Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 87 Part 3 How To Implement a Referral Management System with Andrew Z Brown

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Episode 87 Part 3 How To Implement a Referral Management System with Andrew Z Brown · What is Business Development?

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Development podcast brought to you by
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: the Global Business Development Association, delivering the strategies and tactics
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: Hello BD pros, and welcome to the Global Business Development
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Association podcast called what is Business Development? Hey, wouldn't you
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: like to have a BD tactic that can convert prospects
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: into customers at over fifty percent? Fifty percent conversion rate
• 0:44
  Speaker 2: versus one to three percent on cold calls, cold drop ins,
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: and plenty of other tactics that you read about in
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: the Business Development Body of Knowledge that's available on the
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: Global Business Development Association website and also on Amazon. Read
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: the book self taught, and then you can go to
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: the GBDA website and register to take your Business Development
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: Professional certification. Read the book. It's packed with plenty of tactics,
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: operations and strategy of business development to help you get
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: your bad career started or boost it to the next level.
• 1:26
  Speaker 2: Now let's get back to the show. I made some
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: big promises there. Fifty percent conversion rate, Well, you could
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: do that. Some companies have recorded the ability to have
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: fifty percent plus conversion rates by implementing a referral management system.
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: That's right. Referrals. That is the highest converting tactic that
• 1:47
  Speaker 2: we can use as business developers. And at the end
• 1:49
  Speaker 2: of the day, we say business development, the definition is
• 1:53
  Speaker 2: customer and community advocacy. That creates corporate growth, and that's
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: advocating for your customers so that in turn they advocate
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: for you and bring business to you and they become
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: your best business developers ever. And talking about a great
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: business developer, we're here on the show today with the
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: father of business to business referral programs, and that's none
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: other than Andrew Z. Brown. Andrew, welcome back to the show, Tony.
• 2:25
  Speaker 3: As always, thank you very much for having me. It's
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: always thrilled to be here and having great conversations with
• 2:31
  Speaker 3: you and helping the listeners get a good sense of
• 2:35
  Speaker 3: how they can make a tremendous amount of impact by
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: harnessing referral sources in a systematic way.
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: Well, and folks, if you're listening and not watching, I'm
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: showing a picture of Andrew's book available on Amazon. It's
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: called Get Referred, and this is an episode that's part
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: of a multi episode series where and and I dig
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: down into the depths of the Get Referred book and
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: the referral management system so that you can implement these
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  Speaker 2: on your own in your own corporation and you can
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: be a great success. And so we started our series
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: in steps one and two. We had a previous episode
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: where we really did the deep dive and step three
• 3:25
  Speaker 2: and starting I think to talk about step fourth. So Andrew,
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: I'm showing the graphic right now for those folks that
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: are listening, and there is the managed referral program process,
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: and it's a seven step process, and I'll just let
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: the folks know what those seven steps are. And Andrew,
• 3:44
  Speaker 2: if you could just jump in with the summary of
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: those first few steps that we covered. But folks, step
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: one is selecting your initial goals. Step two is get
• 3:54
  Speaker 2: referral ready. Step three is evaluate the referral sources. Step
• 4:00
  Speaker 2: four is arm your referral sources. Step five is activate
• 4:05
  Speaker 2: the referral sources. Step six is measure results, and step
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  Speaker 2: seven is hone the program details. So Andrew, let's talk
• 4:16
  Speaker 2: through the first few steps that we've already covered in
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: the previous episodes. Folks, you can go back and look
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: at those and listen to those episodes on all of
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: the places that you like to listen to your podcast
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: or watch videos. We have it on YouTube, we have
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: it on Spotify, we have it on substack, and now
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: we just started posting our episodes on spreaker as well,
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: and we're also on Apple. So Andrew, let's jump through
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: once around the block. On these first few steps, please a.
