2 Secrets For Max Referrals

Last week, I shared what Napoleon Hill taught me about referrals and how to get them and I shared 10 bulletproof strategies on putting these things into your world.

This week, I'm going deeper.

I recently read a shocking statistic.

Did you know that 85% of small to medium sized businesses rely on referrals as their only source of new business?

WHATT?!?

Yikes.

While this is a great strategy, I don't EVER believe it should be the ONLY source of finding new business.

Why?

Because it's unpredictable.

Yes, you can ask everyone and their mother to connect you with a possible prospective buyer but the results are dependent on someone doing something for you.

The core of your business generation systems should be reliant on your own outreach efforts directly to possible new clients, rather than asking someone else to do it for you.

Then referral requests should be layered on top of the main prospecting system you have in place.

And selfishly, if you don't have a good prospecting system in your business, and you're sick and tired of relying on things like paid ads because your ad accounts constantly get flagged...

Or you continually get annoyed by the up and down roller coaster of launching things like summits and challenges...

Or if you simply don't have time to wait for the classic organic post strategy, add value, friend request, ask for business move that takes WAAAY too long...

...then come jump into our inner circle FB group.

We are experts at helping our members tap into wisdom that's been around for ages that has been proven to work consistently day in and day out in finding new opportunity for your business to grow.

And yes... it's WAAY deeper than just "getting leads".

Don't get me wrong, referrals are VITAL for bigger success and yes, deals will close faster because there is usually more trust in these relationships, however, this should NEVER be your only form of gaining new business.

With all this said, since I know that I'm not able to change this dominant 85% statistic on my own, I decided to lean in and share 2 secrets I've used to continually get MAX REFERRALS.

Let's get into it...

So one of the legends in the game is a fellow named Dan Kennedy.

If you don't know him, look him up.

He and co-author Shaun Buck wrote a book called "No B.S. Guide to Maximum Referrals & Customer Retention."

In it, they present a systematic approach to upgrading the amount of referrals you can collect.

In fact, they describe 2 different ways to make getting referrals really easy.

A mentor of mine, Bill Glazer, once said, “The single easiest way to double any business is for each customer to bring a customer.”

So take a second to imagine what your business would look like if you could get every customer to bring a customer.

Imagine the positive impact that would have on your business.

But we need to make the process of referring easy, both for the person giving the referral and for the person acting on the referral.

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SECRET HACK #1:

One of the best ways to do this is to offer information that your customer or referral partner can give out that allows you to control the story being told about you while being helpful to the person receiving the information.

Many times this information comes in the form of a free report, white paper, or even a book.

Let's be real, information is much more interesting than a sales presentation to the average person.

Customers are far more willing to give their friends information, or send them somewhere like a website to get information, than they are to directly push a friend to call you or to go to your place of business.

People are more receptive to being given or told about information than they are when being pushed to do business with you.

And people are more likely to act on information because they perceive it to be nonthreatening.

As I always like to provide robust examples here you:

There's a personal injury attorney I know of, named Ben Glass.

He built 3 items and uses them to gain referral business every day.

Here's the titles:

• Get It Settled -- The Accident Victim’s Guide to Settling Your Case Without Hiring a Lawyer
• Why Most Medical Malpractice Victims Never Recover a Dime
• Five Deadly Sins That Can Wreck Your Injury Claim

When you look at these titles, you can see genius at work.

All of these reports answer questions or handle concerns for people who may need the services of a personal injury attorney.

They also make it easy for his clients to refer.

In times of need or when a suitable conversation occurs, Ben’s client says, “You should get this free report about winning medical lawsuits” and never has to say “You should call my attorney.”

That’s a much easier and more pleasant conversation for both people involved, and best of all, we’ve allowed the person being referred to take an easy step toward possibly doing business with Ben and his firm.

Now lets go online.

I have a friend that sells FB advertising services.

She wrote a a small book on how to setup 3 things correctly in your ads manager.

It was set up to be delivered after someone opts into a simple landing page that she shares with people, asking them to give it out to anyone looking to start using ads manager.

