Trust is key and should always take precedence over numbers when it comes to the quality and size of your business referral network. With that said, the Achilles heal of many referral groups is that they are not diverse or large enough to meet sales expectations.
We are certainly not advocating inviting your 500 friends from Facebook to your referral network. When expanding your network you must maintain a balance between quality and quantity. It’s a balance that every individual small business owner must define for themselves. However, let’s take a look at two extremes-
3 Associates In your Referral Network
There’s certainly nothing wrong with having such an intimate networking group but the reality of the situation is that you probably aren’t going to recieve a new referral everyday from this group.
500 Associates In Your Referral Network
Other than an ego boost, having 500 people in your referral network is probably going to amount to a lot of time spent on strangers and a lot of missed opportunities with colleagues you know and trust. Remember, small business lead generation and a social networking are extremely different. If you aren’t serious about exchanging qualified referrals with someone then do not invite them to your referral network.
Here are a few ways you can expand your referral network without compromising its integrity.
1. Consider having multiple referral partners in a similar industry. For example, if you’re a real estate agent, why not have a number of loan officers on your radar? If you know they do good work, then inviting them to your network will only present more referral opportunities. Besides with Referral Key, you can choose to keep individual referral relationships private, so no one has to know their not the only show in town.
2. We often overlook our closest friends as sources of new business. There is a diplomatic way to take advantage of you and your friend’s professional connections without compromising your personal relationship. Use referral tracking reports to ensure you maintain a balanced referral exchange.
3. Check out other professionals on Referral Key’s directory. Gold Key members are able to take a look through the directory and find professionals with both customer and referral associate ratings. This may not nessecarily be the only factor in establishing trust but it could be a great segway into a phone call and perhaps some tentative lead sharing.
There is no right or wrong when it comes to the size of your referral network.
How many people do you activley exchange qualified sales leads with?
Social media is a great medium in which to build relationships, trust, friendships, business contacts and most important to the readers of this blog, referrals! The best marketing for your business is other people saying good things about your business, thus referring them to you. This is why building referrals is key.
How do you best accomplish this utilizing online social media?
Your first step is to start by being social. You need to talk to people and then add something of value to their lives. Do not try to sell them your product or service. Once people get to know who you are and find you trustworthy, they’ll be more likely to be interested in what you have to offer. Make them want to find out more.
Where are the best places to build referrals in social media?
Answer questions in LinkedIn Answers. Show you know what you’re doing, create a solid track record, and create a desire to find out more of you.
Online Communities
Message boards, forums, Ning social networks
Add a signature that says one sentence about what you do and a link to your website. Fill out your profile completely.
Add value to these communities, make people want to come to you instead of you chasing them down.
ReferralKey
It should be obvious that since I’m writing here on ReferralKey, that I would recommend their system. After all, it’s free and helps you build referrals off of each other where you all have the same goal in mind.
The common theme that I preach here in social media is that you must add value to your network. If you aren’t adding something, what can you take away? Leave the members of your network with the desire to tell others about you and your business. Create raving fans; don’t be a sales man, be a service man.
This article was written by Kim Fenolio. Kim Fenolio is the Interface Monkey and New Media Super Hero at America’s Best Companies (ABC). ABC is a national-level small business association offering hundreds of discounts, advice, information, tips, and other resources on small business issues that can be used right away to start, grow, and manage their businesses more successfully. Kim has been personally working successful social media strategy since the 1990s and is helping ABC realize success in that medium as well.
Today we sat down with Ken Taylor; author of “Breaking the Sales Barrier” and founder of Ken Taylor & Associates Inc. To call Ken a power networker may be an understatement. His company specializes in sales and leadership training, across multiple industries, he works with fortune 100 companies such as General Motors, Chrysler, and CitiMortgage. He is currently contracted with GM, in charge of training business to business sales, for 600 commercial dealerships.
Ken has been running a successful business for over 21 years.
What do you think of Referral Key as tool for managing referrals?
