Unknown Speaker 0:00
Welcome back to the heads together podcast. Thanks for joining me again. So it's our first may bank holiday here in the UK as I'm recording this, and I've carved out a little bit of the day to day I've left the barbecue fun to come and record this episode because I toyed with it and thought, oh, I shouldn't really be working. It's bank holiday. I shouldn't take myself. And then I suddenly thought, You know what, this isn't work for me, I really enjoy recording the sessions. I really, really do. So here I am on bank holiday, recording this episode really enjoying it. And I'll be heading back to the barbecue fund later. But for now, I want to talk to you about something that is often on my mind a lot. And that is the best way to get clients. It's the number one topic that I'm asked about in my business. Yeah, heads and shoulders above anything else is the simple question. How do I get clients? Or how do I get the right clients for me? And in my opinion, no, I'm taking that back. It's not in my opinion, this is a fact referrals, word of mouth referrals are the best leads you'll ever get. So in this episode, I want to dive into how we get more of them. How do we get a nice steady flow of referrals into our business in a way that feels good.
Unknown Speaker 1:33
Welcome, welcome to the heads together podcast, I'm Gill Moakes. And I am obsessed with cutting through the noise when it comes to growing your business each week via intimate coaching conversations and inspirational stories. I share what it really takes to get the results you want, in a way that feels right to you.
Unknown Speaker 1:56
I am all about attracting higher ticket opportunities, building authentic relationships, and creating the abundant full fat version of your dream business. I mean, how many of us have evil away creating a light version of what we really want? The thing is, I honestly believe when you're outstanding at what you do, there is no limit to what you can achieve. So are you ready to put our heads together and make it happen? Let's go.
Unknown Speaker 2:34
So why are referrals? Why is referral business the best? Why are they the best leads you'll ever get? Well, put simply, it's because the person referring to you has already done a tonne of the groundwork for you. So they've put you in pole position. You remember in Episode Five, and I was talking about the feelings that you need to generate in a prospective client to drive them to invest in you.
Unknown Speaker 3:05
Well, here's the thing, referral leads have already been primed to trust you primed to have hope that you'll be able to solve their problem. They've already been primed to have that confidence in you. Because the person who's referring them to you has already shared with them the way you made them feel. So it's that feelings thing. Again, you are in pole position. Because a lot of the feelings that you need to generate in a prospect have already been generated by the person who's referring them to you. Here's an interesting statistic.
Unknown Speaker 3:45
Stats don't lie, referral prospects have four times more likely to become your client than prospects from cold advertising. Four times more likely 400%. More likely. So with that in mind, don't you think it makes all of that effort that we tend to where we tend to put all of our marketing's spoons, the effort tends to go into social media, for example. I feel like it makes that pretty disproportionate. If referral prospects are four times more likely to convert, why are we not spending more time nurturing a process a system for getting more referrals? Why are we putting so much of our effort into the cold advertising side of our marketing? Right? And here's the thing, if referrals are the best kind of leads, why is there that the vast majority of business owners just don't feel like they get as many as they should? I mean, I think it'd be an interesting poll. I mean, who is really.
Unknown Speaker 4:55
How many of us are really genuinely getting a good steady flow of referral business coming in. I think most people even so I would say that most of my business now comes from referrals. But it wasn't always that way. And I accredit the fact that it is now that way with the fact that I put way more emphasis and attention on nurturing referral business than I do on cold advertising. Because it just makes, to me, that's common sense, it just makes so much more sense, when I know how much more likely those referred, clients are referred prospects sorry, are to convert to paying clients. But here's the thing, the reason that most people aren't getting a steady flow of prospects coming in is because they don't have a system or a process in place for getting them. You know, they're hearing things like, just be great at what you do, and you'll get referrals.
Unknown Speaker 6:05
The problem is, that's not how it happens, you will get the odd referral. Absolutely. But even clients who tell you how much they adore you and love working with you actually rarely refer, you know, like I say, you'll get a smattering of referrals, without any process or system in place. But if you want that strong, steady stream, then you need a more robust process for getting that also, you're kind of, you're putting the responsibility on to your clients, to remember you to remember to mention you if an opportunity comes up. Like it is great when it does happen. But it's never going to be a consistent flow of leads if you're just leaving it to chance like that. The other piece of advice I think people hear a lot. And this is I think this is what puts people off having a process in place for getting referrals is that they're told to simply ask every client directly for a referral every time you speak to them, every time you see them. Just ask them directly for a referral, you know, and people will say that very kind of basally like, well, you just if you want referral business, you've just got to ask for it. But the truth is, asking like that asking directly, who is someone you can refer to me makes everyone feel uncomfortable, it makes you both you and the client uncomfortable? I'm pretty sure I'm right in saying that I know it will make me uncomfortable to do it that way. I think most of you listening are going to agree that just feels.
Unknown Speaker 7:47
And there's a damn good reason it makes you feel uncomfortable. To be honest, you're asking a paying client to give you something, you're looking to take something from the relationship.
