Ep #403: Three Do’s of Generating Referrals

Stacey Brown Randall: Hey there, do you love referrals but hate asking for them? Well, then you’ve come to the right place. This is the Roadmap to Referrals podcast, and I’m your host, Stacey Brown Randall.

Every week, I break down why you don’t have to ask, pay, be gimmicky, or network all the time to generate referrals for your business.

We take a science-backed approach with our methodology, frameworks, and strategies. The goal is simple, to help you take control of your referrals on your terms.

Coming up in a few weeks, we are doing our annual Spring Training for more referrals.

This is a three-day training that we do less than an hour each day, where we really dig in and help you move your business forward when it comes to referrals.

So you’re gonna definitely make sure you sign up, because it’ll be here before you know it. For our Spring Training, just go to StaceyBrownRandall.com/springtraining.

Okay, so in this episode today, we are gonna talk about the three dos when it comes to referrals. So last week on episode 402, we talked about the don’ts, right? Just a couple of don’ts.

I’ve covered three of them that you don’t wanna do when it comes to referrals, specifically to help you shift your mindset around what you believe and think about referrals because that’ll ultimately impact how you take action and behave when it comes to referrals.

But today’s episode, we’re focusing on the positive. We are focusing on the do’s, the things you do want to do when it comes to referrals.

And so we’re gonna talk about three of the things you should do. Not all the things you should do, but three very important ones to help you continue to shift your mindset around referrals. So let’s get to it.

Okay, referral do number one is do believe you deserve referrals, but understand you’re not owed them. This is actually one of my favorite things for people to understand and think about.

This idea that, yes, if you do great work and you deliver on what you promise to your clients, as long as they do their part, of course, and you actually are a valuable resource for your clients and you provide a valuable service to your clients, that you deserve to receive referrals.

The problem is people decide when I deserve them, they somehow equate that to being that then they are owed them.

And that’s where you have people who are willing to ask people to refer them or they’re willing to put it in their contracts like, hey, if we deliver on all of this that we do for you, you’re gonna pay us and you’re actually gonna refer us as well.

Yes, if you’ve actually never seen it, it does exist. I have actually been on the receiving end of that and it’s not great. It’s definitely something you don’t wanna do when it comes to referrals.

You don’t want to make giving you referrals part of the terms of service in terms of a client working with you.

But somewhere along the way, this idea that you deserve referrals became like almost an equal sign to this idea that that must mean you are owed them. And you’re not.

So that does mean, though, you have to be willing to do some work to receive referrals. Very, very important. There’s a difference here.

If you do quality and great work for your clients, you deserve for those referrals to flow in, but you’re not owed them.

So you have to be willing to put processes and SOPs and strategies and tactics and language in place to help cultivate those referrals.

And you can do that, because that’s one of the reasons why you’re here, you can do that, of course, without ever having to ask for those referrals, offer to compensate for those referrals, be gimmicky and promotional to receive those referrals, or to feel like you’re networking all the time.

You can do it in a way that aligns with who you are. But it starts from you understanding at a very high level, hey, I may deserve referrals, but I’m not owed them, so I have to be willing to do the work to generate them.

Okay, referral do number two is do create an intentional overall strategy to generate referrals in an ongoing manner.

A lot of people will teach you that referrals is like a nail, and so the only tool you need is a hammer, right? Hey, you want referrals, this is a nail, here’s your hammer, just know how to ask, and that’s the only tool you need to solve the referral nail issue.

So of course, if you’re watching this on YouTube, you just got to see me act out, pretending, hammering that fake nail.

So for those of you listening on the podcast, I’m so sorry you missed that. I don’t know what came over me to actually act that out. I probably looked ridiculous.

But the point is, is understanding that referrals in your business live in an ecosystem. They’re actually hiding in lots of different places. And there’s actually lots of different places where you can cultivate referrals from.

But you’ve got to have an overall strategy that looks at the ecosystem of your business. Referrals are not a nail. And the only way to get them is to use one tool, that hammer.

It is actually knowing that they live within the groups of people who refer to you now, your existing referral sources, or the people you want to refer to you, your potential referral sources.

They exist throughout your client experience. They actually exist throughout your buyer’s journey, and your social media, and some of your marketing, and the events that you do, and how you handle networking.

There’s so many places where referrals are hanging out, ready to be uncovered, or ready to actually have that opportunity to bring them to the surface by understanding that referrals live in an ecosystem.

And so you need an intentional overall strategy for how you are going about generating those referrals. It is not a one size fits all solution, right? It’s not a nail and a hammer.

It’s a fully stocked toolbox of knowing what to do, what to say when it comes to generating referrals for all the places they’re probably hiding or wanting to hide in your business.

Alright, referral do number three is do capture the data of referrals in your business, meaning make sure you are taking time, whether that’s weekly or monthly or quarterly, to track what is happening with referrals right now.

Every single client that I work with, regardless of what level they work with me at, whether they attend my Referral Accelerator, my two-day workshop where folks travel to Charlotte and we spend two days together and we build out their intentional overall referral strategy.

Or they’re in my Building a Referable Business coaching program and we do that same work, but we do it over 12 months, or they’re a VIP, I’m doing it for them and then delivering it to them and their team.

Regardless of how a client starts working with me, they all have to go back into their business, and they have to pull out the reality of referrals for me. They have to pull out the data of what referrals have looked like in the past.

That’s a really important piece of figuring out where you are so we know where you’re going.

Because when we set goals to double, triple or quadruple your referrals in a year, we’re doing it based on what’s actually happening with referrals before you’ve actually even engaged with me.

So we know where you’ve been and now we know where you’re going. So capturing that data about referrals on an ongoing basis is so very important.

One, because it kind of tells you what’s happening or not happening with referrals.

And two, I know for my purposes, if you decide you’re going to get serious and really take control of referrals and actually start generating more of them, you really do want to make sure that you understand where you’ve been, so we can determine where you’re going.

So with my clients, we spend a lot of time making sure we understand what’s been happening in the business.

What’s already going well? What can we leverage? Can we make better? Where are we having some gaps that we need to close?

All that is told to me when I look at someone’s data of how many referrals have you been receiving over the last couple of years?

Who’s referring you? How long has it been since the last time they referred you? All that data matters.

So make sure you make it a habit to constantly, at least weekly, monthly, at a minimum quarterly, to track what’s happening with referrals in your business.

Track when you’re receiving them. Track who’s providing them. Track if they’re closing into a client or not. Track if that person referred to you, then starts referring other people to you.

All that information is very important data you want to track. So referral do number three is to do please start capturing the data of referrals in your business and do it in an ongoing way.</p>

Oka

y, so those are our three referral dos. Let me go through them real fast, rapid fire as a wrap up.

Referral do number one, do believe you deserve referrals, but understand you aren’t owed them.

Referral do number two, do create an intentional overall strategy to generate referrals ongoing.

And referral do number three, do capture the data of referrals that’s happening inside your business.

You can do this. You are perfectly capable of doing all of these things, of shifting your thinking and taking some small action to start looking at referrals differently in your business.

<p>You can access the transcripts for this episode and the other resources I mentioned, like signing up for our Spring Training at StaceyBrownRandall.com/403.

Thanks for making it to the end. Until next week, take control of your referrals and build a referable business. Bye for now.