The Holy Grail Of Getting Business Referrals & Finding Jobs

Part Two- The Four Sources

In last week’s article I discussed the importance of working towards becoming an expert, being specific about what you are looking for, and the importance of developing a reputation for helping people even if it doesn’t directly benefit you.  This all equals one thing… RAVING FANS!  Not only does it help you become a person of influence, having raving fans also is the single best way to learn about networking, business and job opportunities.  It’s also THE BEST SOURCE of high quality referrals.  This week, I’ll break down your raving fan network into four sources and give you ideas on how to create or improve them.   Most of us have at least two; see if you can build all four.

In order to make sure I’m covering all the bases, THIS WEEK  I’ll discuss the four sources as it pertains to business networking.  NEXT WEEK, I’ll revisit the categories and share with you how to modify the categories to benefit someone searching for job and career opportunities. (Those of you interested in job searching – keep reading so you will have a jump on next week. You may also want to check out our U-Factor program if you haven’t settled on a clear career direction yet.)

Note: For any of this to work you must stick to the most important principal – helping others before you help yourself!  It takes time and a lot of patience but the rewards are tremendous as people usually return the favor in kind.

Develop The Four Sources

Personal relationships – These are people that you know on a personal level. You would vouch for them and they would vouch for you particularly on traits like character, ethics, and reliability. Because of that, they give high praise of you in the community. You may or may not have actually used each other services or products before but it obviously helps.

Tip on how to help: Get to know their professional service or product by asking questions like “From soup to nuts, share with me how you get your best clients and then walk me through their experience with you.” This should be followed by “How do you see me helping you?” Not only will this give you guidance in how to help a friend, it will help you find the best fit folks and opportunities for them.

Past and current clients – These are people who have either used your service or product or maybe you have used theirs.  Regardless, it was an extraordinary experience.  You would shout to the mountain tops about it if you could.

Tip on how to help: Volunteer to literally write them a testimonial of your experience to post on things like their website. Use specific references, and most importantly, point out the results you received after using their product or service.

Professional referral sources – You know each other professionally and feel comfortable referring and recommending your services and products.  You may or may not meet regularly and the quality of business opportunities and referrals tends to be good and occasionally great.

Tip on how to help: Drill down so you know exactly what types of opportunities or clients they are looking for and consider meeting with some regularity both in person and by phone.  This can help build the relationship. Also, consider doing things outside of work if appropriate to deepen the relationship even further.

Strategic Alliances – People that know you and you know them both professionally AND personally. The biggest difference between a referral source and a strategic alliance is that your strategic alliances work with the same type of target client as you do. Typically a strategic alliance is comprised of someone who offers different yet complimentary services. These relationships sometimes can be exclusive and can even evolve into a type of professional service team because everyone is invested in the best possible experience for their client.  It usually results in long term reciprocal business relationships for all involved because the success of one is continuing the success of everyone in the group.

Tip on how to help: Keep in mind many strategic alliances start as referral sources. After you have spent ample time building relationships, suggest creating a group with a common interest of helping each other as well as the clients they serve. For example a group dedicated to helping homeowners would consist of landscapers, P&C insurance agents, contractors, home and garden providers, etc. These groups should meet regularly, in person or virtually. Make sure you have a clear understanding of how each other’s service or product can potentially complement each others with the singular goal of better serving your mutual target clients.

Take a look at all of the business and personal contacts you have and see what categories they fall into. Work on making them raving fans by looking for opportunities to help them first as well as opportunities to deepen the relationships. Give them a call just to catch up or do something with them besides going to lunch. It can help you be a better person, grow professionally and personally as well as help you gain more of the right business.  Because, if you look after your loyal fans, your loyal fans will look after you!

Next week, learn how theses exact same strategies can be modified for job and career seekers to land that awesome opportunity before anyone else knows about it!