The Unnatural Promoter by Charlie Lawson

Author:Charlie Lawson [Lawson, Charlie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781912300464
Publisher: SRA Books
Published: 2021-08-27T11:08:33+00:00

All these questions (and there will be more besides) will put a picture of your ideal client in the minds of your network. Instead of anyone/everyone/someone – they will now be thinking of real people that they could refer.

That said though, you can do even better.

End user or introducer?

For business-to-consumer businesses, we have only roughly segmented the population. Let’s say a good current client is in their 50s, they are approaching retirement, they have grown-up children, and they tend to have relatively large houses because they need lots of space when the grandkids are over.

While some referral possibilities will come from that information alone, many more referrals can come if we don’t target the end user directly.

Instead, think about who could introduce us to a person like that? In this case, a financial advisor might be a good start. Approaching retirement, they may have been seeking advice on their finances. Equally, they live in a nice house, so an estate agent may be a good connection. Focusing on their interests, golf courses might be a good way in.

The key is to think of people who will likely know a good number of end users in your target market. Then ask for referrals to them instead. There are two benefits of doing this.

Firstly, it becomes a lot easier to be specific. If you decide that estate agents were the best approach, you’ve then just got to ask for one. It’s back to business to business – pick which estate agent, which job title you need to speak to (i.e. the sales manager perhaps) and do some research to get their name.

Secondly, there is the referral potential that comes from promoting yourself in this way. When you go for the end user, you’ve only got one potential client. When you ask for an introducer, how many referrals to end users could they give you? Two? Ten? A hundred? Going for introducers also works for business-to-business operators too.

The key thing to remember is that it will never be a short-term strategy. You can’t expect to get a referral to the estate agent, and for them to immediately start giving you referrals to people with big houses.

But, if you take time to build a relationship with them, and try to help them and give them referrals, at some point the estate agent is going to ask how they can help you. Then you can say ‘Oh, it’s funny you should ask…’

Chapter 6: Action Steps

Think about networking you’ve done. Have you ever used the words ‘anybody’, ‘everybody’ or ‘somebody’ when describing the referrals you are looking for?

Consider what the ‘red Ferrari’ in your business is.

Make it easier for your referral partners to promote you by chunking down your business into smaller parts. Then pick one area at a time and focus on asking for those types of referrals when networking.

Produce a list of ten target referrals to educate your network who you’d like to do business with. Start off by thinking of a good current client.

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