"A Professional" or "My Professional"

Recently a member of my business contact sphere asked me which carries more weight when passing a referral, saying "My Professional Service Provider" or saying "A Professional Service Provider". This is a great question, which makes me think of the Truth or Delusion (by Dr. Ivan Misner and Mike Macedonio) statement, "Your best sources of referrals are your customers: Truth or Delusion?"

Dr. Ivan Misner says, “With a well-developed referral network, you can realize more good referrals from one or two professional referral sources than from all your customers – combined.”

So, while my contact sphere professional service provider could see some short term benefit from me as a client - he could realize more good referrals if he treated me as a professional referral source. Better yet, if he could develop strong relationships with a few of the right referral sources - he could find more referrals than from all of his clients - combined. I'm not his ideal client, I'm not in the scope of his laser fine target market. Could I use his services? Probably. Would it be a lot of time for a little gain on his part? Probably.

I have a real estate agent, a higher education consultant, and a car salesman in my immediate contact sphere. I know them and trust them and I have referred my friends, family, and clients to them - even though I haven't had a chance to use their services. I may not use their services myself for a long while - but that doesn't mean I can't refer them. I have to get to know them and I have to get to trust them. Some ways that we have done this:

• Show up prepared for each BNI meeting, training, and 1-to-1
• Show up on-time for every event
• Call if they said they were going to call
• Provide some positive testimonials from happy clients
• Show general interest in people
• Pass referrals to other members of our contact sphere
• Listen
• Train me to learn exactly what to look for in an ideal client
• Follow-up on the referrals that they receive
• Provide the quality of services at the prices they have quoted
• Be Truthful
• Display a positive and supportive attitude
• Build goodwill and trust
• Do a GAINS exchange

Referral Sources can do all of these things without ever having me as a direct client. If they do most of these things, and I'm in front of the clients they'd like to meet, then I'm very likely to refer their expertise. If I have a positive third party testimonial for this service provider - one that they supplied to me - then I can use that when I refer people to them.

They can be "A" professional without being "my" professional and still carry a lot of positive weight with me and the people I refer my referral sources to.

No Substitute

A few years ago I heard a story from a fellow certified first responder. She was called to a home with a man with severe chest pain. Upon the first review of the patient, she found that the patient was not overweight, didn't smoke, and exercised regularly. She asked him if he had been doing anything strenuous before the pain in the chest started - he answered no. She asked him if he had any history of high blood pressure - he answered no.

She asked him when his last meal was - he said many hours ago. His pulse was fast, he was feeling sick, he was sweaty, and he was breathless - but there wasn't any pain spreading to his arms, neck, jaw, or back. She went through the standard checklist again - and again it seemed like he had a lot of serious symptoms, but not all of them.

He hadn't been raking (it was a mild autumn day). He hadn't eaten in a few hours. He hadn't done anything out of the ordinary. She asked him if he was taking any prescriptions, he said no. What about any alternative medicines? Well, he had been taking a cayenne pepper vitamin to maintain his circulation. Had he taken any of these cayenne pepper vitamins today? No - he hadn't. Did he usually take them every day? Yes. But not today. "Right."

And have you been doing any activities that are out of the ordinary? Nope. And have you eaten anything at all in the last few hours. "Well." Well, here's the thing. He had been taking cayenne pepper vitamins every day. Yesterday he finished his last capsule. Today - he felt it was important to not skip a capsule. So he opened a capsule of another supplement, emptied the capsule, and then filled the capsule with cayenne pepper from his spice rack. Then he popped it in his mouth with a glass of water.

About 30 minutes later he called 9-1-1 because he was having severe chest pain.

Just as do-it-yourself cayenne pepper capsules are no substitute for factory produced cayenne pepper vitamins - a do-it-yourself networking group is no substitute for a strong contact networking organization like BNI.

The regulated structure of BNI is what creates a high level of value for the members. BNI has an attendance policy. BNI allows just one member per profession - to keep you from competing within the group. BNI has meetings each week of the year - which helps to develop strong relationships between business owners who actively want to support each other. BNI has a code of ethics, structured meetings, membership training, and leadership trainings. Do the do-it-yourself networking groups have these features? Will you get the same results?

