Smart agency owners and strategic consultants leverage their books with gratitude for more referrals.
Referrals make a difference. You want to be the person they refer others to.
Lacking that attitude of gratitude may be causing you to lose out on right-fit C-suite clients.
“If you deal with CEOs and other C-suite people, a sophisticated and nuanced referral approach is absolutely necessary,” says Scott Hamilton, founder of the Executive Next Practices Institute, a network of enterprise-level key executives where I am regularly invited to speak.
“With the C-suite, budget and RFPs are never an issue,” says Hamilton. “It is a relationship-based sale that is fast forwarded via the well-crafted referral.”
I owe a debt of gratitude for much of this strategy to my partner at Indie Books International, business coach extraordinaire Mark LeBlanc, my coauthor on several books. Here are solid referral actions:
Whip your CRM into shape first. Digitize your outreach with a CRM like Nimble. This is a simple, smart CRM for Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace. You can automatically combine contacts, social media connections, inboxes, and calendar appointments. Some of its clients include GoDaddy, Coldwell Banker, Icreon, and Upwork.
This app allows you to tag a contact multiple times so you can easily make lists. However, do not just tag a referral as a referral. Are they also an advocate or an affiliate?
Build a list of twenty-five advocates. Advocates, also known as cheerleaders, are champions of you and your business who give you referrals for no monetary consideration. Advocates believe in you.
An advocate likes to tell prospects that they do not receive any compensation for referring you—they just want the prospect to be well cared for. To make the advocate list there must be evidence of referring business to you.
Why only twenty-five? You should contact them on a regular basis, and more than twenty-five can become unwieldy.
There is nothing wrong with giving small gifts to advocates to show your appreciation, but it cannot be a quid pro quo for every referral or every referral that becomes a client.
Build a list of twenty-five affiliates. Affiliates, also known as partners, are people who will recommend you but expect a financial reward.
To make the list, they must agree to be willing to refer you for a fee. Typically, this might be in the form of a percentage, with 10 percent being a typical fee, but this will vary by industry.
You should memorialize the agreement in writing, such as an email. This is not legal advice (I am not an attorney and do not give legal advice); this is practical because you should not rely on your memory.
Decide who you will be an advocate or an affiliate for. As you network, identify people who might make great referral sources. Start with this: “If you would be open to a conversation about being referral partners, it would be greatly appreciated.” “If” and “conversation” are soft knocks at the door.
Contact advocates and affiliates monthly. It is not the job of the advocates and affiliates to remember you; it is your job to remind them that you exist.
Use a variety of means; do not just rely on email. Utilize other channels like texting, LinkedIn messages, Facebook Messenger, and the telephone. Be brief because you want to be aware of their time.
Teach your advocates and affiliates your elevator pitch. “Elevator pitches addressing a prospect’s threat get you in earlier in the process and at a higher level,” says Bryan Gray, agency owner of Revenue Path Group and author of the book The Priority Sale.
Give if you want to get. If you want to receive referrals, you need to give referrals. Let the law of reciprocation work in your favor. A place to start is to reach out and give concrete recommendations on LinkedIn.
Be honest and specific. You will be amazed at how many people want to return the favor.
Snail mail them little gifts to remind them you appreciate them. I have sent packets of seeds, baseball cards to wish them a happy spring, unusual paper clips, multi-colored Post-it notes, and other fun items I find.
Include a note expressing your gratitude. Many referral sources say they look forward to the lumpy envelopes I send.
Close the loop. Do your utmost to close the loop with the referrer to tell them what happened and that you appreciate the referral.
As the author and journalist Sarah Vowell wrote, “The four magic words in the English language are, ‘I know a guy.’”
And sometimes the best guy is female.
Are you ready to rededicate to solid business development strategies such as accelerating referrals?