CONNECTING IS NOT ENOUGH: Ten Tips to Get Your Referral Message Across (Part One)

This article was originally published in The National Networker

Building a strong network to help you generate more business is just the first step in an effective referral strategy. Once you have established and developed relationships with those people in your network, you then need to build their understanding of how they can help you so that they can become effective champions for your business.

This is where so many people fall down. They network relentlessly trying to find the referrals they need when they already have all the necessary connections. They’re just not getting their message across well enough to help their network help them.

If you struggle to get the connections you need from your network, read on. Hopefully the following tips will give you some ideas about how you can change your approach and get your message across in a way that will make it easy for others to refer you.


Tip Number One: Know what your message is


It sounds a bit obvious, doesn’t it? Yet I consistently ask audiences at my talks and delegates on my workshops who their ideal referral is and so few actually have a clear idea. But if you don't know, how can anyone else be expected to understand?

Spend some time working out who your ideal referral is and who you’d like to be introduced to. Your thoughts would naturally turn to prospective clients, yet it may be far more valuable to be introduced to someone who can provide links to numbers of prospects, or add other value to your business. Where do you most need support at the moment for example?

Most businesses have a range of products and services they offer. If this describes you, who are the key connections you need for each revenue stream? Develop a ‘referral mix’, and have a clear picture in your mind of each one, in case the opportunity arises to ask for the connection.


Tip Number Two - Ask the right question of the right person


Once you understand your referral mix, you need to ask people for the referrals they are best placed to offer. After all, different people have different networks.

A few years ago I started writing for The Sun newspaper as a result of a referral from a former top newspaper editor. When he asked how he could help me, I targeted my response to an area I knew he was familiar with and where he was well-placed to help. A little bit of thought can make a huge amount of difference if you then know you are asking the right questions.

You can also do your research in advance in some cases, where appropriate. If you are meeting with a prospective champion and you know referrals may be on the agenda, why not look at their LinkedIn network in advance to see who they know and how they might be able to connect you?


Tip Number Three - Be Specific


If you are struggling to get referrals from people who want to help you, it may be that they simply don’t understand who you want to talk to. That may seem strange to you, but you know your business better than anyone else.

Paint a picture in people's minds of the people you want to meet, companies you want to talk to. The clearer the picture in their mind, the fewer the number of people they know (but above zero!), the more chance there is that they will be able to connect you.

We tend to assume that the more examples of potential referrals we give our champions, the more chance that they will know someone and refer us. However, the reverse is true. The greater the number of potential referrals they can pass, the more filtering they have to do. You have to do the filtering for them

For example, if you sell least cost telephone routing you could ask people for connections to anyone who has a telephone. I’ve heard that request made several times! Yet how much time do you think people would take to make those referrals? Will they speak to everyone they know who has a phone?

It’s unlikely that they would, so they’d have to decide who to talk to. It’s more likely that they’d simply pass on the opportunity to help.

Make it easy for people to follow through and make your request specific and focused. If they know one person and can easily have the conversation, it’s much harder to say no.


Tip Number Four - Ask Directly


I would venture that the most common reason people don’t get referrals from their network is quite simple….they don’t ask for them! It’s often said that if you don't ask you don't get, yet we just sit back and expect our network to refer us.

Many businesses will admit that their best source of new business is word of mouth and recommendations, yet their strategy is a passive one, waiting for customers to refer them rather than asking. However, we are far more likely to talk about negative experiences than positive ones. You need to substantially exceed people’s expectations if you want people to refer you on their own initiative.

Don't assume people know how to help you, or even think about doing so. Look at your closest network and best clients and ask yourself who would be happy to help you but who you've never asked. Sit down with them and explain the connections you are looking for and ask for their help. If you’ve selected wisely you should be delighted with the results.


Tip Number Five - Put yourself in others' shoes


The very nature of referrals dictates that, more often than not, you won’t be present when the referral takes place. It’s important for you to anticipate the conversation between your champion and prospect and prepare your champion with the information they’ll need.

After all, you can’t simply expect your champion to ask the other person if they’d like to meet you without the prospect asking why!

A common mistake is for people seeking referrals to explain why they want to meet or work with a prospect. They are only seeing things from their own perspective. The hard truth is that your prospect doesn’t care about what you want. They are interested in their own needs and self-interest.

More specifically, if they are going to want to speak to you, they need to perceive that they have a problem you can solve. After all, we are in business to solve people’s problems.

Help your champion understand how to communicate the problem your prospect is facing, the solution you offer and how they will then benefit from the eradication of that problem. If you can get that right, you won’t need to be there to make the sale.


Next month, in the next five tips, we’ll look at the importance of keeping things simple, telling stories patience and managing your reputation.

Connecting is not Enough - The Newsletter

The latest edition of Connecting is not Enough is available now.


