Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening everybody.
And welcome to today's episode
of the NeverPeak Project Podcast.
I'm your host, Coach Ranger.
In today's episode, I'm gonna be going over
the general definition of a referral network,
give you some examples of what a referral network
could look like, as well as some strategies
that I have found useful in building up a clientele
and referral basis in one of these organizations.
Grab a beverage, sit back, relax, and let's get going.
To really just set the tone and clarify what it is
that we're gonna be talking about,
I just want to define what a referral network is
and give a few examples of what that could look like.
One of the biggest referral networks in the world
is BNI, Business Networking International.
I'm sure that there is one probably in every major city
in every single state, all across the country,
all across the world.
There are some localized referral networks.
I was a part of one in Modesto
called Gold Star Referral Network.
I believe that one started in Oklahoma,
so it's in a few different states,
but it's not quite as large as BNI.
Then there are some more localized industry-specific ones
or club-specific ones, such as the BRN,
which is through the San Mateo Chamber of Commerce,
and that stands for Business Referral Network.
And really to just get down straight to the definition
of what a referral network is,
a referral network is a structured system
designed to facilitate warm introductions
and business opportunities to its members.
Typically, a lot of networking groups,
even just General Chamber of Commerce
or a few other ones I'll get into in just a second,
a lot of other networking groups
are just focused on shaking hands, meeting people,
exchanging business cards,
just trying to get to know who others are in the industry.
And what I have kind of found difficult about that
is I've been to quite a few of them.
One of the biggest examples that I can think of
off the top of my head is the Small Business Expo
that was in South San Francisco a few months ago.
I did a podcast episode about some takeaways from that,
as well as a blog post.
But where organizations like BNI
and networking events like that is they are not organized.
There are timelines and there's keynotes
and there's all these other things
that happen during those events,
but with BNI there is a specific structure
and a focus on giving referrals to other members
and receiving referrals back.
The networking events that I've been to
at the Chamber of Commerce or, like I said,
the Small Business Expo,
it was just kind of this mad dash to make connections.
You have to go up and talk to people.
You have to make a huge effort
in order to even just exchange cards with someone.
I still attend those events.
I love those events.
I've gotten better at networking and talking to folks.
Really where organizations like BNI differ
is that you are in a room with the same people
every single week in order to get to know them
and their business and explain and educate everyone else there
about your business and what you offer
and the results that you can give potential clients.
To be clear, there is an expectation
that you also give referrals in that group,
but we'll touch more on that later,
and how I have found a way to do that
without feeling weird about it.
So to clarify how I am defining a referral network
is it is a group of business owners
or people that work for a business
that meet every single week or every other week
that is industry specific
where there can only be one life coach.
There can only be one banker,
one real estate agent, one mortgage broker.
They meet every single week.
They typically do a 30-second elevator pitch
about their business,
and there's some form of accountability and structure
to ensure that everybody is actively participating
and that people aren't just sitting there
trying to collect referrals
without putting in any work themselves.
That is what I'm gonna be defining as a referral network
for the rest of this podcast.
Now in Alex Hermosy's book, $100 Million Leads,
he talks about a method called the Core Four
to get more leads for your business.
And the Core Four, that stands for warm outreach,
cold outreach, posting free content, and running paid ads.
Those are four different methods that you can use
in order to get more leads for your business.
And a little bit later in the book,
he starts talking about something called
the Core Four on steroids,
which he refers to more appropriately as lead getters.
Now there's four major types of lead getters.
There's customers, affiliates, employees, and agencies.
And the reason that I share that with you
is that the original Core Four,
warm outreach, cold outreach,
posting free content, running paid ads,
that's all what you can do as a business owner.
That is you putting in the work hours for dollars,
essentially, whereas the Core Four on steroids
and getting lead getters for your business,
that is using the power of other people in your network.
Another thing that Alex Hermosy says in his book
is where the Core Four and the lead getters kind of differ
is that there's only one of you,
but if you're able to get other people to help you get leads,
there's way more of them.
And that's what I really love about referral networks
is you're kind of training your own sales team
every single week and through one-to-one meetings,
which again, we'll get to in just a second,
but it's about getting people in your network,
in your local area, to be on the lookout for you
while you're on the lookout for them.
