Author: Bill Cates

If I ran into a good prospect for you and your business, how would I know it and how would you like me to introduce them to you?

That phrase summarizes the topic for this week’s blog post. Last week I provided a checklist of things you can do to create more productive referral relationships.

Let’s drill down a little deeper, shall we?

We don’t want Word of Mouth! We don’t want weak Referrals! We DO want Connections or Introductions! We want prospective clients waiting and wanting to hear from us. We want prospects who are a perfect fit for our business, ready to do business with us.

Wow! Wouldn’t that be nice? So how do we do that?

Hopefully, you have already realized that a great Referral Partner can be worth a lot more to your business then any one client.

My question for you is this… “Do you have a clearly laid out plan – and are you working that plan – to meet great Referral Partners on a regular basis?

It is my belief that hardly a week should go by without some activity to meet new Referral Partners and/or strengthen current Referral Partners.

This blog post provides you with a 10-strategy checklist for referral productive Referral Partnerships.

To get your checklist for productive Referral Partnerships, keep reading…

A quality center of influence can be worth some much more than any one clients. Creating productive relationships with COIs usually take time, so you need to think long term. With that said, sometimes COIs can produce results in short order.

The best way to illustrate this is with an example from my own financial advisors. To protect the guilty, I’ll change his name to Alex.

To discover the simple, 2-step process Alex used to start the flow of referrals, keep reading…

You’ve probably heard the reports. “They” are saying, “You can’t ask for referrals” or “Stop asking for referrals.”

Allow me to quote my high school basketball coach, “Horse Manure Cates!”

Now… I do agree that we should think in terms of introductions and not simply referrals.

But that’s now what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the people who keep reporting Fake Referral News like…

FAKE REFERRAL NEWS #1: “Asking for referrals doesn’t work.”

FAKE REFERRAL NEWS #2: “Your clients aren’t thinking about helping you.”

Why is this fake referral news and what should you be doing about it?

When I tell people that I hate going to networking events, I usually hear, “What? The Referral Coach doesn’t like networking? Isn’t that blasphemy or something?”

Well… I didn’t say I hated “networking.” I truly enjoy forming relationships with lots of people in an effort to bring value to them and vice versa.

I just don’t like the event part of it. Talking to strangers and all that. I’m actually kind of shy at those things.

For the 10 things I do to produce results at networking events… READ ON!

During a coaching session, Daniel and I were talking sales strategies and he asked me, “Bill, when it comes to looking for new clients, are you hunter or a farmer? Do you constantly hunt (prospect) for new business or do you just farm the clients you currently have?”

I thought about this for a minute and replied, “Actually, I’m more of a trapper. I like to apply the principles of value-centered marketing so people see me as a resource and come to me to me for further assistance.”

So which strategy is best for you? Perhaps some combination of all three?

On March 28, I’ll be hosting our next webinar on how to ask for referrals without pushing or begging. And as you might imagine, timing is everything. The when to ask for referrals is a critical piece of the puzzle.

Some people ask for referrals (introductions) much too soon in their new relationships. While others wait entirely too long to ask – if they ever ask at all. Just like Goldilocks wanted the chair, the soup, and the bed “just right” you want your timing to be just right.

There are three things to keep in mind re: the timing of when to ask…

STOP asking too soon and STOP waiting too long. Make your timing JUST RIGHT!

At my live presentations, every time I make a blanket statement about the right or wrong way to do something, someone comes up after my talk and say, “You said not to ______. I’ve been doing that for 15 years and it still works.”

My response is simple, “Then keep doing it. If it’s legal, ethical, moral, and everyone wins, then keep on keeping on.” I mean, who am I to stop someone who is getting the results they want.

With that said, I feel pretty strongly about these to mistakes that I see people make all the time.

You’ll have to click over to the blog to get the skinny, but here’s the gist:

Mistake #1 – Making Referrals All about You

Mistake #2 – Being Way Too General with Your Request

(+ Bonus Video Included)

You’ve heard of Zombie Apocalypse? How about Prospect Apocalypse? This is when you have an interested prospect that becomes increasingly unresponsive. You’re not sure what to do next and eventually you feel like you’re trying to resurrect the dead.

You’ve heard the expression, “Timing is everything!” Sometimes that’s true. And without some basic processes and tools in place, your process will slowly lose momentum and way too many great prospects to fall slip through your fingers. [Or ‘fall through the cracks’ or some other zombie reference without over doing it.]

So assuming your incredibly relevant and compelling value proposition didn’t create an instant desire to work with you, this article contains a list of 10 powerful ideas you can employ to increase your chances of being in the right place at the right time and turning an interested prospect into a new client.

POP QUIZ! Fill in the blanks right now!

The Sun, the Moon and the _______.

The 3 little _______. Goldilocks and the 3 ______.

Everywhere you look throughout history there’s been power in 3’s; in the triad.

I ran into a financial professional the other day who told me that he has fun with his request for referrals by invoking the power of three.

Personally, I think what he does is one of those both simple and brilliant.

Keep reading to get the sample script and insight into this powerful dynamic…