Includes:


Are you at the right event?


The alternative to cold calling


Checking your online profiles


and Mitchell and Webb's spin on the networking bore.

International Networking Week 2010 - Let's see the networks start to network with each other

Next week, February 1-5, is International Networking Week. A BNI initiative, the aim of International Networking Week is to 'celebrate the key role that networking plays in the development and success of businesses across the world'. It's a noble initiative and one that deserves to gain some support and a greater profile in the UK.

I went along to the BNI Big Breakfast in London in 2007 to mark that year's International Networking Week. They are holding a similar event this year, with 400 people expected, and it certainly was a good event when I attended.

What is disappointing is that the concept doesn't seem to have taken off in the UK in the way it has elsewhere. There are three UK events listed on the official site, all of which are hosted by BNI.

The profile of networking, and its credibility as an important business strategy, have certainly grown over the years and I have been delighted to see more companies take networking seriously. However, there still seems to be more competitiveness than collaboration between the different networking organisations, a problem we often ran into (with a few notable exceptions) when I was involved in networking groups.

I'd love to see International Networking Week embraced by networking organisations across the UK, as well as by schools and in corporates, in the same way as Global Entrepreneurship Week. Let's see the networks do some networking of their own and use their combined resources and influence to really raise the bar next year.

To Tweet or not to Tweet...

In Saturday's Financial Times, Jonathan Moules asked whether Facebook and Twitter are valuable business tools. In the article, To tweet or not to tweet is a business question, Jonathan talked to a variety of small businesses who have used social networks to engage with customers, find collaborators, recruit staff and build internal communities.

I also offer my thoughts on the benefits of social media to business in the 'Ask the Experts' section, along with Media Coach Alan Stevens.

Why some networking events may not be right for you

I've been to two networking events this week that have got me thinking. I constantly stress the importance of understanding why you are going to networking events if you want to make the most from them. That awareness can direct your planning, your behaviour at the event and your follow up and lead to much stronger results.

What I rarely talk about, however, is the understanding of why other people are there and respecting that. If your reason for attending doesn't match other people's it may well be the wrong event for you.

On Monday I was invited to attend an event at a major investment bank with a view to making some interesting new connections. Predominantly for clients of that bank, the prime purpose for most people attending was to listen to the bank's strategist talk about prospects for the year ahead and look for advice about their investments.

Although there was a 30 minute 'networking' period before the speaker began, many people simply took a seat, others waited for colleagues, while other attendees sought out their contacts from the bank. Approaching individuals wasn't a comfortable experience and in some cases was met with a less than warm front.

Yesterday I spoke at a breakfast meeting for businesses in the East London area. Organised by Bernie Mitchell, a local character well-known for his love of networking and enthusiasm in encouraging others to connect, people came primarily to network. Yes, there were also speakers at this event but it was the connections that were the main driver for many of those attending. Even those who came to hear the speakers were also aware of the networking opportunity, and open to approaches.

I'm not criticising attendees at the event on Monday. The fact is they had a different agenda to people on Thursday. Attending Monday's event with a view to building new contacts could only lead in the main to disappointment, or a lot of very hard work and rejection.

Once you have established your focus for an event, look to see if it is the right match. If your goal from attending a networking event is to meet new people, ask yourself why other people are attending. If their agenda is different to yours and they just want to hear the speaker or catch up with existing contacts, it may be worth adjusting your goals (as I did on Monday) or choosing to attend a different event.

Connecting is not Enough: The Newsletter

The latest edition of the Connecting is not Enough networking tips newsletter is available to read online now.

The first edition of the New Year includes:

- My predictions for 2010

- Listening for people

- Asking questions on social networks

- Getting started on LinkedIn

- All you need to know about Man Flu

Don't forget, if you want to receive the newsletter into your inbox every third Thursday, you can subscribe using the button at the top of this page.

CONNECTING IS NOT ENOUGH: The Anatomy of a Referral (Part Three)

This article originally appeared in The National Networker


You are surrounded by people who have frequent opportunities to refer you and who would be delighted to help you, yet you rarely, if ever, receive referrals from them. In the cases where they do make introductions they tend to be far from the connections you’ve been looking for.

Why should this be? Surely if you have a network of people who will help, your word of mouth marketing should be simple?

The problem is that attracting good quality referrals takes a strong degree of focus and planning. You do have the tools and resources at your disposal, but you have to understand how to use them. After reading the last two articles in this series you should by now have a clear idea of what you are looking for in a referral and who to turn to for help. Once you have inspired those people to want to help you, the next step is to educate them so that they understand how.


Out of the picture

We talked in Part One of this series about the quality of a true referral. The person referring you (your ‘champion’) has spoken about you to someone who may be in need of your services. That person is interested in hearing from you and is waiting for your call.

