Thursday is guest post day here at Duct Tape Marketing and today’s guest is from Matt Anderson – Enjoy!
One of the most important elements of getting more highly targeted referrals is to make it EASY for others to open the right doors by being crystal clear about what you want.
Stop saying “if you can think of anyone else who might benefit from my services, please have them give me a call” because it hardly ever works and, if it does, the referrals will likely be unfocused at best.
Since no strategy can work every time, here are six ways to excel in uncovering the best referral prospects:
- Pre-planning
Before you meet, do some homework on who your client is connected to:
Google them, search LinkedIn contacts and think through what other people, groups or interests they have already mentioned in their life.
Before every meeting, ask yourself: what would I love to ask this person for? This is the one of the best referral habits you can have.
- Listen differently
Make it a goal in every meeting to identify 1-3 names of people who fit your ideal target prospect.
When you do, you will find that you pay more attention to conversation that in the past may have seemed frivolous or unrelated to your agenda for the meeting.
You already know that there are times when you don’t listen closely to everything someone says. When you make a point to listen closely for names, you’ll start to notice that sometimes they do mention specific people.
- Ask different questions
If you don’t know yet what people are in their personal and professional world, ask different questions! Remember the goal is to identify specific people or opportunities for you.
“What do you love to do?”
“What are you working on right now?”
Let them tell you. If something comes up that you believe you could help with: “How do you think it would be best for me to help you with this situation?”
“Who’s your ideal client?” This ought to then give you a chance to respond too.
“If you were me and building a business in this area, who would be the important people for me to know?”
Ask your clients:
“I’m curious: What do you tell other people about the work we do?”
- Use generic specifics
If have yet to identify anyone: instead of 30 family members say ‘siblings’ or ‘parents’; ‘best friend’ beats ‘friends’; and ‘favorite colleague at work’ beats potentially dozens of anonymous ‘co-workers’; “who do you most like to (e.g.) golf with that you discuss this kind of thing of with?”
For business owners ask about favorite clients, favorite vendors that they outsource to, and referral sources.
- Memory jogging stories
Educate people about the different types of work you do by sharing stories so they know all that you’re capable of. During general conversation, start weaving in more stories of how you have helped other people in different situations. The goal is to hear: “I didn’t know you did that. You know, you might want to talk to…” Look for flickers of recognition.
You could even legitimately ask: “Do you ever run into people in that situation?”
- Ideal client list
A few people have success presenting a list of prospects to others in their network. If you’ve got water in the well with someone, it is perfectly appropriate to say: “I’m curious to ask you about a list of area businesses that I put together the other day. (Show list) Do you have any decent contacts at any of these places? I’d love to talk to them about their (fill in the blank) because I’ve worked with a lot of similar organizations and they’ve turned into excellent relationships.”
Create an ideal client list of specific names, companies, locations or professions and life situations.
The results come when you make it very easy for others such that they do not have to think about it. So be very clear about what you want by knowing whom you want to meet.
Matt Anderson, founder of The Referral Authority, is the author of Fearless Referrals. He leads seminars and coaching groups around the globe for business development professionals on how to develop the lifetime skill of getting referrals. Contact him at Matt@TheReferralAuthority.com or 312-622-3121.
