BRX Pro Tip: 3 Ways to Build a Referral Network
Stone Payton: Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, I love the idea, and I have enjoyed some degree, of building and having a strong referral network. But what is the best way to go about building one, man?
Lee Kantor: Yeah, I think it’s so important to have a referral network. You can’t just sit there and go, “I’m going to get clients by myself, on my own, one at a time.” That’s just not going to be efficient in growing your business or your brand. Some easy ways to start building a referral network is, number one, identify some complementary businesses in your industry. Just look around, who else is reaching that same customer you’re trying to reach? And just write down their names. It’s so important to kind of build this kind of dream list of referral partners. So, start identifying complementary businesses.
Then, once you’ve identified who they are, find somebody in there that you might know. Reach out to potential partners and just start exploring ways to work together. Figure out a mutually beneficial referral arrangement. They’re trying to reach your same people. You’re trying to reach their same people. You’re both doing something that’s kind of in the ballpark, trying to serve the same group. Figure out ways to work together. Figure out things that make sense in both your businesses that aren’t so cumbersome but are easy. And everybody in the industry is probably trying to look for other kind of trusted partners and vetting good partners. Be one of those trusted partners. So, go out there and find the good ones for you, and then start building some relationships.
And then, once you’ve done that, you got to keep following up and nurturing these relationships. This is not something you do one time and then forget about it. You got to nurture the relationships and hold each other accountable in delivering value to each other. If it’s not working for both of you, then find some other partner. This has to be something that you’re, kind of, nurturing at all times. And something to do while you have relationships and you can only refer to one or two people, build some sort of a wait list in the background so that if one of these two current partners aren’t working out, then you have somebody else to go to in the event that happens.
So, it’s important to kind of leverage your network. And the only way to leverage that network is to build that network. And you have to be proactive. And if you want to be the change, then you have to be the one that takes action. Don’t wait for someone to come up to you. Be proactive.