It's really just making sure that local commerce
is consistently supporting itself.
And personally, that kind of network and structure team
is something that I really love and value.
And before we get further on,
I want to be able to explain something
that is a huge thing to keep in mind
if you are a part of one of these referral networks
is the difference between a tip, a lead, and a referral.
Now, when we're in a referral network,
we wanna strive for referrals.
In BNI, it's a level one to a level five, in Gold Star,
it was just kind of on the spectrum
of a tip, lead, and referral.
Now, what I wanna really get across
is when we're in these referral networks,
we want to give and receive qualified referrals
from and to one another.
Now, to just kind of keep it in mind,
a tip, lead, and referral, think zero, one, two.
And that number is referring to the amount
of contact information that has been exchanged.
When you're just giving a tip to someone,
it could be something as simple as,
hey, to the painter in your group,
on my way to work the other day,
I noticed that there was this building,
the paint looks like absolute garbage.
You might wanna go drop off a card or go check it out,
here's the address.
That's just a little bit of information.
There's no contact information exchange.
Sure, you might've given them the address
or you might've told them where something was,
but that doesn't really help anything.
They still have to go out there,
they still have to prospect,
they still have to do all of the work.
Is it useful?
Sure, is it what we're there for?
Not necessarily.
Now when we're moving into a lead,
now Alex Hermosy defines that as,
a lead is somebody that you can contact.
Now, an example of this could be,
hey, Tom, the painter in my group,
one of my neighbors was talking about his house
a little bit, I have his number on my phone,
I can just give it to you,
maybe just give him a call and just see where it goes.
That is nice because there is a need that was identified,
there is some kind of potential use for your service.
However, there's a good chance that the person referring
never really talked to the neighbor
and they're not expecting the call from Tom, the painter.
And that can cause an issue because if they,
if Tom calls that person and that person has no idea
who they are or why they're calling,
it's just another sales call
and they're just gonna get hung up on.
It doesn't really help anything.
Is it useful?
Sure.
Is it what we're looking for?
No.
Whereas a referral, a proper referral is again, number two
and that is for two forms of contact information exchange.
That could look something like,
hey, Tom, come here real quick.
You know, last weekend I was at my neighbor's house
for a barbecue and we got to talking,
we went inside his house and I noticed
that some of the paint was chipping
and when I asked him about it, he said,
oh, you know, I'm really trying to find someone
that I can trust, I can really find somebody
that can take care of this.
I hired somebody else but I just kind of found them
on the yellow pages or on Google, didn't do a great job
so, you know, I'm just don't know who to go to.
You as the member of the referral network can say,
you know, here's my buddy Tom, here's his card,
pull it up on the online directory.
You know, I'm going to talk to him on Tuesday.
I'm gonna let him know to give you a call.
Is that all right with you?
Here's some of his work.
And you as the person referring them
and assuming you've done one-to-ones
and you got to know that person can say,
oh, you know, Tom, he also loves the 49ers
or the Raiders or whoever and like really connect
with that person.
So they kind of get to feel like they know something
about Tom before Tom even calls.
And then Tuesday rolls around,
you're able to give Tom that referral,
say, hey Tom, here is my neighbor's number.
I already gave him your contact info.
He is expecting your call.
And then Tom is able to make that phone call,
chat up the neighbor and get the problem fixed.
Another way that you can do that is by putting both
of them in a text thread, putting both of them
in an email thread.
Really, you just want to ensure that both people know
who the other person is, at least a little bit,
you know, explain to Tom what the problem is,
explain to your neighbor how Tom can fix that problem
and really just make sure that they have some form
of communication, a clearly defined line of communication
and that both parties have agreed to talk to one another.
Just want to talk about the difference
from the tip, lead and referral right off the bat
and make sure that everybody is on the same page.
Because again, while a tip or a lead could be helpful,
it's better than nothing, but a referral is really
the gold standard in what we are looking for.
It kind of shows that that person that you're referring
has your stamp of approval.
Now, the next thing that I want to go over is what I call
the know, like and trust spectrum.