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: Quickly touch on each one. The setting initial goals. Of course,
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: you want to be able to set business development goals,
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: revenue goals, and in order to make sure that there's
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: internal buy in for a process, it makes sense to
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: also identify process goals, meaning how much time do you
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: want to spend with referral sources, skill development goals. You
• 5:05
  Speaker 3: might have someone within the firm who you want to
• 5:08
  Speaker 3: manage the process. Risk reduction goals, which is a great
• 5:12
  Speaker 3: byproduct of working with referral sources. Organizational goals, so they
• 5:17
  Speaker 3: might be reducing employed turnover, preparing for the next generation
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: of great BD folks. Reputation goals also a great opportunity
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  Speaker 3: to be honing the reputation when you start using referral
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  Speaker 3: as well. And expense goals, because just like any program,
• 5:38
  Speaker 3: there are going to be some expenses, so you wanted
• 5:40
  Speaker 3: to find those initial goals. So that's step one, Step
• 5:44
  Speaker 3: two getting referral ready, which is really about three big
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: buckets of things. Quantifying your reputation, addressing capacity and reinforcing
• 5:56
  Speaker 3: the value of referrals and referral sources is and refer
• 6:00
  Speaker 3: business within your organization. The step three is evaluating the
• 6:06
  Speaker 3: referral sources, and this, of course, we want to do
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  Speaker 3: in a very systematic way because we're going to be
• 6:11
  Speaker 3: spend time with referral referral sources and we want to
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: have the objective of making referral sources wildly successful, of
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: bringing you the business that you want, so doing things
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  Speaker 3: like applying a very basic referral math, which is people
• 6:29
  Speaker 3: are only going to refer business to you if they
• 6:31
  Speaker 3: have the skills, the willingness, and the opportunity to do it.
• 6:35
  Speaker 3: Every successful referral source needs those three things, so it's
• 6:39
  Speaker 3: understanding where they're strong or where they're weak on those things.
• 6:44
  Speaker 3: And then as laid out in the book, we suggest
• 6:47
  Speaker 3: using the Champions grid, so you can map your current
• 6:54
  Speaker 3: referred business along two important dimensions frequency, amount of revenue
• 6:59
  Speaker 3: that's coming in. So these two things help you really
• 7:04
  Speaker 3: identify the best referral sources, those people who will bring
• 7:08
  Speaker 3: you the business you actually want at the right time
• 7:12
  Speaker 3: and the frequency that you actually want. And the last
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  Speaker 3: part of the step three is well, at the beginning
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  Speaker 3: when we set initial goals and now we've got a
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: good bunch of referral source candidates that we've evaluated, and
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: now we've really honed in on the right referral sources,
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: we want to revisit those goals and we might say, hmm,
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: you know, we've we've evaluated our referral sources. Can the
• 7:41
  Speaker 3: targets be increased? Do they need to be modified? So
• 7:45
  Speaker 3: they some referral sources are going to focus on specific
• 7:48
  Speaker 3: products or offerings or products or services, or should the
• 7:55
  Speaker 3: targets for their revenue actually come at a different time.
• 7:59
  Speaker 3: So it's a good idea to iterate those goals once
• 8:02
  Speaker 3: you've identified the referral sources that you've chosen to be
• 8:06
  Speaker 3: part of your managed referral program. All makes sense.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's great, Andrew, Okay, so let's pick up then
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: on phase four, the next step.
• 8:16
  Speaker 3: Yeah, so phase four is about arming referral sources. So
• 8:23
  Speaker 3: some basics here that may already be part of your process,
• 8:29
  Speaker 3: which is great when you don't have to create new
• 8:31
  Speaker 3: processes life just becomes so much easier for your organization.
• 8:36
  Speaker 3: I should also mention that the great thing about managed
• 8:39
  Speaker 3: referral programs is these things can run in parallel so
• 8:41
  Speaker 3: they don't have to get in the way of any
• 8:43
  Speaker 3: of the business development, sales or marketing initiatives. So Phase
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  Speaker 3: four Armed referral Sources is providing clarity on the targets
• 8:52
  Speaker 3: for your referral sources. So describe the ideal clients that
• 8:56
  Speaker 3: you want, Describe the business or individual symptoms that help
• 9:02
  Speaker 3: your referral source to actually qualify the opportunities, and run
• 9:08
  Speaker 3: through likely discussion scenarios with your referral sources. So that's
• 9:17
  Speaker 3: part one of phase four. Then agree on the type
• 9:21
  Speaker 3: of participation for each referral source, so nail down our
• 9:26
  Speaker 3: referral source agreement and and get referred to. We actually
• 9:28
  Speaker 3: have a structure for a referral source agreement. Now that's
• 9:32
  Speaker 3: formalizing the expectations. You don't have to go that far.
