lead generation

15
Oct
2020
The top 3 reasons you don’t get the referrals you want!

The top 3 reasons you don’t get the referrals you want!

Remember the last time you were referred business from a friend or a past client just how good it felt? When was the last time that happened? When was the time before that? The best part about working with referrals is that they are sold on you by the referrer before they even met you. The person who sent them was a mixture of a full color glossy brochure of your services and your own personal hype man. If you aren’t getting the referrals you want or if you aren’t seeing them at the frequency you like, it’s likely one of these three reasons.

1. You don’t talk to them

Robin Dunbar, a British anthropologist, discovered through his studies of primates and humans that us human beings are generally only capable of maintaining 150 stable relationships with those in our lives. This is commonly referred to as Dunbar’s Number. Sure we know far more people, yet we cannot stay in communication, effectively, with more people. When we attempt to contact everyone, we don’t reach anyone as effectively as we could.

If you think sending an email blast to all of your past clients and prospects constitutes relationship maintenance, I challenge you to rate your relationship with Jeff Bezos based upon the last email you received from Amazon. How often do you contact your past clients? your friends and family? people who have sent you referrals in the past??

In the book, The One Thing, Gary Keller and Jay Papasan, the first of the lies which mislead us is that all things matter equally. Likewise, not all contacts matter equally. What and who you focus on expands! Rate your database and determine who belongs in your 150.

2. You haven’t given them the tools they need to refer you

Sure, my friends and family know I am a Business Coach. How does that knowledge alone tell them what they need to know to refer me? Our simple human brains are far better at recognizing patterns (and can do so unconsciously) than they are at analytical thinking.

One thing networking groups like BNI (Business Networking International) do well is that they have a ritual each week where their members stand and give a short commercial about their services and what a referral for them looks like. A great example would be if a roofer stands up and says something to the effect of:

“I’m Mike with Mike’s Roofing. After last weeks hailstorm in North Denver I have already had a ton of requests for roof evaluations and have found several which were in need of replacement. If you know anyone who lives in North Denver who was hit by that hailstorm, send them my way for a free roof inspection.”

With this cue in mind, when you leave your BNI meeting and talk with your friends and clients who live in North Denver, you have a better chance of being triggered to ask them about the hailstorm or you’ll at the very least remember Mike when someone mentions the hail damage their car took. How are you arming your ambassadors who are ready to refer you?

3. You haven’t rewarded referrals you’ve received

For us super-connectors, nothing gives us more joy than connecting someone we know who has a need with someone we also know who can satisfy that need and do a great job. For us, creating win-win connections and helping those we care about excites us!

In the book The Five Languages of Love, Gary Chapman describes that we most commonly like to receive and we find the most fulfillment from:

  • Words of Affirmation
  • Acts of Service
  • Receiving Gifts
  • Quality Time
  • Physical Touch

I do not recommend touching your referral sources, however, I do recommend touching on at least one of the other categories. The more of them you touch on, the better chance you have of triggering that one which your referral source most aligns with.

Have you ever received a gift from someone whom you sent a referral to? I have received enough Starbucks gift cards to buy all of you reading coffee… Seriously! I appreciate the gesture and the acknowledgement is enough to keep me sending referrals. The simplest we could all employ is words of affirmation. At a bare minimum, pick up the phone and call them… Don’t text! Tell them you are grateful for their trust in you. Then keep them posted and let them know when you score a win for their friend.

Get purposeful!

If you are ready to grow your business by referrals and to hit the easy button, join me on my free webinar next Tuesday on Building a Referral Based Business. Bring a notepad, some stationary, and a phone! We are going to get into action and grow our businesses together to finish 2020 strong and line up referrals for next year!

Click the image to RSVP
Posted by Adam Lendi in Coaching, Communication, Referrals, 0 comments
23
Jul
2020
Give Yourself a Raise

Give Yourself a Raise

Whether you realized it, or not, you are in sales. How dare I say that? Isn’t sales a grimy and nasty word? I shared that same feeling, not that long ago. I’d hear advertisements for “salary based sales staff” and “non-commissioned consultants” and think that this was a benefit. To me, I took it to mean I was getting someone who wouldn’t be pushy and who wouldn’t use tricks to swindle me out of my hard-earned money and sell me more than I wanted. Little did I realize, I was the problem.

That hard-earned money was truly hard-earned! At that point in my life, I was an employee, trading my time for money. It didn’t matter how hard I worked, my pay was based not upon my abilities, nor was it my performance. My pay was based solely on the amount of my precious time I gave, in exchange for a predetermined number of dollars per hour. If you recall my last post, Win Your Day, Win Your Life, you’ll recall that I value my finite days on this planet… and the hours! What my government job didn’t offer me was performance based pay and passive income. I had no clue what I was missing out on.

Lured by the promise of a pension, a benefits package, and modest pay, I entered a career in public service, like many others, because it seemed safe and it earned the respect of my parents and grandparents. I was taught at a young age that salaries and pensions were safe. Before I lose you and you blow up my comment feed, I am not condoning we all work for commission and contracts. Some have different priorities and to be honest, there are still jobs I would accept a salary to do.

Remember back at the beginning when I said we were all in sales? What was that all about? Yes, you, are in sales. Even if you’re not, you are. You sold yourself to a human resources panel to get your job and you’ve sold yourself to your manager at every raise you’ve received and at each time you’ve reconciled a disciplinary complaint. If you are dating or married, you’ve sold yourself to your mate and every person you’ve dated. If you have a friend, you sold them too!

We all have the ability to earn performance based pay. It may require ingenuity and outside of the box thinking, however, you too can earn more for your effort and retain more of your time. If you don’t believe me, I don’t expect you to. I would, however, encourage you to read The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferris. He provides a great roadmap to maximize your time by reducing the wasted hours and to get your required work completed quickly, thus liberating you from 40+ hour workweeks.

If you are already in sales (I know… everyone is) and you are earning commissions or contracts, you too can increase the fruits of your labor. It requires purposeful attention to the sources of your business. How do you earn money? From where does your business come? The answers to these questions will present you with your lead sources. Leads are the life blood of your business. You must always cultivate new leads if you are to build your business. This will require intentional focus on the most fruitful lead generation activities, time blocking, and the removal of all distractions standing between you and your next paycheck.

If you’re not certain where your next sale is coming from or if it has been too long since your last raise (cost of living increases do not count), it may be time to sharpen your sales skills. Salesman, saleswoman, and salesperson are not bad names. I’m proud to be a salesman and you should be too! It’s time to sell our next client or boss on the value we bring. You are worth top dollar and you deserve to retain as much of your time as you choose, all-the-while achieving your goals!

Let’s commit never to settle for mediocre pay or unfavorable hours! If you’re ready to take command of your day and your pay, reach out to me and also pick up TIm Ferris’ book. Finally, keep an eye out for an upcoming lead generation class I’m teaching, in August! Until then, go make a sale!

Posted by Adam Lendi in Coaching, Lead Generation, Time Blocking, Tools, 0 comments