It is kind of the timeline that people go through
when they join a referral network before they're able
to get their first clients from it, their first referrals.
Now, why am I talking about this?
I'm talking about this because people only refer people
that they know, like and trust.
But what does it mean to be known, to be liked
and to be trusted?
When I say know, that can be something as simple as
you've gone to a couple meetings,
you've already joined the chapter, people know who you are,
they know your name, they know your business,
they know generally what you do.
It's just being known, it's just kind of advertising
yourself and kind of being able to stick in people's minds
who you are and what you do.
And that is again, as simple as attending meetings
and doing basic one-to-ones.
Now, I've said one-to-ones a couple times,
I'm finally gonna explain what that is.
A one-to-one is a meeting that you have with another person
in the group, one, two, one, either in person, via Zoom,
over coffee, over a meal, at each other's places of work,
whatever, where you get to know that person even more.
Now, typically during the meetings for BRN, BNI, Gold Star,
you typically have a 30 to 60 second timeframe
where you can give an elevator pitch
about who you are and what you do.
You know, that's very basic, it gets people an idea
of the service that you provide and the transformation
that you offer to your clients.
Whereas in a one-to-one, you can have anywhere from 10,
20, 30, 40 minutes, depending on how long you agree
to have the one-to-one for, where you can really talk
about who you are, your background,
why you're an expert in this field,
and how and why people should refer you.
And the great things about one-to-ones is that not only
are you building up that no factor with the person sitting
in front of you, but you're also building up
that second part, which is being liked.
You can show that you're likable by being approachable,
by having conversations, by remembering people's names,
knowing what they do, being able to have a conversation.
There's one of the gals in my BNI group,
something that we found out about each other
during a one-to-one that we had,
was that we both keep exotic animals.
We both have snakes and lizards.
She hasn't quite gotten to spiders as far as I know.
I have, but it's really a way to really get
to know each other, to show that you have more things
in common than you really think you do.
Something that I've been doing in my BNI group
to build up that like factor is just being very excited
and kind of throwing myself into what the group has to offer.
I was put as the one-to-one coordinator pretty early on,
just a few weeks into me joining,
and I've really just tried to run with it.
I think that's one of those cases where how you do anything
is how you do everything, and I really wanted to show
that I'm going to show for the group,
see all the things I'm doing when I'm not getting paid.
Imagine if you send a referral my way.
Imagine if you were to send your mom or your best friend
or a coworker or a colleague of yours,
I'm going to show up for them
just like I'm showing up for this group.
That's a very easy way to show
that you are just a likable person.
And when I say that, I also don't wanna sound
like I'm being inauthentic when I'm doing all those things.
I really do enjoy the process
and think that there is a lot of value to add,
and I enjoy being of service to others.
So I think that's another thing to keep in mind
is that you can't really fake enthusiasm.
You have to be enthusiastic yourself.
And if you don't feel enthusiastic during those things,
what I would do is reconsider what your mission statement is,
why you're showing up in the first place
and really clarifying the benefits
of being enthusiastic in that regard.
And going back to one-to-ones,
now that I'm off my soapbox about the importance
of being likable, is that it really gives you
that opportunity to build up that trust factor.
During those one-to-ones, during that 10, 15, 20,
30-minute long meeting that you have with the other person,
you're able to showcase your service
and the solutions you're able to offer
to potential referees.
You're able to say, hey, this is who I am,
this is my qualification, this is how long I've been doing it,
this is why I love doing it,
and really able to show that passion throughout that meeting
to show that you are credible, capable,
and competent enough to take on any referral
within your industry and ability of service.
And another thing that I have found extremely useful
in that trust factor is showing off testimonials.
Currently, I have 20 testimonials on Google,
and I have about 15 reviews on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
So it just shows that I have been able
to consistently show up for clients.
I've been able to make consistently good content
that people appreciate, and I've noticed
that when I'm able to give explicit examples of,
I had a client, typically I change the name,
so I'm saying, I'll call him Bill, or I'll call her Nancy.
This is the problem that she had,
this is the problem that he went through,
this is the solutions that we came up with,
and this is where they are now.