At last count, she was getting a 70.6 percent opt in rate for the referrals that hit that page and started an email marketing sequence to get them onto a free strategy call.

Every business can and should create some sort of free report, book, CD, DVD, “most incredible free gift,” or trial offer that they can promote but, more importantly, makes it easy for their customers to refer to.

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SECRET HACK #2:

I deployed this secret hack in 2 of my personal businesses and did it consistently for 2 years and I was able to increase new business by 19% year over year.

Then I worked with some of our clients and built a system like this for them and started seeing average increases ranging from 2-20% in biz growth over relatively short periods of time.

How did I do it?

I took a different customer to lunch 1x per week, and simply asked the customer for help by agreeing to send a letter or email to everyone they know or to all of their clients, as a way to introduce them to you.

I only had a small percentage of clients agree to it, but the result...

An additional 2-20% growth in your business year over year.

You’ll get a lot of referrals from one customer, fast.

In structuring this, make sure there is something in it for them.

Perhaps it's a special offer, on your behalf, to their friends or customers.

They may offer some free information available from you.

Maybe the letter does both.

There are three primary ways to use this strategy, typically called “The Endorsement Letter Strategy.”

EXAMPLE 1:

Family, friends, and neighbors. 

Some time ago, I was working with a fellow who was trying to grow his lawn care business, his name was Mark.

Here's what we did...

Step One. 

We wrote the letter for one of Mark's happy cus-tomers, to come “from him.”

It described his initial skepticism and his and his wife’s happiness now with their magnificent lawn and garden, perfectly maintained every week.

It said they used to get warning letters sev-eral times a year from their homeowners’ associa-tion, but since putting Mark in charge, no more notices.

Their lawn also made their neighbors green with envy.

The letter referred to and was sent with it a limited-time special offer just for the neighbors of Mark's happy customer.

Also, a separate offer to go to Mark's website and download a free report about having weed-free gardens was included.

I also suggested that when Mark sent out the letter, he include a picture of the per-son’s house and their amazing-looking yard -- a nice little ego stroke for the customer and a piece of proof for the recipient.

Step Two.

I wrote a simple script Mark could use to ask happy customers if they wouldn’t mind allowing him to send out a version of this letter, customized for and approved by them, to all of their neighbors.

My suggestion was to use this script anytime he got a compliment, either in person or over the phone.

Step Three. 

Mark bought the list of names and addresses for all the people who owned a house in his happy customer’s subdivision and mailed a letter to all of them.

He also got from the customer names and addresses of all his friends and family members who lived anywhere in Mark's service territory and mailed to them, too.

The sender name and address on the envelope was Mark's customer’s, not his or his companies.

Mark's new lawn service almost instantly maxed out with the number of customers he can handle by himself, and he’s looking for his first employee to help out. 

If Mark delivers good service, and if Mark hires wisely, and if Mark follows up on prospects that these mailings created but that did not immediately become customers, and if Mark uses this mailing as often as he can in the future, he’ll grow a very big business with just this one strategy.

EXAMPLE 2: 

Business to consumer. 

Another way to use the Endorsed Letter Strategy is to work with a business that has customers who would also make good customers for your business.

In this case, you create a letter from the business owner to their customers where the business owner is introducing your business and presenting a special offer for just his customers.

This allows you access to all of that business’s customers and/or prospects, which, with the right list and letter, is an easy way to get a massive number of referrals, fast.

EXAMPLE 3:

Association to members. 

Another great source for endorsed mailings and one that adds considerable credibility to you is an association or other membership organization.

Obviously any industry association has considerable clout with its member base.

By bringing them a free information gift they can offer to their members, you give them value to deliver absent cost.

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CONCLUSION:

With 85% of all small to medium size businesses using referrals as their only source, hopefully this gives you a bit more insight on how to put your referral game on steroids.

I'm excited to hear of the success this brings you.

I'd love to hear the positives this brings into your life!

Happy Selling!

-sean ??.

Go. ????. Fight. ??. Win. ??.