• 9:37
  Speaker 3: But the point is to really have a clear understanding
• 9:41
  Speaker 3: as to what your role is going to be in
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  Speaker 3: helping a referral source be successful at bringing the business
• 9:48
  Speaker 3: you want and their role and that means allocation of
• 9:52
  Speaker 3: resources timings, the kind of structure supports you're going to
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  Speaker 3: have the the touch point calendar for each chosen referral source.
• 10:04
  Speaker 3: So really managing setting those expectations, it's critical to making
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: sure that you have a referral source army, if you will,
• 10:14
  Speaker 3: that knows exactly what they need to do and those
• 10:17
  Speaker 3: that they're going to have to support to get it.
• 10:21
  Speaker 3: Then go ahead, Tony.
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah, let's let's just pause right there if we can, Andrew,
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  Speaker 2: because there's a lot to unpack, and I like your
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: analogy of the army and arming your referral sources, So
• 10:34
  Speaker 2: let's just rewind a little bit real quickly. You know,
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  Speaker 2: you talk about these referral agreements, but and I think
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: that's a that's good in the context of a formal
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: business partner. For example, where you have a referral agreement
• 10:49
  Speaker 2: with a formal referral referral agreement with your business partner.
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  Speaker 2: Maybe it's a complementary company that has a complementary product
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  Speaker 2: to your h maybe and we talked about this in
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: the previous episodes. You know, these sources of referrals could
• 11:06
  Speaker 2: be even a competitor, you know, where you're just partnering
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: on a limited basis just for a limited niche purpose,
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: but it also could be your customers, and that's where
• 11:15
  Speaker 2: we get a lot of referrals. So are you talking
• 11:17
  Speaker 2: about having a formal referral agreement with your customers?
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  Speaker 3: Short answer is yes, and that is remember it's not
• 11:27
  Speaker 3: going to be all the customers. When we go through
• 11:29
  Speaker 3: that process of evaluating which which referral source candidate has
• 11:34
  Speaker 3: the skills of willingness and opportunities, we may find that
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  Speaker 3: there are a couple of existing customers, might be some
• 11:43
  Speaker 3: former customers. There might be some people that have gone
• 11:46
  Speaker 3: through the finnel and and they actually choose not to
• 11:50
  Speaker 3: be customers. They could be former employees. They are likely
• 11:55
  Speaker 3: professionals that are within your orbit. And yet let sit
• 12:01
  Speaker 3: down with them and once you've evaluated their skills of
• 12:05
  Speaker 3: willingness and opportunity to refer, then it's a matter of saying, Okay,
• 12:10
  Speaker 3: hey Tony, we'd love you to refer understand, and this
• 12:14
  Speaker 3: is how we're going to make you successful in exchange
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  Speaker 3: for that we would like we expect this is that reasonable?
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  Speaker 3: Is that something that you want to do again? Skills
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  Speaker 3: of willingness and opportunity always comes back to that and
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  Speaker 3: When we have that good understanding, then we can develop materials,
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  Speaker 3: we can develop structure, we can develop support based on
• 12:38
  Speaker 3: the individual skills of willingness and opportunity. And part of
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  Speaker 3: that is being completely transparent, being completely open, being completely supportive,
• 12:48
  Speaker 3: and saying, hey, you know what, you've got these great skills,
• 12:52
  Speaker 3: you've got these great willingness, for example, but you don't
• 12:54
  Speaker 3: have opportunities. This is what we're going to bring to
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  Speaker 3: the table. We're gonna bring it to some events that
• 13:00
  Speaker 3: you've wanted to go through for years. We're going to
• 13:02
  Speaker 3: actually we're going to pony up for that. In exchange
• 13:06
  Speaker 3: for that, you know, hey, can you tell a couple
• 13:09
  Speaker 3: of stories at a venue about us? Or can you
• 13:13
  Speaker 3: ask a few questions on our behalf whatever that specific
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  Speaker 3: referral source is going to be charged with, it's only fair,
• 13:23
  Speaker 3: it's only respectful to be very clear about the expectations
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: we have. Again, the fun foundational assumption of a good
• 13:35
  Speaker 3: managed referral program is how are we going to make
• 13:39
  Speaker 3: a referral source successful at bringing us business the businesses
• 13:45
  Speaker 3: that we want. So it is incumbent upon us to
• 13:49
  Speaker 3: understand that referral source and manage those expectations.
