The Four Step Fearless Referral System – part 2 of our series from Matt Anderson, The Referrals Academy

by | Jun 27, 2017

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This is the second article of the three-part series for IFA Magazine by Matt Anderson of The Referrals Academy, on improving your success at getting referrals. This month, he explains a system that advisers and planners can use to make it easy to remember the four crucial parts to the referral process. The clever thing is that it applies to ALL the people you know.

If you truly want to get more and better referrals for the rest of your professional life, my advice is that you memorise these four words, practise them until they become habits, and ask and ask and ask.

Earned

 
 

Who

How

Control

 
 

Let’s look at each one of these in detail:

  1. EARNED

You would not recommend someone who does average work and neither does anyone else. Statistically, we have to concede that much of our work has to be average at least in the eyes of others – even if this seems incomprehensible that our work could ever be considered ‘average’.

You have to earn the right to ask for a referral. There has to be water in the well in your relationship before anyone in their right mind will be opening doors for you.

 
 

This is a grey area: people vary in how long it can take for them to trust others. There are a few people who are enthusiastic quickly and will refer you early on in your relationship with them. There are others who can take years to do so. Most people fall in the middle.

How do you know if you’ve earned it?

Sometimes you can trust your gut on this: you will just sense that the other person knows, likes and trusts you.

If you are uncertain about whether to ask, then get some feedback from them. This takes courage. The advantage to getting feedback is that you won’t shoot too soon and ask when the other person is not that impressed which makes the asking awkward. Most of what you hear will be complimentary!

Ask an open-ended question such as: “What have you found most helpful about the work we’ve done over the past (time period)?” You will hear in the tone of their voice whether they are genuinely pleased.

Now, if you want to get feedback on ways you can improve (and this is a great idea): “I don’t know you that well yet: what else could I do that would help you more?” You may put yourself in a position where you need to address their suggestions first before asking for a referral at a later date.

There is another 50% to this topic and that is the inside job: having enough confidence in who you are and what you do such that you believe you have earned it. The more you believe that you are really helping others, the easier it is to ask because you believe you’ve earned it and you will do everything you can to make your referral source looks good.

Communication must be congruent:

A good referral is like sales: it is a transfer of enthusiasm from both you and your referral source.

2. WHO

There’s a very good chance that many people have not referred you simply because they need your help identifying who you want to be introduced to. They’re not going to take a week off work to sort this out on their own!

The most important thing about getting referrals is that you express so clearly what it is you want that the other person does not have to think about it. It is your job to identify what you want so that it is easy for others to help you. Never again say: “If you can think of anyone else that might benefit from my work, please ask them to give me a call.” This is not an ask; it is a throwaway line.

The question to ask yourself before every client meeting is: What would I love to ask this person?

There are seven ways to help people to come up with names

  • Pre-plan your ask based on past conversations or online research (e.g. LinkedIn)
  • Listen for names of people they have mentioned who sound like good prospects and are people they like – and write down these names!
  • Ask different questions to find out who is in their network
  • Use generic specifics such as close friend, sibling, favourite co-worker
  • Tell stories of others you’ve helped in different situations
  • Share a list of companies/prospects you’re looking to help or of situations you’ve worked on recently
  • Share highly specialised subject matter that only applies to a small number of people they know

3. HOW

There is a very good chance that many people have not referred you because they don’t know how to introduce you – and they’re not going to admit this to you.

Except for current referral sources, play it safe and assume the other person could use some direction in how best to introduce you – even if they tell you: “I’ll have a word with her.”

It often helps to craft language to share in an email that others can use too. The basics are always the same: “Julie’s great. Talk to her. Can she call you?”

Nowadays we spruce it up:  “Julie has done excellent work for me and my wife. She specialises in working with (fill in relevant scenario). I’m not sure how impressed you are with the financial planning that you’ve done in recent years but we regard her highly. Would you be open to hearing from her some time?

4. CONTROL

There is a very good chance that many people have not referred you because you left it up to them to do so and they forgot all about it. You cannot expect other people to care about your business opportunities as much as you do. They need your reminders.

a. You must hold people accountable for their word.

People hate to be inconsistent with things they have said they will do. Your job is to treat people’s word as if it some holy scripture. I know that sounds a little strong but it’s terribly important.

There are non-threatening ways to gently remind people of things they said and when they mentioned it: “I hope life is treating you well. When we had coffee on February 21st, you’d asked me to get back to you about (fill in the blank: working with your business partner, meeting up with Denise etc). Have you made any progress?” You can always re-coach the person using wording from the HOW step.

b. You must be patient and persistent. 60-80% of sales are closed after we ask for them 5 times or more. Most people give up after two requests. Track your follow up and spread it out so you are not annoying.

c. Ask questions that help you keep control:

“When should I get back to you to see if Denise is interested?”

“What’s a reasonable time frame for me to get back to you to see if Denise is interested in hearing from me?”

Don’t let people get away with: “Let me get back to you.” Let the conversation move on so it appears that you have acquiesced, but before you part ways, say: “If for some reason you just get really busy and I’ve not heard from you, when should I get back to you about Denise?”

If you truly want to get more and better referrals for the rest of your professional life, I repeat: Memorize these four words, practice them until they become habits and ask and ask and ask. Thank me later!

Want to catch up with Matt’s first article in this series? If so, you can read it HERE 

About Matt Anderson

Matt Anderson, founder of The Referrals Academy, has grown his business almost exclusively by referrals. He has trained and coached people from over 30 countries and specialises in helping financial advisers to get more and better prospects. He is based in Chicago but was born and raised in Coventry.

He is the author of the international bestseller Fearless Referrals, which Brian Tracy, author of The Psychology of Sales, says “teaches you the “Golden Rules” for developing a continuous chain of high quality referrals for any product in any business.” The book is available on Amazon.

Follow Matt on Twitter @mattandersontv

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