Unknown Speaker 7:58
And you're asking for him as well as to give you something, you're also asking them to accept some risk. Because at the end of the day, if you don't do a good job for someone that they've referred to you, it's their relationship that feels exposed. Right. So if you think about it, in that scenario, there's really no upside for the client to refer to you. It's just you taking something there's no real upside. So I think we need a reframe here, we need a process that puts you a bit more in control when it comes to getting referral business. And I think you need to be proactively creating a really simple system that is going to generate referrals without without you having to attend every single bloomin networking events, etc. In town, it's more a case of making the whole process easier for your clients, or your referral partners make it smooth and slick and seamless. And don't leave all the work to them. Don't leave them, you know, racking their brains to come up with someone that they could refer to you. So okay, so what do you do instead? Well, here's the thing. This is the system. This is a system that I use. It's a system that I know works. So what is the system? Okay, I'm going to share with you exactly what this looks like and how you do it, and how you can implement this in your business. So why don't you just start off with looking at the clients that you already have or past clients and look at their circle their network. Now I use LinkedIn for this LinkedIn is perfect for this.
Unknown Speaker 9:58
Because on LinkedIn, you can and even look at, you know, connections that perhaps you have a second degree connection with someone with whom your client has a first degree connection. So you, you know, you know that they are connected in some way. It just needs to be someone in their network. And I want you to maybe identify three or four people that you feel that you could help three or four people that you feel that you could really add some value to. And and here's the thing, we're going to be very, very open and transparent about this process with your clients. So you're going to go to your client and say something like, I noticed you're connected with John, on LinkedIn, he's someone that I'd really like to reach out to, because I saw that he is, I don't know, maybe working on a particular project or struggling with something or working in the field of something or other, whatever that thing is, that makes you feel like you could help them, right. And then you're going to say to your client, so I believe I could help them with that. Whatever the outcome is that you do for your clients. So for me, it might be, I think that they are someone that would really benefit from some coaching with me around X Y, Zed. And then I want you to say before I contact them, I thought I'd mentioned it to you first, because I'd be happy for you to gift them a two hour coaching session with me. So that's my example, or but depending on what you do, I want you to come up with some kind of gifted service that's a little bit juicy other than your normal freebie, do you see that a discovery call? Do you see other than, you know, whatever your free giveaway is something that really makes it feel like your client has something special to offer their connection. Okay. And then you can explain to the client, you know, it would mean that I'd get an IT personal introduction from you. And it's a great way to strengthen relationships within our network that doesn't that feel just way more of a a three way when doesn't that feel more comfortable? Like I say, make sure the gift is genuinely something that the client will be like, Oh, okay, like I have something special to offer this person in my network. So like, for me, I offer an hour's breakthrough session with me, which is my application only to prospective new clients. But if I invite a client to gift some time with me to someone, I might offer a two hour coaching session with no application process, right. So you can see how you're just making it something that isn't available. Unless that client gifts, it remembering all the time, we're looking for this feeling of the Win Win Win the three way win. And it's a three way win because the client gets the kudos of helping the person that they're gifting to. Yeah, you get the referral and the opportunity to demonstrate what it's like to work with you. And the prospect gets a full, valuable experience of working with you at no cost to them. That really is a win win win. So have a think about that this is something that won't necessarily drop into place in your mind straightaway. Because you might need a little time to marinate on it. And to come up with something that feels genuinely like a gift that your clients would want to pass on to people in their network. And just remember as well that for each time you do this, it's not going to be all the time, you might pick one client in the course of a month to do this with because you're going to ask them to refer you to maybe three or four people in the network. And you're gonna be really super open and transparent to them as well about why you're doing it.
Unknown Speaker 14:20
Nothing needs to be hidden in this because and that's because it's been designed to be this three way win. So be open about it, be honest about it, and rarely position it like that position it as this is something that I would like to do. I feel like everyone gets something out of it. So come at it from that place of wanting it to be this three way when. Okay, I really hope that's been helpful. It's a quick episode today, but it's a really specific strategy one, it's a real kind of okay, you can go away and implement this right now.
Unknown Speaker 14:58
You can take this and get going with this straightaway, what I'll do is in the show notes, I'll will include that little template conversation, you know, like, I was kind of role playing what the conversation might sound like, I'll include that in the show notes, because that will probably just help kind of seal that in your mind as to how that conversation would play out. But it should feel very natural because it is it's genuinely, you're giving something you're giving your clients something that they can gift, you know, you're not asking them for a referral for nothing in return, they are going to get the kudos of having this gift to give to someone in their network, which in turn strengthens their relationship with their network. Okay, so thank you again for joining me this week. I'll be here again same time, same place next week. In the meantime, bye for now.
Unknown Speaker 15:58
I hope you enjoyed this episode, and that getting our heads together this week has filled your mind with what's possible. If you love the show, would you do me a massive favour please? Would you leave a five star rating on Apple podcasts? It would really help you put more heads together, which will ears and expand more minds. Until next week. Bye for now.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
