BRX Pro Tip: Ask Again
Stone Payton: And we’re back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, we’ve touched on this topic in general in the past, but I want to do a little deeper dive about an approach, a strategy, a set of tactics for cultivating getting referrals.
Lee Kantor: This is something that is at the heart of most businesses. It’s at the heart of most, especially solopreneur, entrepreneurial ventures. You have to have a system in order to get referrals. You cannot just sit there and wait for referrals to come. It’s just not going to happen at the speed you need to grow. It’s just not. You have to be proactive when it comes to referrals.
Lee Kantor: And this isn’t kind of a knock on what you’re doing, or a knock on your clients that you have, or the people you deal with. These people are willing to help you, but they just need kind of a reminder. People are bombarded with messages and information every day. You’re not top of mind. You might think you’re top of mind. You might hope you’re top of mind. But you’re just not top of mind in most people’s minds that people need you when they need you. And they don’t kind of think they need you as often as you want them to.
Lee Kantor: So, you have to help people remember you and become top of mind. And you do that by asking, again, for referrals. You have to keep asking for referrals. People need context. They need timing. They need multiple conversations before they connect the dots that you are the right person for their friend at the right time.
Lee Kantor: And if you’re not kind of being relentless and erring on the side of being relentless in this manner, you want to be elegant, but you also want to be relentless. You have to find that balance. Because referrals are going to surface not on the first time you mentioned that you need referrals to somebody, but on the second, the third, the fourth, the fifth. When the person kind of comes across somebody, you want to be top of mind. And in order to do that, you have to be in front of them enough so that they remember you at that kind of important moment. And ideally, it wants to feel natural. It shouldn’t feel forced. But in order to feel natural, you have to kind of be ubiquitous.
Lee Kantor: So today, revisit somebody you’ve previously asked for a referral. Touch base with them and remind them of that kind of person that you would like to meet. Let them know if they run across that person to think of you. And if you do this regularly, you’re going to increase the chances that a referral is going to happen.
