Tuesday 24 February, 2009
There is truly an unlimited supply of referrals! This may
surprise you, because most people who are new to referral marketing or
who have had trouble getting referrals tend to believe that they must
fight hard for a limited supply of good referrals.
This mind-set is known as the "scarcity mentality", and those who have
it often appear desperate to obtain business - which is not a good way
to present yourself when you're trying to sell your products or
services. Desperation is not referable.
It's true that you must compete for business, even within a referral-networking group. When you join a group of this type, you may come in thinking that all the other members will now automatically begin referring all their business to you. What you have to realise, though, is that joining a referral group does not automatically entitle you to referrals; you have to earn them.
For starters, you have to work to create relationships where none existed before. Fellow members must get to know you and your work, and they must know that they can trust you to carry out your commitments and to provide outstanding and memorable customer service to anyone they might consider referring to you. They have established relationships of their own, and they don't want to risk those relationships by referring them to someone they don't know.
But having to compete with established relationships does not cut you off from potential referrals. Suppose, for example, that you're the new chiropractor in your group and you want to get referrals from other members. You learn that one influential member has a long-established relationship with a chiropractor who is not in the group. Does this obligate the other member to stop doing business with her chiropractor and start doing business with you? Of course not, and if you try to make this happen, you will quickly gain a reputation as a relationship assassin - not a good way to be thought of.
If you nurture an abundance mentality, rather than a scarcity mentality, you will realise that there's plenty of business out there for you and many other chiropractors. There is also a way that you can compete and, at the same time, collaborate with another vendor.
First, you know that the other member likes chiropractic. This is a point in your favor, because it means there is a strong chance that they will advise friends and acquaintances to seek chiropractic help as well - perhaps from you, after she gets to know you better. When you talk with her, ask her what the other chiropractor does that she finds especially effective. Does the practitioner specialise in certain therapies?
Ask to be introduced to their chiropractor. Find out what kinds of cases your competitor likes to tackle. Back problems? Joint pain? Neck problems? Tell them that you prefer to specialise in a different area and offer to refer cases in his chosen specialty to them. Suggest that the two of you could refer overflow patients to each other and help with each other's patients during vacations.
In other words, you can be genuinely helpful to each other and still be competitors. You can help each other build a customised practice with the kind of patients you prefer. Suppose they like accident claims and you don't. You can begin the process by referring a flood of accident business to them - so much of it, in fact, that he may feel the need to send some of his other patients to you.
Even if the other chiropractor and you specialise in the same areas, you can benefit each other by referrals. Their practice may be in a completely different part of town from yours. You can collaborate with them in joint screenings at intermediate sites, such as at natural foods co-ops, and give new prospects a choice of chiropractors. Many will choose on the basis of personal rapport, or perhaps the more convenient location.
There's a ton of business out there, and all it takes to cultivate an abundance mentality is to become an active networker, building relationships and providing benefits for your networking partners. Joining a networking group because you expect it to immediately start giving you referrals, without any effort on your part, is lazy networking. It produces few or no referrals and leads you to believe that the number of referrals available is limited - the scarcity mentality.
There is also a way to make the flow of referrals predictable and adjustable. You and a referral partner can set up a system in which your partner sends you referrals as you need them - regularly, predictably, on request, and on time. Creating such a structured system is like building a pipeline for referrals.
Think about it. What if you knew at all times when a referral partner was going to refer you, whom they were going to refer you to, and how they were going to refer you? What if you knew in advance which product or service your next new customer was going to want to buy? You could plan ahead. You could schedule business to come in when you most needed it and were best able to handle it. You could select the kind of customers you wanted. You could project your cash flow and manage your inventory.
Selling with traditional marketing methods is like fishing with dynamite: you light off a few sticks, throw them into the water, and hope that something comes up. Structured, programmed referral marketing is more like fishing with the latest high-tech gear: you've got a boat that lets you move to where the fish are most likely to be hanging out; you've got sonar that lets you see where the best fish are; and you can say, "Forget those carp over here in the shallows. I'm going to catch those thirty big brown trout down at eighteen feet!".
It's true that you must compete for business, even within a referral-networking group. When you join a group of this type, you may come in thinking that all the other members will now automatically begin referring all their business to you. What you have to realise, though, is that joining a referral group does not automatically entitle you to referrals; you have to earn them.
