Million Dollar Referrals: The Secrets to Building a Perpetual Client List to Generate a Seven-Figure Income by Weiss Alan

Author:Weiss, Alan [Weiss, Alan]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Published: 2011-09-29T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 6

THE CULT OF CEYK (CALL EVERYONE YOU KNOW)

CAREFUL WHERE YOU STEP; YOU’RE CRUSHING REFERRALS

UNTAPPED REFERRAL SOURCES AROUND YOU

For people who are new to professional services, those who are undergoing a business downturn, and those in need of short-term cash (one of the most difficult positions of all, since this isn’t a short-term cash business) I always recommend a fundamental discipline: call everyone you know.

The language you should use is: “I’m calling to let you know the kind of value I’m now providing for my clients with the hope that this might be useful to you or someone you know. If the former, I’d like to have an opportunity to meet with you. If the latter, I’d be appreciative if you could provide an introduction.”

One of the problems in a small town is that everyone knows everyone else. I live in Rhode Island, too small to be a real state of the union and more like a state of mind. But the principle is the same: it’s hard to hide. If you have a mistress or a lover, it’s best to avoid local eyes by meeting them some distance away—say, Toronto. Similarly, you want to catch yourself before exhibiting undue anger or a rude digit to someone who cuts you off, since it could be the police chief, your bank lending officer, one of your kid’s teachers, or your probation officer.

Similarly, if you go around burning bridges in your life, it’s going to be very difficult to ferry referrals across the rapids.

You should engage in CEYK at least twice a year. I find that quarterly is not too often if you do it right, with the mindset I’ve tried to establish with you: I have tremendous value, and I’d be remiss if I didn’t present it to as many people as I can, particularly those I know.

If you’re not careful about where you “step,” you may be crushing these fragile referral sources.

You can end your referral journey with these untapped (or too infrequently tapped) sources prematurely by

• Ignoring them.

• Acknowledging them but never using the language given previously.

• Insulting them.

• Creating the impression that they can’t help you. (If you brag about doing business only with billiondollar global firms, which isn’t exactly accurate, why should local $100 million firm owners come to you?)

• Being nonresponsive. I seldom provide referrals to anyone who doesn’t get back to me to acknowledge them or who never actually bothers to call them.

• Becoming subordinated to a competitor who doesn’t make these mistakes and mines the sources far better than you.

• Mismanaging perceptions about yourself and failing to blow your own horn.

• Doing poor work and having people complain about you.

I’m all for freedom of speech, but I have to wonder about shopkeepers who post partisan political signs in their businesses during heated and antagonistic election periods. The signs will seldom sway anyone to vote in any way other than what he intends, but they will sway people to stop patronizing the business of someone who “pokes them in the eye” with competing beliefs when they voluntarily enter the shop.

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