The most obvious source of referrals is our own book of business. It’s our clients, because we’re all ALREADY in the business of listening to them for opportunities.
It can feel like risk, though, to tap that resource and share it with our networking partners.
Maybe we prefer to play it safe and just introduce photographers to other photographers – accountants to other accountants: “you two talk amongst yourselves”.
Or we limit our hunting ground to people we happen to meet but who aren’t going to do business with us. So we have no stock in those people. But it’s our CLIENTS that are the ideal resource to share. To put it in simple sales terms, they’ve already got their wallets out.
So let’s address the risk. There’s always risk in handing out our actual clients to someone else.
But we don’t grow without taking that risk. We grow by doing what is necessary to build trust internally, and collaborating on projects. The real estate sphere in our BNI chapter already leads the way in this. You go to our loan officer for a home loan and you’re likely to get introduced to our real estate attorney, title company representative, and real estate agent.
Those of us in the creative, marketing, wellness, and B2B spheres can learn from that. Another way of asking how can we give more referrals is how can we introduce our actual CLIENTS to others in our sphere.
Stop carrying stacks of business cards to happy hour mixers; for referral partners who are *systematically* finding referrals for each other.
Originally published at BNI 45 NYC.