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: Yeah. I like how you say that, Andrew, And it's
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: almost kind of on a sliding scale, right Exactly. If
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: it's going to be a high volume and there will
• 14:05
  Speaker 2: be expectations that your referral source will have, for lack
• 14:09
  Speaker 2: of a better phrase, goals or expectations that they will
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: provide you referrals and vice versa, then that should be
• 14:15
  Speaker 2: formalized in some sort of agreement, Whereas on the opposite
• 14:20
  Speaker 2: end of the spectrum, you probably have customers where you
• 14:22
  Speaker 2: don't need a formal agreement, but you do need to
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: have talking points, even if it's just a verbal discussion
• 14:27
  Speaker 2: where you're setting those expectations of Look, mister or missus customer,
• 14:31
  Speaker 2: I'm not going to bother you every quarter and ask
• 14:35
  Speaker 2: you for a referral, but from time to time, because
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: you seem to be really pleased with what we've done
• 14:43
  Speaker 2: for you in the past, if it's okay, I would
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: like to every once in a while ask for a
• 14:48
  Speaker 2: referral to a specific individual that I see you're connected with.
• 14:51
  Speaker 2: And of course I always welcome you the customer bringing
• 14:54
  Speaker 2: referrals to me at any time, you know, kind of
• 14:57
  Speaker 2: having that discussion, that's just an example, But I think
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: that's what you're saying, right, Andrew is kind of evaluated
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: on a sliding scale.
• 15:03
  Speaker 3: Of the valuators of these the.
• 15:05
  Speaker 2: Formal expectations versus kind of those loose expectations exactly.
• 15:09
  Speaker 3: And I would say, I mean, our research has shown
• 15:12
  Speaker 3: time and time again that customers, well, they can be
• 15:14
  Speaker 3: great sources of referrals, aren't always the most reliable, aren't
• 15:20
  Speaker 3: the most predictable. They've got skin in the game. They
• 15:22
  Speaker 3: may not want to refer you because you're doing such
• 15:25
  Speaker 3: a great job. They don't want to refer you to
• 15:26
  Speaker 3: others because the feeling is well, if they refer you
• 15:31
  Speaker 3: to others, then they get somehow less attention. That's that.
• 15:36
  Speaker 3: So you can be you can limit the referred business
• 15:40
  Speaker 3: coming to you because you're so darn good at providing
• 15:43
  Speaker 3: your product or service. So your customers may not be
• 15:47
  Speaker 3: your best referral sources of The other thing that we
• 15:52
  Speaker 3: found time and time again is that B to B
• 15:54
  Speaker 3: managed referral sources want structure, they want support, they want
• 16:00
  Speaker 3: want people to touch base with them. Again, it's not
• 16:04
  Speaker 3: so much a add on to what they're doing. Yes,
• 16:08
  Speaker 3: they're busy people and they're doing other things, but they
• 16:11
  Speaker 3: want to be treated as if this is something that
• 16:13
  Speaker 3: is really important. They want to be treated as important.