I actually really liked it, I’m just getting into it now. I like the concept far better than I do Plaxo or Linked In. For most people that join Linked In and Plaxo, it becomes a conglomeration of names. People are trying to link to me and I say to myself, “Who is that and what’s the relationship?” There’s ways to use these services better but 95% have no concept of how to do that and we try to teach them. To be able to track referrals and know “who” gives “what”, is an incredible tool. We found out about you guys through your partner program with Constant Contact and I’m always open to new ideas. I went on Referral Key, explored it and said, “Wow, this is a much better concept than what I’ve seen.” You said you’re a connector and have a 10,000 person network. How do you manage all of those connections? I am connector, and connectors get as much thrill and joy out of giving referrals as getting them. A lot people say, “Gosh, it’s a down economy, how are you doing?”. And I say, “We’re doing great, people trust us and we’ve built that trust over a long period of time.”
What makes a great networker?
The key to networking is asking the questions, “What do you give, before you get?” and “How can you help other people?” I go to networking events and see people running from group to group handing out business cards and not really building relationships. In sales we have a three step process: “Know, Like and Trust”. Someone has to know you. Once they get to know you they have to have an affinity for you. Finally, if you send them a referral, the trust begins to build and you see the floodgates begin to open.
It’s about always having your network hat on. If you’re really an effective networker, everything evolves into a networking opportunity. You might be talking to a client and you happen to know a different client that has particular needs and then bring the second client’s needs up through questions. It’s all about being a matchmaker.
Ask what else is going on and ask more about the company. For example, we’ll go into an automotive dealership, make sales calls with them and encourage them to ask more than just about automotive; “What’s going in your company that’s of concern to you?” Just by asking that question, we’ve now created a referral networking opportunity.
What do you think makes an unsuccessful networker?
I went to a networking event with my wife and I saw some very unsuccessful networking. One young salesperson asked someone what they did and his response to that was, “well I don’t need to talk to you, you’re not in my area of expertise.”
I’ll be giving a seminar and I’ll ask a question such as, “how many of you are in networking groups like BNI?” Of about 50 salespeople, only 3-4 hands go up. Then I’ll ask, “what has you experience been?” By their answers, I know how good they are. One person might say, “I haven’t gotten a lot out of it” and then I know they haven’t put a lot into it. Do you think that tracking referrals is a good idea and leads to healthier business relationships? It’s essential! For example, we work with mortgage loan officers, and we often hear them say, “I established a relationship with a realtor, I gave them 3 referrals but I never got anything back.” Then I ask the loan officer, “Did you create that expectation up front?”. I tell them the problem might be that the realtor is not even thinking about a referral relationship and doesn’t have that same referral mentality.
I encourage the loan officer to follow up with the realtor and say something to the affect of, “I sent you three referrals and I assumed we had a business relationship, did I do something wrong?” The realtor went on to apologize and immediately sent a referral to the loan officer. You have to instruct them and teach them.
We track who sent referrals. We’re going to give them a gift, we’re going to call them and we’re going to make sure that they are rewarded for what they did for us. I got three referrals today and made sure to give three right back. You have to know what people send to you and know what you send out. You have to know who those referrals are, where they came from and what they resulted in. Always keep your referral source informed of what happened, thank them and let them know that you are on the lookout. It’s very important to repay those referrals in kind. It’s my obligation to let you know that I appreciate the referrals that you gave and I want to tell you that I can do the same, it may not happen right away, but please know you’re on my radar screen.
Do you do anything to ensure reciprocal referral relationships? Life is what it is. There are cases where someone doesn’t have the opportunity to send you referrals; maybe there’s not a business fit. But, it doesn’t mean I abandoned that relationship. I keep it on the drawing board and continuing learning more about that person. Even though they may not be a direct referral source, they may become what we term as an “indirect referral source”. They can get me into another network or I find out they’re in different associations and that association ends up being a fit.
Don’t ever dismiss anyone as a client. I’m on airplanes quite a bit. I have the same networking ice-breaker with the person sitting next to me. If they’re not busy reading a book, I’ll ask them, “Hey are you going home or are you leaving?” It’s the beginning of a long conversation that could lead to referral networking opportunity.
Calling all referral networkers! Here are are some tips from the pros to help you keep those referrals flowing.
Follow this advice and generate a tidal wave of new business.
1. “The best way to get a referral is to send one.”
Christopher Ott, Referral Key
2. “Try out a referral incentive program: gifts, discounts, etc.”
