The Pure Gold in Your Network
Many business professionals are reluctant to pursue referral marketing because they feel that creating referrals takes a long time.
Let us examine this assumption – do referrals have to take a long time?
No they do not. Not if you have developed relationships that are in the Golden 12%.
In this post, I take a deeper dive into learning more about these relationships that are designed for both the pocketbook and soul.
The Elite or Golden 12% Relationships, the real gold in a business professional’s network, are divided into 2 groups:
1) Credibility (Misner) or #2 (Pink et al) relationships
2) Profitability (Misner) or #3 (Pink et al) relationships
The Golden 10%: Credibility or #2 Phase
These are members of your network who:
- Know you, like you and trust you.
- Have knowledge of your business — ideally, a member of your network who can answer all 5 of these questions about you:
- What do you do?
- What are your products and services?
- Who do you serve?
- What’s unique about you?
- And why you love what you do?
- Have generated leads for you (opportunities without any transfer of trust) in the past. For example, “I know that my friend/ family member is struggling financially with their business… please call them about your factoring services but don’t use my name”.
- May have generated reactive referrals for you (heard about an opportunity and actively transferred trust). For example, “I would like to tell you about my colleague in the factoring profession. I believe that s/he can help you pay for the material for that new piece of business that you are worried about. Let me introduce you to her or him some time”.
The Golden 2%: Profitability or #3 Phase
These are members of your network who:
- Exhibit all of the traits in a Credibility relationship:
- High trust level
- Solid knowledge of one another’s business
- Can answer all of the 5 key questions about you
- Have generated leads and referrals for you
- Plus…They are raving fans. They believe that you have a very special service or product and are the kind of person who do not hesitate to initiate conversations on your behalf…
- And create proactive referrals. For example, “In case you do get that big order that you were telling me about, I want to introduce you to my colleague in the factoring profession, who can make sure that you are ready for the business before your customer makes the decision. Let’s all 3 of us have a coffee together next week”.
So, does it have to take a lot of time to create a referral?
Not if you are mining the real gold in your network – the all-important 12%.
Start tapping into the real potential of your network and focus on the Golden 12%!
And be booked solid by referral…
As always, I hope you find my blog posts helpful. Please contact me at any time to learn more about tapping into your golden relationships.