• 16:17
  Speaker 3: So provide them with respect, with the dignity of really
• 16:22
  Speaker 3: being very clear about what your expectations are. And it
• 16:25
  Speaker 3: also by doing that, you eliminate those awkward situations where
• 16:30
  Speaker 3: they bring you something you don't want, where you feel
• 16:33
  Speaker 3: obligated to take the business even though it's not going
• 16:37
  Speaker 3: to be profitable or it doesn't help your reputation. It
• 16:40
  Speaker 3: doesn't it doesn't kease your supervisors, whatever reason. But unless
• 16:45
  Speaker 3: you have those discussions, it's quite possible that people will
• 16:49
  Speaker 3: bring you the wrong business. How's that helping you? And
• 16:52
  Speaker 3: it doesn't help them because if you don't tell them,
• 16:54
  Speaker 3: if you don't have that respect and that transparency, then
• 16:58
  Speaker 3: they don't know that they're you stuff that's wrong.
• 17:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love what you said, Andrew.
• 17:03
  Speaker 3: There.
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: It's kind of this upfront contract, whether you formally lay
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: it out for them, whether you just have an informal discussion,
• 17:11
  Speaker 2: it's hey, this is what I'm expecting to receive from
• 17:13
  Speaker 2: you in return for referrals I potentially bring to you
• 17:18
  Speaker 2: as my partner, and to kind of set those expectations
• 17:23
  Speaker 2: of Yeah, the goal is i'd like to have, depending
• 17:27
  Speaker 2: on what type of product you're selling, I'd like to
• 17:28
  Speaker 2: have the three referrals a month, and I will reciprocate
• 17:31
  Speaker 2: with three as well, or I want it to be
• 17:34
  Speaker 2: thirty or three hundred, depending again on the type of product.
• 17:37
  Speaker 2: But I think the other really interesting thing you said there, Andrew,
• 17:40
  Speaker 2: is you know, kind of vetting your prospect. Well, let's
• 17:47
  Speaker 2: put it this way. What you're doing is you're helping
• 17:50
  Speaker 2: your partner understand your ideal customer profile, right, because you
• 17:56
  Speaker 2: don't want to be in a situation where they bring
• 17:58
  Speaker 2: you those three referrals the first month and you say,
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: but yeah, guys, this is not a good fit for me.
• 18:05
  Speaker 2: And that's horrible for them because they're using up their
• 18:07
  Speaker 2: trust that they have with their customers and their prospects
• 18:12
  Speaker 2: to make that introduction, and so that can really sour
• 18:16
  Speaker 2: that relationship for them early on if they say, oh, yeah,
• 18:19
  Speaker 2: I got to introduce you to my partner. These guys
• 18:21
  Speaker 2: are awesome, and then the partner comes back and says,
• 18:24
  Speaker 2: I can't help you. You know this is not a
• 18:26
  Speaker 2: good fit. So yeah, I've been there before, and you know,
• 18:29
  Speaker 2: one of the things I do, Andrew and I'm curious
• 18:32
  Speaker 2: to hear what your perspective is. When I start this off,
• 18:35
  Speaker 2: even with somebody that I think could potentially be a
• 18:37
  Speaker 2: formal partner, what I like to do is I just
• 18:40
  Speaker 2: start with an informal, just kind of a relationship of hey,
• 18:45
  Speaker 2: this is what we do, this is what you guys do.
• 18:47
  Speaker 2: I think it could be a good potential long term
• 18:50
  Speaker 2: partnership or relationship where we can really provide value to
• 18:54
  Speaker 2: each other with referrals. But let's just kind of let's
• 19:00
  Speaker 2: into it, you know, let's not love bomb each other
• 19:03
  Speaker 2: and just say, hey, let's jump right into it. And
• 19:05
  Speaker 2: you give me thirty, I'll give you thirty or whatever
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: the relationship is. It's just kind of having those informal
• 19:10
  Speaker 2: you know. One of the things I do is I
• 19:12
  Speaker 2: give them homework. I say, look, here are a list
• 19:15
  Speaker 2: of my prospects. They are my ICP, they are my
• 19:18
  Speaker 2: ideal customer profile. You're kind of swimming in the same pond,
• 19:23
  Speaker 2: you're in that community. Tell me, tell me which one
• 19:26
  Speaker 2: of these do you actually already know. Don't tell me
• 19:28
  Speaker 2: if they're a customer or a prospect. I don't need
• 19:31
  Speaker 2: to know your proprietary information. But just easily. Just take
• 19:34
  Speaker 2: fifteen minutes, go through the list and just check off,
• 19:37
  Speaker 2: do any of these ring a bell?
