You’ve worked hard and you’ve developed a team of trusted referral sources who are happy to refer you to their network. How can you progress to the next level?What has to be in place to make sure they can easily refer you? This week we will discuss 5 steps you can take to referral success with your key people. This process is one my clients work on the most as it once its honed with the right people, it works every time.
Below is an outline of the five step process along with a brief description of how to complete each step.
Step 1 in the process is Trust.
This is my favourite step as it really gets my clients to understand their relationship and if there is any work needed on developing more trust between them. Good questions to ask yourself would be;
- What have I done to gain trust from my referral source?
- What has my referral source done to gain trust from me?
- In what areas might I need to develop more trust to increase my referral confidence level with my referral sources?
Step 2 asks if your referral source can talk about your business for 2-4 minutes?
If your referral source is sat in front of a potential client for you do they know enough about your business and the particular products /services you want to promote? If they can, are they able to talk about them accurately and intelligently?
Step 3 Can your referral source identify the need for your products or services?
Your referral source must be able to identify why the potential client would have a need for your product or service, and how to qualify the referral on your behalf. For example my Asentiv referral sources know to listen out for things like;
- Business owners struggling to grow their business
- Sales teams needing to hit targets
- People complaining about working long hours
- Companies who want to take on more staff because they work to hard but aren’t quite there yet
- People who value business relationships
- People who are prepared to invest in their business and self-development
Step 3 also involves educating your referral source with the type of questions they could ask to really qualify you as a must speak to person. Asentiv referral sources ask questions such as;
- How do you currently get most of your business?
- Are you working with the type of clients you want?
- Would you like more of those clients?
- What are your plans for business growth?
- Is your business giving you the lifestyle you wanted?
What questions would your referral sources have to ask on your behalf?
Step 4 Can you be offered as the solution?
Can your referral source spend 2-4 minutes being able to offer you as a solution? Do they have testimonials to draw from? Can you provide them testimonials based on things like the financial ROI you can deliver, the increased level of skills you can provide, any time saving benefits of engaging with you? If you’ve equipped your referral source with this information you will cover most objections. Finally does your referral source know what drives you to make a difference? Do they know your ECC? (find out about ECC on the ECC link below)
Step 5 How to set up an appointment
Can your referral source encourage the prospective client to be compelled to have the appointment? If the solution has been offered appropriately, then the appointment is easy; a very small step when done right. Getting them to agree to an appointment is what we should be focusing on for our referral sources.
By spending time on these steps with your key referral sources you can really elevate your referral success rate from transferring those referrals in to sales.
More tips?
If you enjoyed this blog and would like to how to get the most from your networking then you can download my free ebook “47 Networking nuggets” by clicking on the link below.
https://merseyside.asentiv.com/networking-nuggets/
ECC
https://merseyside.asentiv.com/who-your-why-really-matters-to-and-why/