you!

  Referrals Aren’t Enough!

  Have you noticed how crazy busy everyone seems to be these days? Have you noticed how it’s hard enough to reach your clients, let alone your prospects? Have you noticed how hard it’s become to cut through the noise that your prospects experience every day just to grab their attention for a minute or two? Referrals are not enough. We have to think in terms of introductions! When you’ve been introduced to a prospect, that prospect’s interest is piqued; that prospect is more likely to answer your call, return your call, or reply to your e-mail.

  This book will help you convert the referrals you get into engaged introductions. An engaged introduction is a collaborative effort where the referral source works with you to make sure you get connected to the new prospect. An engaged introduction is not just word of mouth. And it’s not just “give her a call and feel free to use my name.” An engaged introduction gets your foot in the door and establishes a genuine connection between you and the new prospect.

  It’s Different When You Work from Referrals

  After you’ve received the referral, you have to set the appointment with the new prospect. Depending on your business model, the appointment may be in person or may take place over the phone. Contacting your prospects and setting appointments look different when you work from referrals (over other types of lead sources). What you learn about the new prospect from your referral source helps you craft a much more compelling reason for why that prospect should give you a piece of his or her valuable time.

  You see, just because you’ve met someone through a referral, it doesn’t mean that person is going to meet with you. Of course, when the trust level between the referral source and the new prospect is high, that is sometimes enough to move the sales process along. But not always. In most cases, you have to continue to deliver value and build trust so that the prospect warms up to meeting with you. This book will give you some concrete ideas, proven methods, and best practices for turning introductions into appointments.

  Sales Is Not a Four-Letter Word

  As previously stated, the goal of sales and marketing is gaining a new client. And “closing the sale” is not about tricky, manipulative closing techniques. In fact, I’ve never liked the word closing. That’s because making the sale is not the end of the relationship or the closing of the sales process. It’s the beginning. And if you trick people into buying from you, then their reaction may be regret. This can lead to cancellations and certainly no referrals. While you will see me use the word closing from time to time, think in terms of confirming the sale or confirming the new relationship.

  Making a sale is much more than saying to your clients, “Here’s what I do. Here’s how well I do it. Wanna buy from me?” This is an oversimplistic picture of what’s going on out there with many salespeople, small business owners, and professionals. They present their value proposition and think that’s enough. Unfortunately for them, sometimes it is. This leads to laziness in the sales process.

  This book will give you a model for converting a referral prospect into a new client in a way that all parties feel good about the process. When you bring on new clients in the right way, you can become highly referable very early in the new relationship. This, in turn, allows you to keep the Law of Perpetual Revenue running smoothly.

  Build a Referral Culture

  I often call referrals “forgotten gold.” Most businesses know the importance and effectiveness of referrals and introductions, but very few have strived to build a referral-based business. They give lip service to referrals, but they rarely train their people how to generate referrals. Some companies have adopted the practice of measuring their Net Promoter Score. The Net Promoted Score is a customer loyalty metric developed by (and a registered trademark of) Fred Reichheld, Bain & Company, and Satmetrix. It measures the ratios of customers from a low range of “detractors” to a high range of “promoters.” Proponents of the Net Promoter Score say that it’s the most important metric in measuring customer service: will the customer promote our business to others? While this is certainly a worthwhile measurement, most companies don’t go to the next step of leveraging these scores. They don’t become proactive in turning promoters into connectors. They encourage word of mouth, but they don’t go for referrals and introductions. Stopping at worth of mouth is an incomplete growth process. To maximize new-client growth through referrals, you have to be referable and you have to be proactive.

  This Book Is Worthless

  My mentor in sales, Mr. Bill Wilks, told me many times, “Billy Cates, ideas do not make you more successful. Only acting on ideas will lead to success.” Please don’t read this book and say to yourself as you read, “That’s a good idea. Oh, that’s a good idea too,” and then do nothing about that idea. Every time you read an idea that you think you can apply to your business, put down the book and record it, share it with a colleague (could be by e-mail), or even add it to your calendar to work on later. This book is worthless unless you act on the ideas I present. The good news for you is that every single idea, strategy, and tactic in this book has been proved to work. This is not a book of philosophy; it’s a book of action. Take it!

  SECTION I

  GET MORE REFERRALS

  Leverage Your Successful Relationships

  The first part of the Perpetual Revenue System is about generating referrals. There are two overarching strategies that will help you get more referrals:

  1. Be more referable.

  2. Be more proactive.

  If you’ve read either of my last two books on referrals, Get More Referrals Now! (McGraw-Hill) or Don’t Keep Me a Secret! (McGraw-Hill), then you already have some great ideas and strategies to help you create a steady flow of referrals. Are you acting on those ideas? (If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m going to keep harping on the fact that ideas don’t make you successful. Only acting on ideas leads to success.)