• 19:38
  Speaker 3: Do you have.
• 19:38
  Speaker 2: Relationships with them? Great? Send that back to me. And
• 19:41
  Speaker 2: also at a column it says, hey, on that list,
• 19:45
  Speaker 2: if there's anybody you want as a prospect, let me know.
• 19:48
  Speaker 2: You know you don't have a relationship with them, but
• 19:50
  Speaker 2: you've been trying to call on them or whatever the
• 19:52
  Speaker 2: case may be, for a month or whatever. Let me know,
• 19:55
  Speaker 2: and then I will reciprocate. I'll look at my company's
• 19:59
  Speaker 2: existing relationships and if I can make an introduction, then
• 20:02
  Speaker 2: I will be happy to do that. And it's funny
• 20:06
  Speaker 2: because if you give them homework like that, then that's
• 20:09
  Speaker 2: like the first acid test. If they can't take fifteen
• 20:12
  Speaker 2: minutes just to check some boxes, are you're going to
• 20:14
  Speaker 2: rely on them to be in a formal program. So
• 20:18
  Speaker 2: it's kind of a vetting process where you're already starting
• 20:20
  Speaker 2: to set those expectations of Hey, look, I'm going to
• 20:23
  Speaker 2: give you homework. Okay, we're both going to have homework.
• 20:25
  Speaker 2: But if you don't do the first assignment, then how
• 20:28
  Speaker 2: can I rely on you? Right? What do you think
• 20:29
  Speaker 2: about that?
• 20:30
  Speaker 3: Oh? I think that a referral source, particularly when there's
• 20:36
  Speaker 3: a high value products and services being sold, it requires
• 20:42
  Speaker 3: trust between you and the referral source, and the referral
• 20:46
  Speaker 3: source and your ICP. So that kind of trust doesn't
• 20:51
  Speaker 3: happen overnight. So the establishing projects where you start working
• 20:58
  Speaker 3: with them to get a sense or how committed they are,
• 21:01
  Speaker 3: how curious they are, do they want to see you succeed?
• 21:05
  Speaker 3: I think that is critical, even before you go through
• 21:09
  Speaker 3: the process of doing that evaluation where you sit down
• 21:13
  Speaker 3: and talk about them being a potential referral source. I
• 21:16
  Speaker 3: think it's also important to take a moment to recognize
• 21:20
  Speaker 3: that there is a difference between an introduction introductions are
• 21:23
  Speaker 3: great and in B to B a real referral. The
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: difference being that an introduction is often just very top
• 21:37
  Speaker 3: of the funnel, whereas as a referral, particularly for a
• 21:42
  Speaker 3: high value B to B, a referral source is bringing
• 21:46
  Speaker 3: the opportunity right at the bottom of the funnel, and
• 21:49
  Speaker 3: that means that they already qualified the opportunity for you.
• 21:53
  Speaker 3: It means that your competitors are completely out of the
• 21:57
  Speaker 3: mix because your referral source has positioned you that way.
• 22:02
  Speaker 3: Means that the referral source understands that there is not
• 22:06
  Speaker 3: just a potential fit, but they understand your organization, they
• 22:11
  Speaker 3: understand the ICPECE organization, and they genuinely say, you know what,
• 22:16
  Speaker 3: there's a fit.
• 22:18
  Speaker 2: I like that, I like that. So this is this
• 22:20
  Speaker 2: is a real subtlety to this whole concept. Not only
• 22:23
  Speaker 2: are you evaluating on a sliding scale left to right
• 22:26
  Speaker 2: on you know, how you engage these partners, whether it's
• 22:29
  Speaker 2: an actual business or it's a client of yours, but
• 22:33
  Speaker 2: you're also saying and you're setting those upfront contract expectations
• 22:38
  Speaker 2: in the relationship. But what you're also talking about is
• 22:42
  Speaker 2: evaluating where those referrals sources are in the funnel, right
• 22:47
  Speaker 2: the classic funnel, top of funnel, middle of funnel, bottom
• 22:50
  Speaker 2: of funnel.