At the Referral Institute we recommend joining one strong contact networking organization. We also recommend joining casual contact and service organizations that fit your business and personality. We've found that just as there is no safe substitute for cayenne pepper pills, there is no safe substitute for your business as an organization like BNI.

In Ithaca, there are two BNI Chapters that meet each week.

Ithaca Thumbs Up!

Karen Veaner, President

karen@lansingstar.com

607-533-4567

http://www.ithacathumbsup.com

Cayuga Lake Connections

Mike May, President

mike@michaelmayconstruction.com

607-345-1846

Throughout upstate New York, from Rochester to Ithaca to Syracuse to Albany over 30 BNI chapters meet each week. There is a great team of directors that can help connect you to a BNI chapter in your area. Here are some contact details.

Lesley Shimer, Managing Area Director

Syracuse, Albany

518 374-2841

Joel Craddock, Area Director

Rochester

585 750-3927

Tim Giacoman, Area Director

Ontario County, Rochester

585 381-1190

Ellen Matuszak, Area Director

Ithaca, Tompkins County/surrounding area

607 273-8110

David McLellan, Area Director

Rochester

585 503-8598

Peter Park, Area Director

Ontario County, Wayne County, Rochester

585 419-6752

Brigid Ryan, Area Director

Rochester

585 334-4322

Additional details online: http://www.bnineny.com/

How to Give

Do you want to be selling to strangers or helping a member of your referral network by connecting them to people you already know? I wrote this for members of my BNI (Business Networking International) chapter for our April 6th meeting. I've just taken on the role of Education Coordinator and my goal is to help the members of the Ithaca Thumbs Up chapter be more effective in helping each other in BNI.

"How to Give a Referral"

At each BNI meeting, members are invited to tell all of the other members what they are looking for this week. This could be an ideal prospect, a contact with a certain title in a specific business, or a specific name that they'd like a personal introduction to. Here are steps to helping out at least one member of your BNI chapter (or of your referral network):

1. Write down what everyone is looking for, you may have 15 or 30 or 40 ideas of what people are looking for.

2. Pick one person that you can help from the list, based on what they are looking for

3. Circle that name and 'who' they were looking for

4. Call the 'who' by noon

5. If you don't have that 'who' - ask the first 3 people you meet on Tuesday if they know that 'who'

6. Continue all week (asking the first 3 people you meet, until you make the connection).

7. Bring that person's contact information and permission to call to your BNI chapter next week

8. Repeat this each week and give 50 referrals a year!

Additional Information: You Know the Prospect

Hi ______________,

Can I introduce you to (name of BNI member), the owner of the (BNI member's company name), who can help you (service BNI member provides)? He/She has helped me (how have they helped you?) and I’m seeing the results in my (business / life / health / family / can you provide an effective 3rd party testimonial here?).

Let me know if I can make this introduction.

Thank you,

--You Ask someone you know if they know the prospect--

Hi _(name of friend)_,

Can you do me a favor? I’m trying to help my friend _(BNI member first name)_ by connecting him/her to a _(who are they are looking for this week)_.

Do you know a _(Business Owner / Person / Someone)_ that you can introduce me to that fits that description?

Thanks!

--Your follow-up contact with the prospect--

Hi _(Prospect Name)_,

(Your Friend) gave me your contact information – she/he said you were a (who your BNI member is looking for this week).

Can I introduce you to (BNI member), the owner of (BNI member company name), who can help you (how can they help?)? He/She has helped me (how have they helped you?) and I’m seeing the results in my (business / life / health / family / can you provide an effective 3rd party testimonial here?).

Can make this introduction?

Thank you,

--

Repeat this and you too can bring 50 referrals a year to BNI.

Linked In?

Here are my few rules for Linked In:

1. I have to have met you in person. I have to know you are real and that you aren't an avatar representation of someone else (or some corporation).

2. I have to be willing to help you. It would be nice if you were willing to help me too. I like to use Linked In to see how I can help people. If I don't feel comfortable helping you (with information, support, tips, leads, or referrals), then we probably won't have a useful linked-in relationship.