Being able to clearly communicate the past successes
that you've had in your business helps a ton
in terms of building up that trust factor.
And again, that is something that you're able
to share during a one-to-one or your extended presentation
that you typically get in these referral networks.
Another way to show trust and show that you're really bought
in is to try to offer referrals first.
Again, when you're giving a referral to someone,
you wanna keep in mind that spectrum of a tip,
a lead, and a referral, and really aim
for that referral aspect.
And when you're giving a referral,
you don't wanna just give a random name
or have a scapegoat that you kinda just pretend
to send referrals to.
You really wanna be on the lookout for problems
that people in your network are facing.
For example, I was on a one-to-one call
with a gentleman from a chapter a little bit further south
of where I am, and he mentioned that he is
from a foreign country, and he wants to work
on his American accent, but he hasn't been able
to find a trusted accent coach anywhere.
And I didn't even know that that was a thing,
but by listening to him make a complaint about that
and talk about that that is something
that he wants to work on, I kinda kept it
in the back of my mind.
And then the next day, I was on a national call
for BNI, and somebody in the call mentioned
that they're an accent coach.
So I de-entered, told her I might have a referral for her.
I messaged the other guy and let him know,
and I was able to make that connection via email.
And I haven't heard anything back just yet,
but that's just one of those examples
where you're looking for someone who has a problem,
and then you're looking for someone who has the solution
and just making a quick connection.
And again, I'm really hoping that it works out
for both of them so that she can help him
and he can get helped by her.
And if you want an actionable strategy for that,
if you're in one of these referral networks
or you're not and you're not able to join one right now
for some reason, what I would still do
is set up one-to-one meetings with people.
I aim to have one-to-three one-to-ones a week,
if not more.
My record right now, I think, is around eight or nine
in a week, so I'm really trying to bump up those numbers
and do even more.
Again, as one-to-one coordinator,
I kinda wanna be the highest every week.
But the importance of a one-to-one is that you're able
to really listen to not only what they offer
but what they may be looking for.
So I would schedule anywhere from one to three of those
a week so that you're able to get to know everybody
in your chapter and your organization.
And the final thing that I wanna talk about in this podcast
is the importance of clarity in your messaging.
Now, I was in Gold Star for just shy of a year
and it took me about six months to get my first referral.
And I was really just banging my head against the wall.
I was really trying to hone my elevator pitch
so I was trying to do as many one-to-ones as possible
until I realized one day that I don't think
that I was being clear in what it was that I was looking for
or the services that I provide as a coach.
And that is something to keep in mind
that if you're in a common industry,
that's what I like to call them, I call them the big five,
and that's typically real estate agent, mortgage broker,
CPA, some kind of attorney, and then a general contractor,
whether it's a gardener, roofer, et cetera,
those people are typically gonna get the most referrals
from what I have seen and experienced.
And that's because they solve a very clear problem
that even if somebody isn't really sure what they do
or what they specialize in,
if somebody says that they wanna buy a house,
they're gonna call the realtor.
If somebody's gonna call the realtor,
they're able to work with the mortgage broker
to get them a house.
If somebody is having tax issues,
which taxes are something that come up every single year,
they're gonna call the CPA.
And then same thing with the lawyer,
same thing with the general contractor,
somebody's roof is leaky,
they're gonna call the local roofer
that they need somebody to take care of their lawn,
they're gonna call the gardener,
and I am beating this dead horse,
but that is the point I'm trying to get across
is that it's kind of like,
I think I just kind of made this up on the spot right here,
but I kind of wanna call it the blender effect.
Like it's very clear what a blender does, it blends things.
It's clear what an ant eater is, it eats ants.
Or it has people in my category, for example,
in the coaching, the consultant kind of realm,
it might be a little bit harder for somebody to recognize
when somebody in their network has that problem.
You know, when does somebody need a life coach?
When does somebody actually need a therapist?
Like it's not always very clear
on when something like that can happen.
And the other thing that we run into as coaches, consultants
is personalities and messaging and vibe
are all at play with referring us.
So that is something to keep in mind
if you're in one of these other kinds of industries.