• 22:51
  Speaker 3: Where are you.
• 22:53
  Speaker 2: Expecting those referrals to come in at. Are they fully qualified,
• 22:57
  Speaker 2: ready to go, ready to buy, bottom of funnel, ready
• 23:00
  Speaker 2: to leave the activation phase of the customer journey and
• 23:05
  Speaker 2: move into conversion. And is your partner going to bring
• 23:08
  Speaker 2: you highly qualified leads that are ready to buy or
• 23:11
  Speaker 2: are they going to bring you top of funnel leads?
• 23:13
  Speaker 2: Which is fine, but both parties need to have an
• 23:16
  Speaker 2: expectation and maybe there's also a third angle to this too,
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Andrew Right, they could bring you a top of funnel referral,
• 23:23
  Speaker 2: but both of you had the expectation that you will
• 23:26
  Speaker 2: call upon that prospect together or that client together, and
• 23:29
  Speaker 2: they will do meetings with you to get them get
• 23:32
  Speaker 2: that prospect to bottom of funnel for you. Right, I mean,
• 23:37
  Speaker 2: I love this.
• 23:38
  Speaker 3: That's perfectly reasonable expectation to set. As the program becomes.
• 23:45
  Speaker 3: You spoke earlier about the strength of conversion, right, and
• 23:48
  Speaker 3: you were saying that our referrals bring in fifty plus
• 23:51
  Speaker 3: conversion in back our clients. It is an excess of
• 23:56
  Speaker 3: ninety percent because again it's focused on the bottom of
• 23:59
  Speaker 3: the funnel. I would encourage people who are thinking about
• 24:02
  Speaker 3: setting up a referral program think about where they want
• 24:06
  Speaker 3: people to come in at the funnel, because further on
• 24:08
  Speaker 3: down the funnel, less expenses involved for you. If you're
• 24:14
  Speaker 3: getting prospects at the bottom of the funnel, let the
• 24:17
  Speaker 3: competitors again are no longer in consideration, you don't have
• 24:22
  Speaker 3: to build name recognition. All those expenses in that time
• 24:26
  Speaker 3: is cut dramatically, and so a managed referral program that
• 24:31
  Speaker 3: converts that fires and all cylinders is one that says,
• 24:34
  Speaker 3: you know what we want the opportunities at the bottom
• 24:38
  Speaker 3: of the funnel, and let's manage those expectations. What do
• 24:41
  Speaker 3: you need referral source in order to bring us opportunities
• 24:45
  Speaker 3: at the bottom of the funnel.
• 24:47
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and probably what you're what you're doing in those
• 24:50
  Speaker 2: partner agreements too, is you could probably even have it
• 24:53
  Speaker 2: on a on a scale where look, if you bring
• 24:54
  Speaker 2: me top of funnel referrals, you'll get x percent of
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: U partner, you know, finders fell. However, you want a structure.
• 25:03
  Speaker 2: I mean, there are a lot of regulated industries where
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: it's not allowed, you can't do it, but you know,
• 25:08
  Speaker 2: as some sort of compensation for that referral. Whereas if
• 25:11
  Speaker 2: they bring you a referral that's that bottom of funnel,
• 25:14
  Speaker 2: fully qualified, ready to go, ready to buy, well, then
• 25:17
  Speaker 2: they should get a higher commission or some sort of benefit,
• 25:21
  Speaker 2: let's put it that way, benefit in the relationship right exactly.
• 25:24
  Speaker 3: Again, that's why we understand the willingness. The motivations we've
• 25:29
  Speaker 3: talked I think at previous episodes are there is a
• 25:33
  Speaker 3: cluster of motivation that goes on as to why people
• 25:37
  Speaker 3: refer and often, very often money is not the sole
• 25:44
  Speaker 3: reason why people refer so you have to understand those
• 25:47
  Speaker 3: other reasons why they're bringing opportunities that are ready to buy.
