Why do you refer others?

This article originally appeared in The National Networker

In this extract from my new book, due out later this year, I look at the importance of understanding why we refer others to help us inspire others to refer us.

We may well be surrounded by people who would be happy to refer us, by people who have the opportunity and also by people who have the necessary understanding to refer us. Something is still missing though. If not, businesses would be buzzing with the referrals received and you would not be reading this book.

How can you shift your network from a position where they’d be happy and able to refer but don’t, to one where they are referring you on a regular basis?

I would hazard a pretty reasonable guess that the main barrier to regular referrals at the moment is that everyone involved, including you, are reactive and passive about generating opportunities, rather than proactive. A Champion will refer you if someone else in their network asks them to recommend a service provider and you fit the bill. If no one asks, nothing happens; they are not thinking about opportunities or actively looking for them.

Similarly you will gratefully accept referrals offered and may take some small moves towards proactively asking for them, using some of the techniques highlighted earlier in this book, but the approach is general rather than focused on individual Champions.

Let’s change that. A successful referral strategy treats everyone in your network as an individual and seeks to make it as easy and as likely as possible for each of those individuals to refer you. The first place to start is recognizing what will inspire them to do so.  

 

Who do you refer?

Many companies rely on financial incentives and rewards to inspire people to refer them. We are going to look in more detail at this later but before understanding how effective that approach is with others, let’s look at how effective it is with you.

Take a piece of paper and write down the names of five people or companies you have referred recently. In particular, think of the most valuable referrals you have passed and also people you have referred most frequently.

 

Why did you pass the referrals? What inspired you do so?

Did they ask you for the referrals or did you simply volunteer them? Was it a ‘passive referral’, in other words, did you respond to a request for a recommendation? Or was it a ‘proactive referral’ where you spotted an opportunity and created the connection?

Alongside each name score out of ten how well you trust that person or business, how well you understand what they do and the opportunity you have to refer them. Write down the key factors that motivated you to refer them.

Company you Referred        

Number/Value of Referrals Passed    

Trust/Understanding/Opportunity

What motivated you to refer?

 

Look back at your list and try to see if there are any common factors that motivated you to refer. Are you only referring people in whom you have strong levels of trust? What difference does it make to you how well you understand their business or whether you are speaking to the right people on a regular basis? Are you motivated by financial reward or something more esoteric?

Now look back at the list of people you referred. Did you know someone else who could have done an equally effective job? If so, were there particular factors that meant you referred them at the expense of someone else?

As well as understanding what inspired you to refer, did they make it easy for you? What was in place that made it straightforward for you to refer?

Now I’d like you to create two more lists. In this case list three people you’d love to refer but don’t and also three people you simply wouldn’t be willing to refer.

In the case of people you’d like to refer, what’s stopping you? Do you like them personally but not have enough of a grip on their business to make the referral? Perhaps you don’t understand who their customers are or how to make the introduction.

If you were to take steps to refer them, what needs to happen? What can they do to make it easier to refer you? If you took on the task of making at least one effective referral for them, what would you need to do?

Now look at the list of people you’re not willing to refer. Why not? Is it simply a matter of a lack of trust or poor personal chemistry? Or has your experience of their services been a negative one?

If they had to rely on referrals from you in order to save their business, what steps would they have to take to change your mind? How would you expect them to turn the situation around and make you their Champion? No cheating allowed by saying ‘they couldn’t’! They HAVE to make you their Champion to save their business, what could they do to make that happen?

If you bring your lists together you should now have a record of ways people can inspire you to refer them. Some of those inspirations may be very transactional, such as commissions for referrals received, the understanding of referrals back to you in return or being taken out as a thank you. Others may be more relational, simply because you like them and want to succeed for example.

These are the inspirations that work for you and can give you some insight into different approaches you can take to inspire others. However, not everyone is the same. Whether people are more inspired by transactional or relational interactions very much depends on their personality type, which we looked at in the last Chapter.