3. I have to have visibility with you. Do I know your first name, your last name, your business name, and your profession? Do you know my profession and business name? Until we have a visibility relationship, in real life, we don't have much of a connection online either. I don't make connections - real or virtual - if there's nothing behind the connection.

4. Do you have 10 connections? I don't ask to be Linked-In to someone that has less that 10 connections. For whatever reason they don't want to use Linked-In, they don't understand the value, they don't want to use online networking, they don't have the time, they don't like to ask people that they know in real life to be connected - - for whatever reason they have less than 10 connections - - we probably wouldn't be able to help each other through Linked-In anyways.

5. Making the first move. If someone asks to Link to me and they follow guidelines 1, 2, and 3 - - then I'll more than likely link to them. (I only use rule 4 when I'm interested in making the first move - usually because we met somewhere in person and I'm interested in getting linked.)

6. Members Together: If we are a member of an organization or hobby group that has a good chance of us meeting in person as some point in the future - I might link to you so we can get to know each other better in advance of a real life meeting. It is unlikely that I would refer anyone to you or ask you for help until we meet in person. That's just the way I am.

7. I don't use connections as a scorecard to measure my life worth. As I tell all of my clients - I'd rather have 10 strong relationships with people I trusted, than 100 weak relationships with people I didn't know.

How do you decide who to link to on Linked-In? Do you accept all invitations? Do you connect with people you don't know, haven't met, don't trust, don't want to help, or have nothing in common?

My company - the Referral Institute of Ithaca - helps business owners work less, play more, and make more by helping them create referrals for life. Linking to hundreds of strangers and reading their updates - well that doesn't sound like working less - so I'll probably skip that activity. For other activities and solutions about working less, making more, and creating Referrals for Life - - check out one of my upcoming Referral Success 101 classes.

My Recipe for Success

Tuesday afternoon I attended my first ICON meeting. ICON (derived from 'Independent Consultant Network') is a business networking group that meets once a month to support independent consultants by providing a forum where they can meet and learn from each other. The president of ICON is Bob Steinkamp, the owner/manager of Finger Lakes Media Strategies. Bob and I first met at the veterans Watchfire in September 2007 (at Myer's Point in Lansing) when we were introduced by a mutual friend.

This month's ICON meeting had the theme of "The First Annual ICON Build A Successful Consultancy Cook-Off!".

Here's my recipe (following the ingredients Bob recommended):

1 spicy marketing idea that anyone can use to promote their business:

Develop a stronger referral relationship with your referral partners by promoting them. Here are the steps:

-Introduce a member of your network to a person or acquaintance of yours; describe your network member’s background and business and how well she performs.

-Let the other person know that if he or she ever needs the kind of products or services offered by your network member, he or she should not hesitate to call him.

-Promote your network member as often as possible, whether or not he is present – for example, by nominating him for an award or using him as an example in presentations and introductions.

2 freshly-ground ounces of time-management tips:

My favorite time-management tip is to network in the right place. Identify your target market – and network where they play. Even better – identify the professions of your referral partners – and network with them (they’ll be a gateway to a lot of the right clients for you).

3 dollops of lightly sugared (nutrasweet is o.k.) motivational; or inspirational quotes you like:

“If you are coasting, it means you are going downhill.” C.P. Fulford, Jr.

“A word of encouragement during a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after success.” William Saroyan

“Only those who dare to fail miserably can achieve greatly.” Robert Kennedy

4 sliced and diced business resource suggestions such as books or websites that you like:

• Networking Now, blog by Ivan Misner: http://networking.entrepreneur.com
• Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams, Lecture on YouTube by Randy Pausch, http://www.cmu.edu/randyslecture/
• The Monk and The Riddle, by Randy Komisar
• Paradigm Shifts Coaching, the mindfulness life coaching business of Ravi Walsh (here in Ithaca and online at http://www.paradigmshiftscoaching.com).

and 5 business cards to pass out to people you meet (add as many of these as you want as garnish!)

I liked the group. I think having a place where independent consultants can see other consultants and exchange what works, what they like to do, and what kind of help they are looking for is valuable for anyone who has to wear many hats in their business. It is a chance to get out of the home office and come out of the metaphorical cave.

