Briefs are 200 character micro-messages visible to trusted partners in your private referral network. A Brief is similar to a “tweet” on Twitter® with some key differences that help you strengthen partnership within your private professional network.
On Referral Key you exchange referrals with other seasoned professionals who are also eager to help you boost sales. Unlike other social media services, that make your information public, and often foster broadcasting promotions rather than intimate sales networking for small businesses; Referral Key Briefs are relevant and sales focused.
To post a Brief, simply type your message and click post.
Type “@FirstName-LastName” to direct a Private Brief toward a single (or more) associates. I.E. If you want to tell Steve Smith to meet you for lunch, but don’t want the rest of your network to know, you would type “@Steve-Smith”
You can attach brochures, documents, and files
You can Sync Briefs with other social media services to increase your reach and exposure.
Referral Key is the fun way to help friends, build referrals and grow your business. Unlike any other social or business networking service, every feature on Referral Key has been optimized to help you generate more referrals. Simply put, we bring new business to you!
Referrals are a vital source of sales for most small businesses. What separates the mediocre from the truly profitable referral marketers? Many pros are left scratching their head, wondering why some professionals seem to always have a mountain of new business while others sit around waiting for the phone to ring, you need to consider the referral marketing basics; the difference between mediocre and highly profitable referral marketing.
1. What is the quality of your business network?
Highly Profitable Referral Marketing: My business network is made up of top-notch service professionals I trust and whose quality of work I am familiar with. They refer people to me because they know I’m the best at what I do. We periodically reconvene to ensure we are both on target and continue to work toward our sales goals.
Mediocre Referral Marketing: My business network is an undefined cluster of people whom I have loose relationships with. I don’t personally know most of these people so it would be a bit uncomfortable to call them and talk referral marketing. I send out an email blast once in a while and hope for the best.
2. Do you regularly send referrals?
Highly Profitable Referral Marketing: I view referral marketing as a serious business activity and approach it with the same gravity as I would taxes, employees, and accounting. Everyday I am looking for more opportunities to refer people to other professionals I trust. Referral marketing allows me to leverage my most powerful asset; my reputation.
Mediocre Referral Marketing: I view referral marketing as a business-esque social activity. I expect people to send me business before I refer anyone to them. I sent one referral last month, unless an opportunity falls into my lap, I don’t bother.
Highly Profitable Referral Marketing: The people I refer are integral to maintaining my reputation amongst my associates. My long-term referral marketing success is contingent on my ability to create referral situations that are positive for both parties. It’s just as important that I refer quality prospects as it is that I am referring those prospects to quality professionals. I always follow up with both parties to ensure the referral was a success.
Mediocre Referral Marketing: I may refer someone but after that, it’s sort of out of my hands. My business associates should just be happy that I’m even sending people their way. If there is a problem they’ll let me know.
4. Are you organizing and tracking your referral relationships?
Highly Profitable Referral Marketing: I closely mange my referral marketing activities. To be successful I need to be able to answer fundamental questions. I want to know who’s in my network, which referrals are they sending to me and which am I sending to them? Are they following up on my referrals? Of the referrals I send and receive, which result in sales? Do my business networking partners feel the same way about our business relationship or are we totally out of sync? Which relationships need more attention? Are there opportunities to expand my network?
Mediocre Referral Marketing: I hand out business cards and wait for the phone to ring. I’m not exactly sure where my new business is coming from and I couldn’t really tell you how people in my network feel about the referrals I send them. I figure if there are any problems they can call me.
We randomly selected 100 social media-savvy small business owners and asked them the following question:
“Do you generate more new from professional relationships with at least some face to face networking or do you generate more new business from exclusively online networking relationships?”
While this is not the largest sample size, it reminds us that a small trusted business network is much more effective at generating sales leads than a massive network of loose social media connections. The optimal idea is to incorporate both social media technology and your trusted business network into a sales focusedreferral marketing strategy.
Avid Twitter user and Toronto area networker Tad Mclaughlin:
“As great as social media is, and as much as it can enrich your existing relationships, the bottom line is that the majority of your new business is going to come from networking with professionals you already know and trust.”
The answer to this question really depends on the nature of your business.
Selling Products
Someone selling a product will probably benefit by using their time and resources to develop a larger network. e.g. An entrepreneur with a new type of energy drink isn’t going to do very well if only 50 of his closest colleagues are the only people who buy the drink.
Selling Services
Someone selling services will most likely want to focus their energy on forming a tighter more intimate network. e.g. A financial planner with 100,000 followers on Twitter, but very few trusted business relationships, may never procure a single sale through networking.
Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. is quickly becoming one of the most sought after keynote speakers in the world. Audiences from the United States to Australia all agree that his speeches are deeply inspirational. His enthusiasm is contagious, and his delivery is dynamic.
We had a chance to catch up with Johnny and in this series, we’ll be discussing HR and more specifically how it relates to small business and business networking.
Is it okay to hire someone because you like them and created a meaningful connection with them?
Absolutely not. Someone may appear to have an air of confidence, and carry themselves a certain way because they are confident in their appearance, but this holds very little ground regarding how they will actually perform on the job.
Referrals are often a great way to improve the quality of candidates. Put the word out and let your business network know exactly what you’re looking for. Do you think it is ok to hire someone because you like them?
If social media is a good way to evaluate a potential employee (or a good way to not get hired) then why shouldn’t small business owners apply the same practice when seeking new referral partners (or declining them).
“According to the study, “thirty-five percent of employers reported they have found content on social networking sites that caused them not to hire the candidate.”
Selective networking is a big part of quality control on sites like Referral Key and to a lesser extent, LinkedIn. The social media world is in its infancy and while social networking and business networking are often clumped together, THEY ARE NOT THE SAME THING!