  If you haven’t had the pleasure of reading my first two books, I have some advice. Read this book first. If you like what I have to say here, you’re gonna love those books! (Shameless promotion, I know!)

  John Assaraf and Murray Smith, in their book The Answer (Atria Books, 2008), describe the power of referrals this way: “You’re no doubt familiar with the amazing power of compounding interest, which has often been called ‘the Eighth Wonder of the World.’ There is a similar force in business, just as powerful and in many ways more important: the power of the compounding customer. Customers who love what you do for them will tell others, who will then tell still more people. There is no marketing force more powerful than positive word of mouth from a satisfied customer. This is not news to you; everyone knows this. The question is, how do you create that positive word of mouth?”

  I would take this a little further and say that word of mouth, as good as that is, isn’t enough for most businesses. Certainly word of mouth can help grow a business, but most businesses need more. They need connections—referrals and introductions—to these new prospects, so that they can become proactive instead of reactive.

  This first section is all about how to genera
te more referrals—how to become more referable and more proactive.

  1 YOUR REFERRAL MINDSET

  STRENGTHEN YOUR REFERRAL MINDSET

  Your beliefs and awareness with regard to referrals is what will ultimately determine your success with generating referrals. If you believe something is possible, then you’ll see the opportunities. Once you see the opportunities, you can apply the right strategy or tactic to produce results. On the other hand, if you do not believe something is possible, then your awareness will be shut down, along with the possibilities of taking action and producing results. Ultimately, your belief system is your foundation for all success in life—business and personal.

  Applying the above concept to referrals, I call this having a referral mindset. This chapter will help you examine your own referral mindset—where it’s strong and where you might need to work.

  ELEMENTS OF YOUR REFERRAL MINDSET

  There are many qualities that go into a powerful referral mindset. Here are the top five:

  1. Are you committed to referrals? Have you made the decision to build a business based on how your new clients would prefer to meet you? I don’t care what industry you work in; it won’t affect the way your next great client would prefer to meet you—and that is through an introduction from someone the prospect already trusts. Are you dabbling in referrals, knowing what to do with one when you trip over it? Or have you made a commitment to referrals? How do you know? Look at your actions, not your intentions. The way of the world is meeting people through other people, and the referral is the warm way we get into their lives.

  2. Do you believe asking for referrals is safe? I’ve been teaching my referral system since 1996, and one thing is very clear to me. Most people are afraid to ask for referrals. They don’t see asking for referrals as a safe thing to do. If you believe that asking for referrals is risky, guess what? You won’t even see the opportunities that are right in front of you. This is a limiting belief that shuts down your awareness, actions, and results. Never fear, Chapter 4 will show you that there are ways to ask for referrals that aren’t pushy and don’t come across as begging. You’ll see that being proactive for referrals is a very safe thing to do. Then this limiting belief will be transformed into an expansive belief.

  3. Are you giving referrals? Finish this sentence for me: “As you give you__________.” Receive! It works in all aspects of our lives, including the referral process. One of the fastest ways to start getting referrals is to start giving referrals—to your prospects, your clients, your colleagues, your friends, and your family. Just start playing the giving game, and you will see how it comes back to you. If you are reluctant to give referrals, how can you expect to create a culture of referrals within your business where clients are giving referrals to you?

  4. Do you have a process to generate referrals? Most people see referrals as a bonus for doing a good job with their clients. They don’t have any processes in place to make sure they are leveraging their hard work. Generating referrals is not just about serving your clients well, though that’s important. To get more referrals that turn into clients, you have to be more referable, and you have to be more proactive. You can wish and hope for referrals. Not a good plan. Or you can adopt a few processes that start generating referrals right away. That’s what this book is all about.

  5. Do you expect referrals? Would you agree that going into any particular situation expecting a certain result increases the chances to achieve that result? Of course it does. It doesn’t guarantee it, but it increases the chances. Enter every new relationship with confident awareness. You are confident in the work you do and how you help your prospects and clients. And you are aware of all the connections in their lives. You look for those connections with genuine curiosity, because at some point you may be a great resource for them. I do not recommend you tell your prospects and clients that you “expect referrals” from them. That can actually hurt your chances for referrals. Just enter every new relationship with an expectation of confident awareness. With your confident awareness, you’ll see the connections in your prospects’ and clients’ lives. This book will give you the tools to step into those connections.