For starters, you have to work to create relationships where none existed before. Fellow members must get to know you and your work, and they must know that they can trust you to carry out your commitments and to provide outstanding and memorable customer service to anyone they might consider referring to you. They have established relationships of their own, and they don't want to risk those relationships by referring them to someone they don't know.
But having to compete with established relationships does not cut you off from potential referrals. Suppose, for example, that you're the new chiropractor in your group and you want to get referrals from other members. You learn that one influential member has a long-established relationship with a chiropractor who is not in the group. Does this obligate the other member to stop doing business with her chiropractor and start doing business with you? Of course not, and if you try to make this happen, you will quickly gain a reputation as a relationship assassin - not a good way to be thought of.
If you nurture an abundance mentality, rather than a scarcity mentality, you will realise that there's plenty of business out there for you and many other chiropractors. There is also a way that you can compete and, at the same time, collaborate with another vendor.
First, you know that the other member likes chiropractic. This is a point in your favor, because it means there is a strong chance that they will advise friends and acquaintances to seek chiropractic help as well - perhaps from you, after she gets to know you better. When you talk with her, ask her what the other chiropractor does that she finds especially effective. Does the practitioner specialise in certain therapies?
Ask to be introduced to their chiropractor. Find out what kinds of cases your competitor likes to tackle. Back problems? Joint pain? Neck problems? Tell them that you prefer to specialise in a different area and offer to refer cases in his chosen specialty to them. Suggest that the two of you could refer overflow patients to each other and help with each other's patients during vacations.
In other words, you can be genuinely helpful to each other and still be competitors. You can help each other build a customised practice with the kind of patients you prefer. Suppose they like accident claims and you don't. You can begin the process by referring a flood of accident business to them - so much of it, in fact, that he may feel the need to send some of his other patients to you.
Even if the other chiropractor and you specialise in the same areas, you can benefit each other by referrals. Their practice may be in a completely different part of town from yours. You can collaborate with them in joint screenings at intermediate sites, such as at natural foods co-ops, and give new prospects a choice of chiropractors. Many will choose on the basis of personal rapport, or perhaps the more convenient location.
There's a ton of business out there, and all it takes to cultivate an abundance mentality is to become an active networker, building relationships and providing benefits for your networking partners. Joining a networking group because you expect it to immediately start giving you referrals, without any effort on your part, is lazy networking. It produces few or no referrals and leads you to believe that the number of referrals available is limited - the scarcity mentality.
There is also a way to make the flow of referrals predictable and adjustable. You and a referral partner can set up a system in which your partner sends you referrals as you need them - regularly, predictably, on request, and on time. Creating such a structured system is like building a pipeline for referrals.
Think about it. What if you knew at all times when a referral partner was going to refer you, whom they were going to refer you to, and how they were going to refer you? What if you knew in advance which product or service your next new customer was going to want to buy? You could plan ahead. You could schedule business to come in when you most needed it and were best able to handle it. You could select the kind of customers you wanted. You could project your cash flow and manage your inventory.
Selling with traditional marketing methods is like fishing with dynamite: you light off a few sticks, throw them into the water, and hope that something comes up. Structured, programmed referral marketing is more like fishing with the latest high-tech gear: you've got a boat that lets you move to where the fish are most likely to be hanging out; you've got sonar that lets you see where the best fish are; and you can say, "Forget those carp over here in the shallows. I'm going to catch those thirty big brown trout down at eighteen feet!".
How do you build such a structured, predictable referral system?
- Establish a close, mutually rewarding relationship of trust with
your referral partner. The best approach is to start off with some
relationship-building activities to get to know each other better, based
on your behavioral styles and other factors.
- Determine how many and what kind of referrals you will need each
week to accomplish your financial sales goal. Then, one by one, you and
your counterpart discuss the people in each other's database and
identify the ones you'd particularly like to contact.
- Once this is done, you can decide when, where, and under what
circumstances you'd like to meet each one, and if your referral partner
agrees, that contact goes into the pipeline.
- After contact is made, the results are evaluated and shared with your referral partner. It's about as detailed as you can get with a target market, and the timing couldn't be more precise.
Author Credits
Called the father of modern networking by CNN, Dr. Ivan
Misner is a New York Times bestselling author and Founder of BNI
(www.bni.com), the world’s largest business networking organization.
His latest book, 'The 29% Solution' can be viewed at
www.29PercentSolution.com. Dr. Misner is also the Sr. Partner for the
Referral Institute, an international referral training company
(www.referralinstitute.com). He can be reached at misner@bni.com
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