The next ICON Monthly Meeting:

April 13th, 2010 at 4:00 p.m.

Free and Open to the Public

Audrey Edelman RealtyUSA

2333 N. Triphammer Road

Ithaca, New York

Contact Bob Steinkamp for more information: bob@flmsmedia.com

5 Reasons for 5 Minutes

I recently spent five minutes on the phone with a new referred client. What do you say to your newly referred prospects? It is not only the first impression, it also might be the only five minutes you have together. Do you have 5 reasons (or topics) to make sure you cover in that 5 minute phone call?

Here are five reasons to spend five minutes on the phone with me:

1. The Referral Institute is a consulting company - we consult with business owners to develop the right referral marketing plan for their business - finding the right partners and training them the right ways to generate referrals.

2. We help you connect with the people you already know - business owners know a lot of people from a lot of different places in their lives - some of these people can be great referral partners for your business. We help you identify which people are the best sources for your business.

3. We provide you with simple steps to take - It is simple, it just isn't easy. If it was easy, everyone would do it and everyone would have more business than they could handle. The steps I guide you along are easy and are possible to do to find success in word of mouth marketing.

4. We allow you to take control - it is your referral marketing plan, your relationships, your time, your financial gain. You can take control of how your referrals are coming to your business.

5. We work to effectively make a plan to help the right people and help you create Referrals for Life. Referrals are about relationships and relationships are about people. When you help someone grow their business - and you provide easy ways for them to help you - they will help you grow your business.

If the client on my phone is referable then I might invite them to check out my Referral Success 101 class. If only one of the traits is missing from the list - we might be able to figure out how to improve that in the next five minutes of the call - probably by me referring them to another business professional. If they aren't referable - and they are unwilling to change or develop their referable traits - then I might recommend a marketing, advertising, or direct mail consultant to help them get their message out - as long as they are looking to grow their business.

I challenge all entrepreneurial sales people to be able to get their phone pitch down to five minutes. This is your message to someone who has been referred into your business. You'll be able to save time - both yours and your potential clients.

It can also act as a great information piece for your referral partners!

Are you referable?

One of the most common questions I get asked as a referral marketing consultant is 'Why are people not giving me referrals?'. It is a tough question - but knowing that you have a problem is a step in the right direction. To figure out the answer to the question I first start out with the very difficult question of 'Are you referable?'.

What does 'Are you referable?' mean? What makes you referable is going to be completely different than what makes your strategic partner referable and what makes me referable. Right? Well, probably wrong.

There are common traits in people that are referable. The Referral Institute uses some of these traits in identifying our target market. The people we can help with their business are people that are already referable. We focus on helping them find the right referral partners and teach them the right tools, tips, and techniques to make their 'referable-ness' function effectively. We do this so they can work less and earn more.

What if they aren't referable? Well - we spend time helping them with that too.

So what are these traits of a referable person? The traits of our target market? What makes you referable?

• Are you an expert in your field? I'm putting my reputation on the line for you - you better know what you are talking about and that you can perform.
• Are you relational? Are you going to treat the people I refer to you (my family, friends, and clients) like a person or like a number? Is that next client a person or an invoice?
• Are you a life long learner? Will you be patient to listen to a potential client? Do you enjoy learning about people and their needs?
• Are you coachable? Your referral partners are going to have to teach you how to listen and how to introduce them to potential clients.
• Are you an entrepreneur? Do you believe in and have a strong passion for your business? If you don't have a passion for your work - I may wonder if you'll complete the job you've asked for.
• Do you apply your expertise to your own life? Look at what you are trying to have people refer you for - your products and services. Do you use them yourself?
• Are you doing some kind of networking today? People like to refer people to people that are outside of their cave and are visible. Come out to play and people will want to and be able to refer you better.

If you can answer yes to all of these bullets - you are referable! If you are still having trouble turning from being 'referable' to getting referrals my Referral Success 101 class might be right for you.

Upcoming classes are March 3rd at 5:30pm and March 10th at 9:30am. Details available here: http://www.referralinstituteithaca.com - Click 'Programs' and select 'Referral Success 101'.