Kim Fenolio, America’s Best Companies
3. “The reality is that effective referral networking requires a two pronged approach. First we need to exchange referrals with professionals and customers who already know us and are familiar with the quality of our work; a tool like Referral Key helps track and manage those referrals. Second, we must build relationships via an open dialog with those who are not comfortable with us yet.”
Len Bruskiewitz, Constant Contact
4. “You must instill a referral marketing mind-set into your business’s culture. Do this by making every customer a marketing and referral contact.”
John Jantsch, Duct Tape Marketing
5. “We all know and understand the power of referrals. Word of mouth is as potent as it gets. You can’t buy it or force it. But you can encourage it.”
Drew McLellan, The Marketing Minute
You’ve staked out a fertile plot, planted the proverbial seeds and now you’re waiting to take in the sun. In other words, you’ve found a niche, developed a few strategic relationships, and you’re ready to drive revenue to your small business.
It can be hard to take in the sun during the winter just as it can be hard to drive revenue in a recession.
What can the trees teach us?
The Deciduous Approach
Deciduous trees are trees that go dormant during the winter months. (Maple, Oak, Birch). The deciduous approach to a cold season is to shed their leaves to prevent damage and conserve energy.
You can think of the deciduous approach to survival as an outbound advertising strategy. When times are good, the leaves put on a bright display and the money flows. But when winter arrives the tree goes dormant and so does the business.
The Coniferous Approach
Conifers are cone bearing trees dubbed “evergreens” because of their ability to stay green year round. (Spruce, Pine, Redwood). The coniferous approach to a cold season has been to develop resilient leaves(needles) that retain moisture and are able to stay on the tree for as many as 40 years.
From scorching heat to sub-zero temperatures, conifers survive in almost any environment because of their long term relationships with their needles. Coniferous businesses will survive any economic climate because of their long term referral relationships with their business associates and clients.
Dave O’brien has been an accountant for over 40 years. In that time, he’s worked with many top firms including KPMG Peat Marwick (Now KPMG) in Boston and Isner & Lubner in New York City. Currently, Dave specializes in taxes. Given his expertise, as well as a very important tax season, he finds no shortage of freelance work.
Throughout your forty year career as an accountant, what strategy has helped you generate new business?
Word of mouth… all referral based. The accounting business was strictly referral business.
Where did you meet your connections and referral partners?
I tried several networking groups over the years. At one point, we even started our own meet up group. We had an insurance guy, an attorney and so forth. It was a great idea but eventually the group broke down due to our busy schedules. It was very difficult to get everyone at the meetings.
I wish I had a tool like Referral Key thirty years ago.
How have you helped build your reputation over the years?
Its about recognizing your strengths and referring clients to the right people whenever possible. I worked with a lot of new businesses and clients looking to incorporate. I would send them to the right people because I knew that my reputation and the possibility for a long term relationship, were contingent on my associate’s ability to provide the clients I was referring to them, with the best possible service.
I would refer them to lawyers that could best serve the clients and their needs, not the lawyer. When I first started, there were a lot of lawyers that would help you incorporate but only authorize a limited amount of shares in small increments. This would allow them to accrue more fees over time because inevitably, the business owner would be interested in acquiring more shares.
I would also send the same clients to banks that were receptive to their needs, not a bank that would be unresponsive when the client needed a new loan a few months down line.
Can you think of any bad referrals that stand out?
Ha ha ha… yes, the client didn’t pay.
What is the most important advice you could give an accountant who’s just starting out?
Get out there and build strong relationships. That’s the key. Also, to avoid situation where client’s don’t pay you for your services, you should check with their previous accountant to ensure you’re dealing with the right people.
A recent case study by Cambridge based online marketing consultants HubSpot, revealed a 230% increase in traffic leads to the online referral network, Referral Key.
This exciting news is important for two reasons.
First and most importantly, it tells us that small business owners are thriving. They’re driving more sales by banning together and taking a proactive approach to exchanging qualified sales leads. Members can track these numbers right from their Referral Key homepage. Yet, these aren’t figures you’re likely to see on the evening news. And while the talking heads churn out report after report of massive layoffs and corporate failings, you aren’t going to see any figures about the solid sales leads so many talented small business owners have been able to generate in the face of naysayers and pessimists.
