5 Benefits of Sharing Your Clients
Recently, I was having a coffee, collaborating with a professional colleague.
Within short order, we had agreed to work on two matters together, which will benefit us and our clients.
It was a very easy give-and-take session, a perfect portrait of the way we think of "good business" being transacted.
The substance of our chat took no more than 20 minutes.
As we were wrapping-up, we discussed marketing, and he noted how much time and money is consumed in trying to attract prospects and convert them into clients.
Then, responding to our comfortable exchange, he mentioned how referral business "Is by far, the best.
" Referrals are great for at least five reasons: 1.
They're screened for relevance to our skills and interests.
Referral sources are generally quite familiar with our strengths before they send people our way.
2.
The referred see us as experts, we're credible to them without a lot of unseemly self-flattery and puffing 3.
They're buyers, not lookers or mere information gatherers.
Usually, they're ready to sign on the dotted line, making them efficient.
4.
They're predisposed toward liking us, coming from the viewpoint: "Any friend of Dean is a friend of mine!" 5.
They're under subtle pressure to be influenced by us, because they don't want to disappoint the referral source.
The economics of client referrals are also promising.
A typical referral fee is 10-30% of the proceeds that accrue from the tendered relationship.
That is very attractive to the sender, because it may involve little more than exercising some judgment and making an introduction.
But it is also very valuable to the receiver, who would otherwise invest at least that much money in hawking his or her services.
Receiving referrals also enables professionals to do what they do best, which isn't trawling for new business.
Why aren't more services providers building their businesses through referrals? Especially in a connected age of networking, you would think sharing leads would be refined to a near-science.
But the opposite seems to be occurring.
We are connected to hundreds, thousands or even millions of people at sites such as LinkedIn, but the vast majority of these ties are exceedingly weak and tenuous.
What we need to do is to seek out perhaps a dozen or two of the best possible sources we can conceive, and focus on befriending and informing them.
Then, we should formalize our referral relationship.
Ideally, that relationship will be reciprocal.
We'll send each other clients and dollars.
Especially in a challenging economy, we need to cultivate ways to transform individual clients into multiple modality buyers, and by doing so give and get the most we can, for all concerned.
Within short order, we had agreed to work on two matters together, which will benefit us and our clients.
It was a very easy give-and-take session, a perfect portrait of the way we think of "good business" being transacted.
The substance of our chat took no more than 20 minutes.
As we were wrapping-up, we discussed marketing, and he noted how much time and money is consumed in trying to attract prospects and convert them into clients.
Then, responding to our comfortable exchange, he mentioned how referral business "Is by far, the best.
" Referrals are great for at least five reasons: 1.
They're screened for relevance to our skills and interests.
Referral sources are generally quite familiar with our strengths before they send people our way.
2.
The referred see us as experts, we're credible to them without a lot of unseemly self-flattery and puffing 3.
They're buyers, not lookers or mere information gatherers.
Usually, they're ready to sign on the dotted line, making them efficient.
4.
They're predisposed toward liking us, coming from the viewpoint: "Any friend of Dean is a friend of mine!" 5.
They're under subtle pressure to be influenced by us, because they don't want to disappoint the referral source.
The economics of client referrals are also promising.
A typical referral fee is 10-30% of the proceeds that accrue from the tendered relationship.
That is very attractive to the sender, because it may involve little more than exercising some judgment and making an introduction.
But it is also very valuable to the receiver, who would otherwise invest at least that much money in hawking his or her services.
Receiving referrals also enables professionals to do what they do best, which isn't trawling for new business.
Why aren't more services providers building their businesses through referrals? Especially in a connected age of networking, you would think sharing leads would be refined to a near-science.
But the opposite seems to be occurring.
We are connected to hundreds, thousands or even millions of people at sites such as LinkedIn, but the vast majority of these ties are exceedingly weak and tenuous.
What we need to do is to seek out perhaps a dozen or two of the best possible sources we can conceive, and focus on befriending and informing them.
Then, we should formalize our referral relationship.
Ideally, that relationship will be reciprocal.
We'll send each other clients and dollars.
Especially in a challenging economy, we need to cultivate ways to transform individual clients into multiple modality buyers, and by doing so give and get the most we can, for all concerned.
Source...