What I wanna get across here really is
if people don't understand what you do,
they aren't going to be able to refer you properly.
And again, I didn't get my first referral
until about five to six months into my time
in Goldstar and Modesto.
That's because I was trying to be too fancy.
I was using big words.
I was trying to sound smarter than I actually was.
And I did have a little bit of nerves going into it.
So while I was trying to sound smarter,
all I did was look shy and kind of confused
about what I even do.
And that is not something that you wanna come across as
when you're in one of these networks.
So when you're talking about the problems you solve
and what you do during that 30 second elevator pitch,
you want to be very clear.
I help target audience solve X problem
by offering blank solution.
That is very clear.
It's very concise.
But again, for people in the category of coaching
or et cetera, typically I have seen
that there is a little bit more of a problem
with really defining the avatar
that you're looking to work with
and the solution that you provide.
Another thing that I've noticed people do
is they typically have some kind of catchy slogan
or saying, some kind of rhyming scheme
at the very end of their presentation.
Now, something that I use typically is
imagine the peaks you'll reach in just 12 weeks.
That is very clear.
It's memorable.
And it kind of keeps something in people's minds
after the meeting is over.
Now that has been helpful,
especially in terms of getting initial referrals
or starting conversations about potential referrals.
I was able to get a couple
after I started using that little slogan.
Another thing that I started doing to be more clear
was talking about specific pain points
that I could solve with my coaching.
Being able to call out specific problems you can solve
or how you have solved specific problems
is also extremely valuable.
There was one time when I was in Goldstart and Modesto
that I mentioned a few different types of avatars
or situations that I could help in.
And what really struck a nerve with this person
was I can help with step-parent
to step-child relationship issues.
I said something along the lines of,
if you know somebody that is a step-parent
and they have a step-child
and communication isn't really there,
there's an aspect of you're not my mom, but you are,
you're not my dad, but you kind of are, let me know.
And I'd be more than happy to help you figure out
what's going on there.
And she was able to refer me, one of her friends
that is going through that exact problem.
Then I started saying a few more things like that
and I started getting more and more referrals
for specific areas that I could help with.
So when it comes to being clear,
having a clear, I help blank person do this by doing this,
here are some examples of people that I've helped
and having a little bit of a rhyming scheme at the end,
that has helped a ton in terms of being clear
about who it is that you help and how you do that.
And to really drive home this last point of being clear
is again, being clear on the best way for people
to introduce you to a prospective client.
Let them know exactly what to say
if they come across somebody that has your problem.
Hey, I know this great coach.
Hey, I know this great lawn care person.
Hey, I know this great attorney
that can really help you with this problem.
You know, they're based out of San Mateo County.
They do this, all their things are online.
You know, they shared this with me.
Here's their website, here's their card.
I'm going to connect you with them.
Being able to clearly explain to people
the best way for them to put in contact with you
is extremely valuable.
And to really just wrap up this entire episode,
I think I wanna clarify is that all of these groups
really are just the epitome of you get out what you put in.
If you're not doing one-to-ones,
if you're not willing to get to know people in your groups,
you're not willing to share referrals
or look out for referrals for other people,
I don't think you're gonna have a very great time
while you're in it.
It might just become an energy drain for you
throughout the week, unless you're actively putting
in good energy into the organization as a whole.
So again, do one-to-ones, get out there,
really build yourself up on that know, like, and trust
continuum, get on that continuum for other people as well.
Give them the opportunity for you to get to know,
like, and trust them.
Really understand that you need to give qualified referrals
to everybody, that builds up your trust factor,
and then be very clear in the messaging
that you are presenting at these meetings.
If you have any questions or you wanna add anything to this,
please let me know, go and send me an email
at ranger at within rangecoaching.com,
and I'd be more than happy to chat with you.
If you are in the San Mateo area,
I'd be more than happy to invite you to a chapter meeting,
and if you're not in the area, go ahead and just look up
B&I Chapters near me, and I'm pretty sure
you're gonna find one pretty easy.
But as always, until next time, remember that the best
is yet to come as long as you are willing to make the decision
to never settle, never quit, and never peak.
I'll see you guys in the next one.