Second, Referrals Key’s own growth is indicative of the power of a relationship based growth strategy. Whether it’s working with HubSpot to offer up useful content to the community as well search engines or it’s working with its members night and day to individually teach each members how to really take advantage of this tool, it’s all about reciprocal behavior.
Everyone wins this wins when we exchange referrals!
We welcome Jill Lublin as a guest author on the Referral Key small business blog. Jill is an expert in the areas of PR, business networking and referral marketing. Jill has been featured in The New York Times, Women’s Day, Fortune Small Business, Inc, and Entrepreneur Magazine, and on ABC and NBC radio and TV national affiliates. Subscribe to the Referral Key blog to stay up-to-date with advice on growing your small business from Jill and other industry leaders. - Christopher O.
Top 10 Get Noticed! Tips
• Be yourself. Build on your assets and your uniqueness because they are really what people want. Clients and customers want you, your special viewpoint or approach; your unique insights or touch, not a weak imitation of someone else. Don’t just be a copycat; find your own voice. Get noticed in your own way; in the manner most natural and comfortable to you. Examine the approaches that others have taken and then follow what feels natural for you. Trust yourself and your instincts.
• Work your business around your life, so it fits in your life, supports your life, and reflects you. Too many people do the reverse, they work their lives around their businesses and it frequently doesn’t work out well.
• Think of your clients, customers, referral sources, vendors, and suppliers as your partners and friends as people who want to help you. Never forget that they’re people, not just business statistics, and that you cannot succeed without them.
• Master the art of listening because when you listen, you truly learn. If you listen, people will want to share their knowledge with you, be with you and help you. They will consider you their friend and go to great lengths to help you.
• Before you take on any project, make sure that you know exactly what the client or customer wants. Reduce your understanding to writing to eliminate doubt. It’s hard to satisfy people when you don’t know what they want.
• Be generous. Make giving a central part of your life. Work hard and give your clients and customers more than they expect. Give people your time. Always show your appreciation, thank and reward those who help. Praise others, and give them the credit and the spotlight.
• Surround yourself with the most interesting, active, and positive people. Hang around with experts, authorities, and people who are smarter and more accomplished than you. Find ways to meet them and be with them because they will open amazing new doors for you. They will support your efforts and add fullness and excitement to your life.
• Constantly strive for excellence and do everything in the best possible way. Build a reputation for continually doing outstanding work and everyone will want to be with and work with you. People who live excellence will find you.
• Always ask can I do it better, more interestingly, or more inventively? Challenge yourself to go beyond your prior accomplishments and to always surpass your best. Constantly look in new directions.
• Never compromise your integrity. Stand by your values, but don’t preach. Always be truthful, honest, fair, understanding, and humane. Deliver what you promised when you promised.
Follow these suggestions and you will be noticed. The best people will notice and appreciate you and you will enjoy a wonderful life.
In a perfect world, we would provide our service to a client and assuming we did a good job, that person would start telling their colleagues and all we would need to do is sit back and let the referral business roll in. The reality is that effective referral networking requires a two pronged approach. First we need to exchange referrals with professionals and customers who already know us and are familiar with the quality of our work; a tool like Referral Key helps track and manage those referrals. Second, we must build relationships via an open dialog with those who are not comfortable with us yet.
To this end, it is important that we build an ongoing communication stream with the people we want to recommend us. This serves multiple purposes; it reminds them that we are an expert in our field who is willing to share that expertise with them and it keeps us “top of mind” so that when an opportunity to refer comes up, they remember us. There are a number of ways to build these types of relationships (in-person meetings, webinars, direct mail, etc.) but the most efficient is via an Email Newsletter sent through a service that creates a professional-looking message that is trackable. These newsletters can be short – no more than a paragraph or two – but as long as they are providing valuable content to the recipient, they meet the dual objective of confirming your expertise and staying in touch with potential referrers. When thinking about newsletter content, always try to make sure that after reading it, your recipients will either feel “smarter” or “cooler” than they did before. If instead, your recipients will feel like they just endured a long sales pitch, start over again.
