FRAM SYSTEMS ^blog

Referral Essentials

It’s not only who know or what you know, it’s what you about whom and how you relay it that makes a good referral.

Let’s face it, everyone likes getting referrals, especially those that lead to profitable relationships, but how many know what makes a good referral? Moreover, how many have a system in place that is constantly generating good referrals?

Coming from an IT and business background, I understand that the more data you have and the more critical ways you have of examining that data you employ, the more meaningful and revealing information you may gather. Often, simply by analyzing figures something startling may be discovered.

In a 2005 study of Census Bureau data, geographers Mark Ellis of the University of Washington and Richard Wright of Dartmouth College looked at immigrant populations by the households in which they live, rather than individually on the traditional basis of census tract, neighborhood, metropolitan area or state. What they learned is that there are about 17 million third-generation or more Americans living in households with immigrants or children of immigrants. This has had profound significance for marketers that focus or ethnic or nationality based campaigns and virtually open a whole new realm for them to target.

In the case of referrals, knowledge is power. If you are giving a referral, what information to you have about the client or customer you are referring? Here, more is better. The more information about the prospect you can convey, the easier it is for the person making the call to focus in on the wants and needs of the prospect.

Compare these two referrals. Jack, a forklift truck salesman gives the Shirley, a Third Party Logistics rep this referral. “Shirley, I just went to see Ed McKinley at Movementum about their Jacksonville facility. He mentioned that they were not satisfied with the times their logistics provider was taking to clear their docks. I thought he would be a good referral for you. Here’s his number”.
Looks like a good referral right? Shirley now knows who to talk to and what concerns and needs they have. Specific enough? Not really.

Consider this. “Shirley, I just went to see Ed McKinley at Movementum. They’re concerned about some efficiencies of their TPL provider, MarxTrux. Ed feels his whole operation is bogged down by goods not moving efficiently off their docks. He complained that schedules are hard to coordinate with MarxTrux and even though they invested in a computerized system, it isn’t paying off for them like they were led to believe. In know this is good opportunity for you so I told him about you and he seems interested in talking to you.”

OK, that’s better already. The Jack adds the real information. ” Before you talk to Ed, here’s somethings you should know. When Ed got promoted to VP of Operations last year its was because of tight ship he ran at the Atlanta operation. In fact it took him 5 years to turn things around there. As VP the President and the Board are looking to him for some quick results for operations overall. I sensed that Ed is under a lot of pressure to produce some positive results rather quickly.” Even better, Shirley now knows Ed’s pain. Jack goes on “Ed and his wife Beth have three children, Mark who just started business school at Duke, Carol, a sophomore at Sarah Lawrence and Joey who plays on the Cougars, his high school basket ball team. Ed is very proud of his kids so be sure to ask about them. Ed and Beth live in Bethel on a small farm which they keep for the farm tax assessment. Beth was a school teacher before they married and she loves taking care of their few animals and sharing them with the neighborhood kids who help with the chores. Ed loves to play tennis and complained to me about how his new travel schedule makes it hard for him to play as much as he used to and he really hates it when he has to miss one of Joey’s games. Ed and Beth really want to be involved with Joey before he goes off to college in two years.”

Great, Shirley now has a load of information that will ease her into positive conversation with Ed. Foremost she is aware of Ed’s most pressing concern: showing immediate results in operational efficiency. She also knows about Ed’s wife, kids, his likes and dislikes. Surely Shirley can use that information to find some common ground on which to start a conversation with Ed that she can turn to a conversation how Ed can use her TPL firm to create the results he is under pressure to produce.

Now the master’s touch. “I have to go see Ed sometime in the next two weeks. If you’d like, I will arrange a lunch after our meeting and introduce you to Ed. I told him about you, your company and about the success you had with CHH. He seems very interested in meeting you. I’ll get you acquainted and beg off the lunch if it seems to be going well, that way you can have his undivided attention” That’s a referral.

So how can you give referrals like that? Be attentive and constantly be gathering information about the people you do business with. We all make small talk. It helps us feel out the person we are dealing with. The great Dale Carnegie taught that it is better to engage a person to speak about themselves than it is to speak about yourself. When you ask questions, take notes if you must, but learn as much about the people you meet. They will think highly of your for it.

So how can we make a system of this? Financial planner Bill Bachrach has created a formula he calls MISC: meaningful, important, significant and compelling information. You could simply note the facts about your contacts and have areas titled Meaningful, Important, Significant and Compelling. Jot down the key words about these aspects of your contact. They will help you and those you refer.

So let’s say you receive a sparse referral like the one in the first example. What can you do? First, ask questions and take notes. If I’m near a computer I use a form like the MISC one I described but if not I take notes on whatever is available and transfer them to the computer THAT DAY. Ask about what is meaningful, important, significant and compelling about the referral you’ve just been given. Ask questions like “based on your relationship with Tom, what makes you think he is a good prospect for me?”, “do you know what specifically Tom would like from me? What are his concerns?” and ” has Tom ever mentioned other things about himself and his family that you could share to help get the conversation going with him?” Try to find out as much as possible, even things like how do they like to dress, what kind of car do they drive, are they into exercise and diet or are they social and involved with community projects. The more information you have, the more you know, the common ground there is to build the foundations of your personal bridge.

Asking questions like these accomplishes two important things: it helps you to understand the prospect and it makes the person giving the referral think about that person as well. Do this enough times and with that person and he will automatically include that information in his next referral without needing to be asked. And of course, share this system with anyone who will gives you a referral.

When giving a referral always try to go the extra mile like Jack did in the second example. Personal introductions go a long way, especially when the introduction is from someone trusted.

Do these things and fill your information with significant and important information about your contacts and they will payoff for you and others. And remember, there is no better place to use your contact system than where you are now. Makes notes about everyone you meet, you never know when they will pay off.