Hiring employees polarizes the need for quality control in business networking.
It’s a very good idea to consider separating your online social networking from your online business networking.
If other professionals are evaluating you before they start networking with, why wouldn’t you do the same?
We’ve always made a point to loosely define the “optimal size business network“. After all, every small business owner has a unique network with different qualities. However, in an age of massive social media networks and micro-stardom, it has become increasingly important to reevaluate the size of our network. To effectively generate sales leads can directly correlate with our ability to manage our referral relationships.
We can certainly identify two extremes. It’s safe to say if you have 3 people in your referral network, you aren’t likely to get a ton of new leads. Conversely, if you have 300 people in your network, each individual relationship may not be mutually beneficial.
Dunbar’s Number*
For those of you who are unfamiliar, “Dunbar’s Number” is a theoretical cognitive limit to the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships. It is widely interpreted that this number is around 150. Dunbar’s Number has been increasingly revisited due to the explosion of social media sites and the vast number of “friends” people are accumulating. The theory even appeared in the bestselling book, “The Tipping Point”.
What does Dunbar’s Theory Reveal About Referral Networking?
While 150 is not an absolute number, the idea is that once your business network exceeds a certain number, it is unlikely that you will be successful in managing those relationships or involved in them at all. Striking a balance is extremely important and there is always a give and take.
In theory, the more connections you have, the more networking opportunities you have. Conversely, the less connections you have the higher the quality per connection.
The Graph Below:
Assuming 2 professionals have an equitable amount of time to spend networking, one with 150 connections and one with 20 connections, in theory the networker with 20 connections will score lower in “networking opportunities” but inversely higher in “quality of networking opportunities”.
The graph demonstrates the intangible, and often overlooked, benefits of a smaller network.
Customer lead generation and b2b lead generation are two different forms of referral marketing and require a slightly different approach.
Within a business network, there is usually an obligation or at least an understanding, that professionals are going to actively send each other new sales leads. When referral partners fail to reciprocate, it is completely understandable to address the imbalance in the relationship and in some cases withdraw from the relationship.
Customers have no obligation to advocate for you. While we’d like to think that if we offer top quality services our customers will promote us via word of mouth, this not necessarily the case; even for some of our most loyal customers. There are a variety of reasons why your customers may not be sending you new business. Perhaps you’re just not “top of mind”. Whatever the reason, it would be inappropriate to expect your customers to do your marketing.
This leaves you with two options. You can either ask yourself, “Why does everyone say word of mouth marketing is so important if it never works?” or you can take hold of the reigns and offer your customers an incentive to spread the word about your services.
In this economy something as simple as a Starbucks gift card could be all it takes to get people talking.
Run a promotion campaign to encourage people you know to talk about your services.
On Tuesday August 5th, Referral Key CEO Lewis A. Weinstein was asked to provide a little insight into how Referral Key has been such a powerful tool in helping small businesses drive more revenue. Lewis explains how better management of your professional relationships will create new referral opportunities and ultimately help you drive more revenue through your business network.
We often receive referrals with varying degrees of confidence. A referral is not necessarily a sale but it can be if handled properly. The reality may be that your prospect only has a slight interest in your services or perhaps they may be doing some planning for a service they’ll need in the near future. Therefore, it might be beneficial to contact your trusted associate in your business network who sent you the lead before you contact your prospect to get a better understanding of their needs and concerns.
It’s a good idea to find out as much about your prospect as possible. What stage are they at in the decision making process? Have they used similar services in the past? If they were unsatisfied with previous services, what were the reasons why? Knowing how to approach your prospect and being able to address their concerns before they volunteer them; is a priceless advantage that will make you appear receptive, knowledgeable, and trustworthy. A little insight can go a long way in helping you close the sale.
What happens when your business networking service tries to catch a free ride with your social networking service? You end up walking somewhere else.
Plaxo’s Pulse is an effort to revitalize an aging contacts system. It is now evident that Plaxo, which had built a reputation by emailing unqualified referrals to just about everyone with a job, did not plan for the user friendly systems that dominates the networking world today. Users did not appreciate blind referral marketing.
Many of Plaxo’s users opted out, left their accounts dormant or migrated to recent publicity machines like Facebook. In an attempt to draw focus back to their site, Plaxo Pulse had a script which ran against Facebook’s own database and imported Plaxo user’s Facebook contacts and their personal information. To inaugurate the system Plaxo rounded up some of the internet’s most popular and influential tech-bloggers and journalists.
So what happened? Plaxo initiated this script against Facebook’s wishes. According to the Technorati article Plaxo Flubs It, “Facebook doesn’t like this, of course. But it isn’t Plaxo that’s paying the price. It’s the journalists and bloggers who’ve been testing out the service.” Facebook instantly deleted the accounts of people trying to use the new Plaxo service.
At this point it is irrelevant to blame Plaxo for being irresponsible, or Facebook for reacting. There are lessons to be learned for your business networking strategy. Your business network is built on trusted contacts. Referral marketing only works with qualified senders and quality leads. Thankfully, neither Plaxo or Facebook play a crucial role for corporate or small-business referral networking like Linked In and Referral Key do. In the age when uploading personal content is the trend we need to slowdown and adopt a real world approach especially when it affects our business; consider security and professionalism. Go with professional tools for professional needs.
The social site of the week may not be the safest or smartest place to keep or exchange business referrals. For us, referrals are our lifeline and we depend on a stable system that can securely facilitate their management for maximum ROI.
Select a Cash Bounty Amount
Consider setting up a Cash Bounty that you'd be willing to pay to people who send you new business. It's free to setup and you control whether to issue the cash.