• 25:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I love this. So we have about a minute
• 25:57
  Speaker 2: left in the clock, Andrew, we really did a deep
• 26:00
  Speaker 2: dive I think on step four. Any final thoughts to
• 26:05
  Speaker 2: kind of summarize step four and we can always if
• 26:08
  Speaker 2: we miss something, we can always cover that in the
• 26:11
  Speaker 2: next episode. But well, any final thoughts for this episode
• 26:14
  Speaker 2: on step four? Arming the referral sources?
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: Sure, I would say again, managing expectations internally, so share
• 26:23
  Speaker 3: design an intake process for those referred clients. Right, The
• 26:29
  Speaker 3: people who are coming in via referral sources need to
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: be treated better then, and whatever that means to your organization.
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: That might be faster, it might be a brought on
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: with different people, whatever whatever it is, but they have
• 26:45
  Speaker 3: to be treated differently, and I would say better than
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: those that are coming in other sources.
• 26:51
  Speaker 2: I love it. I love it all right, Andrew, this
• 26:54
  Speaker 2: has been another fantastic episode. Every time we talk, I
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: just I can talk to you for hours just deep
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: diving referrals because it is such a fascinating and very
• 27:07
  Speaker 2: powerful tactic for business developers, and you heard it, folks,
• 27:12
  Speaker 2: Andrew said his clients get up to ninety percent conversion.
• 27:15
  Speaker 2: I mean, this is this is crazy. Imagine every referral
• 27:19
  Speaker 2: you get is pretty much a slam dunk in conversion.
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: And everybody wins. The customer wins, your partner wins, you win,
• 27:28
  Speaker 2: the community wins. I can't talk enough about the power,
• 27:33
  Speaker 2: the sheer power in Andrew's book again, it's called Get Referred.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: It's a number one bestseller on Amazon, five star raided.
• 27:42
  Speaker 2: It's available in kindle, paperback, very reasonably priced as well.
• 27:47
  Speaker 2: A paperback is right now listing in the US at
• 27:50
  Speaker 2: sixteen dollars and eighty cents nine to ninety nine and kindle,
• 27:54
  Speaker 2: you know, very accessible. He is available. Also a wonderful
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: person that you can reach out and engage on LinkedIn
• 28:02
  Speaker 2: and multiple sources. Andrew, how can folks follow your work?
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Connect with you?
• 28:07
  Speaker 3: Andrew b at to get for dot visite, want to
• 28:10
  Speaker 3: email me, Hey, reach out to me, tell me that
• 28:13
  Speaker 3: you heard me or I heard Tony and I go
• 28:17
  Speaker 3: on about referrals and I'm happy to spend some time
• 28:21
  Speaker 3: with you. And of course people can reach out to
• 28:23
  Speaker 3: me on LinkedIn. Yeah.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: Well, Andrew, thank you for that if you follow Andrew's work,
• 28:28
  Speaker 2: give him some likes, give this show like when we
• 28:31
  Speaker 2: post it, and if you're listening on Apple any other Spotify,
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: give us the thumbs up. That helps communicate this powerful
• 28:40
  Speaker 2: message that we have here at GBDA and on this
• 28:42
  Speaker 2: podcast to your other fellow business developers and at the
• 28:45
  Speaker 2: end of the day, we all get stronger together. BID
• 28:48
  Speaker 2: is a team sport. Andrew Z. Brown, you are a pro,
• 28:53
  Speaker 2: I gotta tell you, and it's always fun sport playing
• 28:57
  Speaker 2: with you. On these episodes, Folks, we'll jump into the
• 29:00
  Speaker 2: next phase of Andrews's referral management program. But if you
• 29:05
  Speaker 2: can't wait for that, grab his book again. It's available
• 29:08
  Speaker 2: on Amazon. It's called Get Referred Andrew Z.
• 29:12
  Speaker 3: Brown. Thank you, Sir Tony as always, thank you, Thank
• 29:15
  Speaker 3: you all.
• 29:18
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• 29:23
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• 29:27
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• 29:31
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