A real-life example of how this works is a Human Resources consultant who sends out a few sentences in her monthly newsletter regarding issues relevant to Human Resources personnel. Within a few hours of sending the newsletter, her phone rings and she gets business either from one of her recipients or someone that received a forwarded copy of it. Many times, the business has nothing to do with the content of her newsletter but is a result of her sending useful information and building relationships through regular communication.
Building relationships through a dialog with your current clients and members of your business network is crucial to generating referrals – and it is easy to get started. Share your expertise and you will be on your way to building your referral network.
A CEO, International Speaker, and bestselling author, Jill Lublin knows it’s all about developing strong professional relationships. Her new book “Get Noticed Get Referrals” maps out a solid approach to playing your best game, even amidst this dismal economic situation. We here at Referral Key are big fans of Jill because she promotes a proactive networking strategy.
Jill stresses the importance of viewing clients, customers, referral sources, and vendors as friends. Like any relationship, maintaining that friendship requires effort. Tracking and managing your referrals with a referral system will ensure you reward those who advocate for you. The most important point Jill drives home is that PR is not an isolated activity. Every time you communicate with someone you are either strengthening or weakening your reputation so don’t take a halfhearted approach or you will lose overtime.
There are plenty of business networks but don’t let going to a weekly meeting give you a false sense of accomplishment. Successful professionals regard reputation building as a full time job. Along with the quality of the services you provide, it may be the most important thing you do.
We think Referral Key is the perfect tool to put Jill’s philosophies to work. I’d recommend you pick up her new book at Amazon or you can visit her website.
Referral Key helps all types of business owners generate qualified referrals from their trusted professional network. We are excited that the women of the networking group Onyx Six have found value in using our tool. Onyx Six is a networking group specifically aimed at helping minority women small-business-owners and entrepreneurs develop successful practices.
I had a chance to catch-up with Onyx Six co-founder Lyndsey Shaffer.
Alex Liviertos, known as “the coach” by his clients, has been helping small business professionals in the Chicago area achieve greater income for nearly 22 years. A Referral Key Gold Key member and business networking guru, Alex understands the importance of developing and managing a strong referral network. To contact Alex you can visit his Referral Key profile or visit his website.
Corporations understand that consumers are more likely to purchase their products when presented with fewer choices. Social psychologists Sheena Iyengar, PhD, and Mark Lepper, PhD, were the first to empirically demonstrate the downside of excessive choice. In a 2000 paper in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology , they showed that when shoppers are given the option of choosing among smaller and larger assortments of jam, they show more interest in the larger assortment. But when it comes time to pick just one, they’re 10 times more likely to make a purchase if they choose among six rather than among 24 flavors of jam.
If fewer choices consistently results in more sales, then why do so many small business professionals insist on offering far too many services in their company’s description? The answer is two fold. First, because we invest so much time and energy into our practices, we’d like to believe that we’re capable of providing the absolute best service, even if the client’s needs are slightly out of our scope of expertise. Secondly, we inherently believe that if we offer more services, more clients will seek us out.
Every industry has its self proclaimed “renaissance person” however, and we are not trying to pick on them, computer professionals tend to have the “I do it all” bug the worst. This approach may work if you are looking to do odd jobs for friends and family but it presents a barrier for customers trying to find a specific solution. For example, if you are browsing the Referral Key Business Directory looking for an experienced web programmer, which profile are you more likely to follow up with?
Kevin Smith: Web Programming - 12 years
Richard Wilson: Computer Networking, Computer System Designs, Computer Repair, Computer Consulting, Graphic Designer, Web Programming, Search Engine Optimization - 12 years
The first professional is much more appealing because if anything, he appears to be dedicated to his craft. It’s the same reasoning that dictates why we probably wouldn’t want to purchase life insurance at a Walmart. Because of our own experiences and limitations, we have developed an unspoken dialog in our mind. We believe that specialization equals quality.
Don’t call Len Rosen a businessman, blogger, networker, or humanitarian… because he is all of the above. Len’s approach to small business networking encompasses everything from furthering biomedical research technology to capitalizing on new social media tools like Referral Key. Occasionally, it is important to take a step back to understand the full potential of relationship building and the true power of developing your trusted circle of professional relationships. A strong network can be utilized to enact positive results in a variety of endeavors, wherever your career may take you.