  PREFERRED STATUS

  Michael Vickers, in his book Becoming Preferred: How to Outsell Your Competition (Summit Press; see http://www.MichaelVickers.com), says, “All of us as service or product providers seek to achieve Preferred Status with our customers and clients.” There are three levels of preferred status.

  Loyalty

  Vickers makes the case that loyal or satisfied customers are simply not enough. He says that, for instance, if customers are loyal to you on your price, they can be lured away by a lower price elsewhere. While we all want satisfied and loyal customers, there are higher levels to achieve.

  Advocacy

  On this level, your customers have become advocates for you. They are talking about you to others. Word of mouth is a form of referral. Vickers says, “As sales and service organizations we should be continually striving to move our customers from loyalty to advocacy.”

  Insistence

  Insistence is advocacy on steroids. Not only are your clients talking about you to others, but they have become evangelical about you. Vickers says, “Companies that enjoy this level of status with their customers enjoy high profit margins and have real market security.” How do you go from one level to the next and create clients who advocate and insist for you? You go the extra mile in everything you do. You distinguish yourself through the value you provide and the relationships you establish. Many companies talk about “great service” or creating an “extraordinary client experience,” but few actually deliver. How about you?

  BORROWED TRUST

  People don’t do business with us—or give us referrals—until they trust us. Therefore, we want to meet all our new prospects starting at the highest point of trust. That’s a referral (or introduction). Borrowed trust! We borrow the trust in one relationship long enough to earn our own trust in the new relationship.

  I was delivering a seminar in Philadelphia. In the audience was an experienced, successful financial advisor named Steve Perlman. Steve had heard me speak a few times before. Steve has a great referral mindset and even shared with me (and which I am now sharing with you) a couple of diagrams that show why it’s always better to meet prospects through introductions. The diagrams depict the relationship between the four T’s of referrals: tension, trust, time, and transaction. The diagram below illustrates that when you don’t meet your prospects through referrals, at the beginning of the relationship trust is low and tension is high. The lower the trust and the higher the tension, the longer it takes for a transaction (T) to become possible.

  Source: Steve Perlman

  The diagram that follows shows that when you meet a prospect through an introduction from someone the prospect already trusts, initial trust is much higher and tension is lower. Therefore, the opportunity to do business comes much sooner in the new relationship.

  My first sales trainer was a man named Dave Sandler, founder of the Sandler Sales Institute. Dave once told me, “Going into a meeting with a prospect based on a referral is like walking in with a bag of trust over your shoulder.”

  Have you made a commitment to meeting your prospects the way they want to meet you?

  Source: Steve Perlman

  CLEAR INTENTIONS PRODUCE CLEAR RESULTS

  A wise man once said to me, “Clear intentions produce clear results. Vague intentions produce vague results.” When we’re clear about something, we stand a much better chance of getting exactly what we want. A clearer target creates better, more precise decision making and action taking.

  Are you crystal clear on whom you want to attract into your business? Are you crystal clear on whom you don’t want to attract into your business? If you’re going to become more proactive for referrals, you better be clear.

  First, you want to be able to communicate to your referral sources which kinds of clients you serve
best. Second, you don’t want to get stuck taking on clients who aren’t your ideal fit. When you take on clients that aren’t taking you in the direction you want to go, you don’t have time to find and serve the clients who do.

  If someone isn’t a perfect fit for your business, then you are the wrong person to be serving that person. You must always strive to create win-win scenarios.

  What stops some people from attracting the right type of referral client is that they just haven’t taken the time to think this through or to revisit this from time to time. For others, it’s a deeper issue of belief. Do you not only know whom you want to attract, but also believe you can find those people and serve them? Napoleon Hill, in his classic book Think and Grow Rich, writes, “What the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” Vision without belief usually isn’t enough.

  2 ENHANCE YOUR REFERABILITY

  ARE YOU REFERABLE?

  Are you referable? How do you know? One barometer of your referability is that you’re getting referrals without asking for them. Are you? Do you have such a good initial process with new prospects and clients that they are thinking of people to refer you to before you even do much work for them? And as you work with your clients, do some of them continue to pass your name along and connect you with people? This is one measure of your referability. And this counts, by the way. Getting referrals without asking for them is a testimony to your good work.

  This section will give you a few ideas on how to become even more referable—to be purposeful in enhancing your referability—so that you get more referrals without asking for them, and so that when you do ask, you’ll have people receptive to your request.