Referrals are a choice.
Russell Pearson CSP
Hall of Fame Inductee | Top Voice in Consulting | Host of the Your Consulting Business Podcast | Business Blacksmith – We Support Super Smart Consultants to Forge Successful Consulting Businesses.
I’ve heard people say that there are no bad referrals.
But in my experience, ANY referral that’s not ideal is hurting your business.
In fact, let’s look at a few REFERRAL TYPES you may be familiar with.
?Referral 1: The D Grade Client
The D grade client.
You know the one.
Not a great payer, is slow to respond, and likes to blame others.
But boy! Do they send a lot of referrals.
They’re like a referral MACHINE!
It’s probably because you’re the first person to put up with their nonsense.
You’re amazing!
But guess what?
D grade clients hunt on packs.
99% of the time, they’re sending more D Grade clients your way.
It’s like a pack of hyenas circling your time and energy.
Don’t let D Grade referrals get you down.
Get rid of those D Grade clients before they send more trash to your door!
Referral 2: The Brain Picking Coffee Drinker
Their friends referred you, and their friend always ‘looks after them’.
Now it’s your turn!
Which is shorthand for giving them FREE ADVICE and/or discounting any possible value from every engagement.
They love to buy coffee though.
And they’ll buy you coffee too.
If you’re getting brain picker referrals, you’ll never have to buy coffee again.
They’ll take you to a nice cafe, they’ll buy you a $6 Grande.
Or a fancy cappuccino!
Topped with beautiful barista-created artworks.
All to steal an hour of your time and to ‘pick your brain’.
They may even do a little work with you.
A job here and there.
But that one job will be their excuse to call you up, ask for a favour and pick your brain whenever they have an idea.
Because they’re a client now right?
Make sure you have the process to keep these coffee-drinking brain pickers at bay.
Your time is valuable and you have limited time in the day.
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Referral 3: The YES AND, not quite, nearly...
This referral feels right.
They come with the right attitude, they would be amazing clients.
In fact, you feel like you REALLY want to help this person.
But the consulting they need is not quite in your space.
It nearly is, but it’s not quite ideal.
It’s about 2 steps to the left.
It’s in a subject you know a little about, but it’s not your area of expertise.
Back in the early days, this would be the client I thought would help me expand my services.
In reality, it was the client that had me bending over backward to redesign my offer, just for them.
Rebuilding systems and trying 'new things' that I would NEVER use again.
No leverage here.
They love what you do YES, AND if we could just do these two other things as well, it would be amazing!
Usually, this happens because we’re not 100% clear on our market.
And we’ve been unclear in our messaging.
We’ve been taking on all sorts of different clients, and we’re proving it by saying YES to another one.
It’s time to get crystal clear and stop taking work you shouldn’t.
You’ll never have the leverage and profits you want with these clients.
Referrals are a choice
All 3 of these referral types will waste your time and zap your energy.
Beware!
When you receive a referral, you may feel obligated to help and may see each referral as a gift, not to be wasted.
But as you know, there are 24 hours in the day.
That’s all we have to build the business we want.
So if you want a thriving business that turns your efforts into high profits.
AND if you want a business that gives the flexibility you want in life…be careful what referrals you let through the door.
OR, go one step further.
Design a business that doesn’t require referrals to succeed.
Build a marketing and sale pipeline that engages ideal clients for your business.
And delivers then when you want them. Not when someone decides to hand you a client.
Referrals can ‘feel' nice, but they can also be a distraction from creating the business you’ve always wanted.
Who (yes yes whom) we choose to work with defines what our business becomes.
Referrals are a choice.
The choice is yours.
?? Stay Passionate!
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Russell Pearson ?is the founder of the FORGE. A Business Program for solo Consultants and Advisors who want to attract better clients.
You can discover more about Russell's work at:?russellpearsoncoaching.com
CORE Markets
2 年Depends on the type of referral. I worked with MOUs which gave the organisation referring, skin in the game. Worked very well, there was trust on all sides of the equation, l always revealed the MOU to the prospect. No hidden commissions/fee bases.
I'm your fractional CMO + Business Growth Partner, minus the overhead.
2 年Great insights
?? My clients grow powerful levels of SUCCESS and credibility in their networking and relationships using LinkedIn and "Attraction Marketing" profitably... want to know more, see my "FEATURED" section below ??
2 年I totally agree with you Russell, In my experience I have found there are very few TRUE referrals because most people don’t know how to attract them or ask for them. Bad referrals/leads do in fact hunt in packs and many of them congregate for the most part in the structured networking groups that exists today, the reason I say this, is because very few of these groups actually have the ability to educate their members on HOW to create an appropriate and powerful message (this is absolutely vital, yet no one does this), and to attract the type of client or strategic partner that you’re looking for. If you are familiar with the concept of “groupthink”, you will realise that as soon as somebody passes an inadequate and inappropriate lead… the rest of the group will simply follow… When people start getting better education in how to create appropriate messages, how to actually use the powerful processes of networking, then we’ll all see a real change in the quality of referrals. DO REAL REFERRALS ACTUALLY EXIST… of course they do, and when you take the time and learn how to craft powerful messages and make the time to identify the type of people we choose to work with, then attracting real unprofitable referrals is very easy.
As a Professional Conference Organiser (PCO) and an Association Manager I can help you make your event a reality whether in person, virtually or both as well as help your Association run smoothly
2 年The struggle is real Russell Pearson
Business Owner at Intelligen Technology Solutions Pty Ltd
2 年Great article, easy to match a few in the sales funnel ??