We are excited to welcome Jim Tome onto Referral Key Small Business Radio. Jim is no stranger to new social media. An accomplished blogger, technocrat and networker; Jim is familiar with the power of businesses networking. In fact it’s Jim’s job to help his clients effectively utilize the web to generate new business. Despite the recent push for amassing a vast number of contacts on applications such as MySpace and Linked In , Jim explains, that for a small businesses, your personal circle of professionals whom you know and trust cannot be replaced.
After reading Jim’s profile page you immediately get the feeling that he knows online marketing as well as most of us know are way home. However, Jim along with many experts, believe that the best method of generating new business is to invest in a reasonable number of professional relationships with those whose work you are familiar with. After trust is established, technology can then be utilized to more effectively manage and grow those relationships. In short, “It’s all about the interpersonal relationships” and the small business owners here at Referral Key couldn’t agree more.
We are glad to welcome seasoned business networking expert Adrianne Machina. Adrianne founded Tornado Marketing to serve the marketing needs of small businesses, especially those in technology consulting. Adrianne became an authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach in 2007, which allowed her to expand her offerings to the needs of the smallest entrepreneurial businesses. During her 15 year career, she has met and helped many business owners and executives who are technically competent and business savvy, but who struggle with marketing.
Today Adrianne gives us valuable insight into her formula for success as well as explaining how a tool like Referral Key can create new opportunities for professionals looking to expand their business through qualified business referral exchange with professionals they know and trust.
We’ve all heard about them. Many of you may have even been at early morning networking events you just don’t remember because you were asleep.
Isn’t it ironic that in an age of hectic schedules and on-demand everything, some are still braving the cold at as early as 4:00AM to listen to business networking pitches?
Increasingly, research shows that our productive peak can vary greatly between what the Wall Street Journal identifies as the two professionals types; Larks and Owls. According to research psychiatrist Thomas Wehr’s report in the Wall Street Journal “Ironically, the period when we’re most alert and at the highest state of arousal is after we leave work.” 4:00AM is a bit daunting for even the most motivated Lark in us.
But even if you consider yourself a “Lark” you are still trying to exchange referrals with “Owls” and if half the room is in dreamland you can bet your pitch is not going to be the first thing on anyone’s mind at 2pm.
Building a referral network before the sun comes up is less than productive according to entrepreneur Dani Nordin, “For one, the time it takes to actually get ready and head down to a 7am networking event would literally have me up sometime around 4:30-5am, given the long commute into Boston via public transit, and that just didn’t work for me. I’d show up with hair still wet and making a beeline for the coffee and breakfast, and while I did meet a couple of folks, they were almost never folks that I kept in touch with.” Lets face it, we would rather be spending our time and money with our family and friends than gassing up the car or buying a train pass to go listen to a pitch about vacuum cleaner attachments.
Fortunately, technology has enabled us to replace or rework many time consuming activities; conference calls, video conferencing and webinars to name a few. Referral marketing should be no different. Integrating referral management into your work day is a much more time/cost effective solution than extending your work day by three hours and not seeing a return.
Exchanging referrals online keeps you fresh in your associates’ minds. Small business networking is an investment. Rather than leaving your investment to chance you should utilize a tool like Referral Key which delivers regular reports allowing you to evaluate your professional relationships. Those who understand their network best can decide where to focus their attention, fix weaknesses, and ultimately maximize the benefits of business networking.
*Note: you will not be able to take advantage of the features outlined in these tutorials if you have not upgraded to a free Referral Key “Basic Account”. For help , watch the Grow Your Small Business with a Free Basic Membership tutorial.
Step 1 Add Your Business Profile to Our Popular Directory
Step 2 Inviting Associates to Exchange Referrals With You
Step 3 Send and Receive Qualified Sales Leads
Step 4 Create A Referral Promotion Campaign
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.
Calling all referral networkers! Here are are some tips from the pros to help you keep those referrals flowing.
You’ve staked out a fertile plot, planted the proverbial seeds and now you’re waiting to take in the sun. In other words, you’ve found a niche, developed a few strategic relationships, and you’re ready to drive revenue to your small business.
We welcome 