If your champion is going to be able to get the prospective client interested in hearing from you, they need to know enough about your business to make a strong case. They need to recognise that your prospect has a problem that you are able to solve and have a reasonable understanding of how you solve that issue and the benefits that result.

Remember, most of the time you will not be there when they have the conversation. You have to consider yourself to be out of the picture. If you are going to educate your champions effectively, you have to be able to pre-empt the conversations they will have with your prospects without you there.

Very often you may ask for referrals to people and explain why you want to meet them. This is despite the fact that those people have no interest in why you want to meet them at all. They don’t know you and have no buy-in to meeting your needs. Instead, they are focused on what they need and what they want.

If your champions are going to be able to get them to want to meet you, therefore, they need a message that will be relevant to that person. Identify what their problems are and provide evidence that you may be the person with the solution and they’ll be interested.


Simple, sticky and transferable

Armed with the knowledge that you need your champions to have conversations about you when you’re not around, the temptation may be strong to give them as much information as possible, so that they couldn’t possibly forget anything.

Whatever you do, avoid this temptation! The more you give people to remember, the more they’ll have to forget. Keep your message simple.

In a workshop I ran a few years ago I was developing a sixty-second referral presentation with an image consultant. As local elections were approaching, I suggested focusing her request on referrals to people in politics. After all, we are often told how important image is in making first impressions and if you want your political message heard it is important to ensure your appearance appeals to your target demographic.

We crafted a straightforward request based on an easy to understand premise. People listening to the message would think of people they knew in politics and feel comfortable approaching them on the image consultant’s behalf, with a strong message that would be easy to understand.

Unfortunately, when it came to testing the presentation on the group in the workshop, the image consultant succumbed to temptation. She didn’t want to leave any opportunity untapped, and, while asking for introductions to people involved in local politics, also asked for Entrepreneurs, Chief Executives, Sales Directors and any other possible client she could think of.

When tested, no-one in the group remembered anything specific about her presentation, particularly that she wanted to meet people involved in local politics.

Focus in on who you want to meet when you ask people for referrals. If you’re being specific in your request, you can paint a clear picture of the conversation that will follow. What is that person/organisation’s specific problem? How would you approach it? What will happen as a result? Stick to answering those questions, keeping everything very simple.

Have you worked with people with similar issues in the past? If so, share a story that answers the three questions listed above. People love to hear case studies; they bring your business to life and make it so much more understandable to those outside your industry.

As well as being simple, your message needs to stick in people’s minds and be easy for them to repeat to possible clients for you. The more convoluted your message, the harder it is for people to remember and to pass on accurately.


Tracking the results

Once you have the basics of a good referral strategy in place, take it to another level by including it in your business planning.

Set up a spreadsheet of your top introducers and make a note of who they know, how you are inspiring them and referrals they have promised or you have requested. As referrals come in, attribute them to the appropriate champion and track your follow up, make sure you stay on top of the game.

By keeping a note of all activity, you can keep your champions involved, letting them know how you are proceeding with the introductions they have passed and thanking them when they are successful. You should be just as focused on giving them feedback when they don’t work out, both to keep them informed and to help them understand how to pass successful referrals to you.

One advantage of tracking referral activity is the ability to see who your best referral sources are and what inspires them to refer you. You can then both make sure you keep them engaged and also replicate that behaviour with others.

Additionally, when someone stops referring you, it will be clear by looking at your spreadsheet. Where a referrals strategy doesn’t exist it might be months before you realise that you haven’t had a referral from or spoken to someone who had previously introduced you to a lot of new business. It can then often be embarrassing to go back to that person after a long period.

One of the exercises I ran when working with one of the major banks was to ask each delegate to make a list of people who had previously referred them but hadn’t done so for a while. I then asked them to call one person on that list and reignite the relationship.

Several of the delegates found that their previous champion had assumed that the delegate had left the bank or moved onto another job as they hadn’t heard from them for so long, and on more than one occasion they offered a new referral during that telephone call. How much business had been referred elsewhere in the meantime?

Another advantage of tracking your referrals behaviour is that it allows you to forecast the level of business coming in from future referrals. Once you have a system in place that consistently produces good quality referrals, it is easier to predict and guide future behaviour.

It’s all a long way from the manufacturing company I mentioned at the beginning of this series who track every source of new business other than referrals, and who had not seen a genuine referral in at least eighteen months. Having implemented an effective referral system, they can now look forward to a regular, predictable flow of referrals, spend time in meetings with champions rather than cold-calling unproductively, and see the business turn into a profitable concern once more.

When are you going to start?


If you’d like to get started with a free ten question survey to find out how effective your current referral strategy is and a ‘Referral Book’ spreadsheet to track referral activity, please email me at andy@lopata.co.uk