How much time are you spending building your referral muscles?

From time to time, I meet people who are frustrated with the lack of referrals they receive from their networking. They are tired of going to so many meetings and not being able to generate any referrals. After answering one or two searching questions, they quickly realise that they haven’t built their referral muscles to adequate levels.

Building referral muscles is like working out in a gym. The only way to get great results is to consistently push yourself to the limits of your fitness. In the referral game, ignorance is not bliss.

To make yourself referral fit, you must constantly be seeking ways of improving your referrability – on a daily basis. Once a week just doesn’t cut it.

Here’s two ways you can build your referral muscles more effectively:

• Always be seeking ways of finding referrals for your referral partners (contacts, customers, etc). Thomas Power of Ecademy says that do not chase the referral. If you are giving quality referrals, then people will feel obliged to return the privilege.
  
• There are different qualities of referrals. The first type is a target customer for your referral partner. On some occasions, an even better referral is to give referrals for centres of influence. For example, a great centre of influence for Will-Writers are Financial Advisors. Financial Advisors frequently subcontract the estate planning their clients desire to Will-Writers. Therefore, it is better for many will-writers to get referrals for Financial Advisors rather than just one-off clients.

Want to find out more about how you can boost your business referrals, then why not book yourself for the Referral Sales Summit on Tuesday 27th June 2006 in Birmingham, UK?