Latest / What is Business Development? / Episode 112: Part 4 How To Implement a Referral Management System with Andrew Z Brown

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Episode 112: Part 4 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
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  Speaker 1: the Global Business Development Association, delivering the strategies and tactics
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: to boost your career and corporate growth.
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: Hello BD pros, and welcome to the Global Business Development
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: Association podcast called What is Business Development? So let me
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  Speaker 2: ask you, wouldn't you like to get a lot more referrals?
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  Speaker 2: I'll bet you do, because if you've listen to those
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  Speaker 2: podcast you know referrals can get conversion rates up to
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  Speaker 2: sixty percent or more. That blows away any other BD
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  Speaker 2: tactic by orders of magnitude. And would you like to
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  Speaker 2: learn how to increase sales velocity, volume, and value from
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  Speaker 2: all those referrals, Well you can do that with our
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  Speaker 2: guest today, Andrew Z. Brown, the father of business the
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  Speaker 2: business Referral programs, and we're also going to highlight some
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  Speaker 2: key questions and answers from Andrew's book. Now, this book
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  Speaker 2: was published several months ago. It's top of the charts
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  Speaker 2: to Amazon bestseller, and this book, I'm a big fan
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  Speaker 2: of it, folks. You know I've had Andrew on the
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  Speaker 2: podcast multiple times. And the book is called Get Referred.
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  Speaker 2: It's available on Amazon and very accessible for you. You can
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  Speaker 2: access it and kindle and paperback, and it will teach
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  Speaker 2: you his seven step process for getting more referrals. And
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  Speaker 2: Andrew just to summarize real quickly his background. He's launched
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  Speaker 2: and promoted over two hundred products and services spanning fifteen
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  Speaker 2: industries across the globe. He's the author, of course, of
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  Speaker 2: the best seller Get Referred, and a number of other
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  Speaker 2: books that he's either authored co authored. He is the
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  Speaker 2: leading mind that I know of in the world for
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  Speaker 2: getting referred. So, Andrew Z. Brown, it's always a pleasure
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  Speaker 2: to have you back to the show, my friend. Folks,
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  Speaker 2: let's welcome Andrew back to the show.
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  Speaker 3: Tony, thank you very much. It's always a pleasure of
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  Speaker 3: being here and having a great conversation with you because
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  Speaker 3: I know that you corral and inspire a group of passionate,
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  Speaker 3: talented business developers around the world. So I'm it's always
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  Speaker 3: thrilled to getting a chance to speak to you and
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  Speaker 3: sharing insights with that.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you're always a gracious and generous guest, So Andrew,
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  Speaker 2: thank you. It's an honor to have you back. So Andrew,
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  Speaker 2: can you just kind of summarize where we left off,
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  Speaker 2: and folks, if you're listening to this podcast for the
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  Speaker 2: first time. As I indicated, Andrew has been on the
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  Speaker 2: show before. We've walked through his book in detail in
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  Speaker 2: multiple podcasts. And the reason why again is because referrals
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  Speaker 2: are so extremely powerful as a business developer, and at
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  Speaker 2: the end of the day, our mission as business developers
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  Speaker 2: it's not about converting and then leaving our clients. It's
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  Speaker 2: staying with our clients through the entire customer journey so
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  Speaker 2: that they become fans of our company and they provide
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  Speaker 2: referrals for us and folks. That is how companies exponentially
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  Speaker 2: grow is you create a community of raving fans that
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  Speaker 2: bring business to you. They are essentially your de facto
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  Speaker 2: outsourced business development team. So Andrew, walk us through your
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  Speaker 2: seven step process.
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  Speaker 3: Please.
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  Speaker 2: I have it up on the screen for folks that
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  Speaker 2: are just listening, and you don't you're not watching this
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  Speaker 2: in video. We're going to start off with a box
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  Speaker 2: number one at the top of the clock here, it's
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  Speaker 2: select initial goals. Andrew, quickly, can you summarize what that means?
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  Speaker 3: Sure, I know that might seem obvious, but a lot
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  Speaker 3: of organizations don't do that, and that is being very
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  Speaker 3: precise as to where you want to build business, the
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  Speaker 3: products of services that you want to actually sell with
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  Speaker 3: the different geograph geographies you want to sell, the types
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  Speaker 3: of audiences that you want to sell into. So come
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  Speaker 3: you define precisely the kinds of goals and targets that
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  Speaker 3: you want, because that's going to be our true north.
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  Speaker 3: We're going to keep on coming back to that whenever
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  Speaker 3: we're running a referral program and saying are we achieving those?
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  Speaker 3: And there are also other goals that extend beyond business development,
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  Speaker 3: but they also tend to help get internal buy in
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  Speaker 3: within an organization. So if you have, let's say a
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  Speaker 3: career development goals that you want for someone within your
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  Speaker 3: business development team to have them become better at stabishing
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  Speaker 3: managing great referrals, that would also be a goal that
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  Speaker 3: you would be coming back to and saying, hey, are
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  Speaker 3: we achieving those goals? So lots more around that, but
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  Speaker 3: that's that's it in.
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  Speaker 2: A nutshell, all right, And then the next step is
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  Speaker 2: step to get referral Ready what does that mean?
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  Speaker 3: Right? Well, everyone has awesome products and services and the
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  Speaker 3: organization is great we all we all know that, But
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  Speaker 3: are we as an organization fit worthy if you will
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  Speaker 3: of a of asking referral sources to really represent you
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  Speaker 3: your offering. So getting a referral ready is taking a
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  Speaker 3: look at some of your internal processes. We identify the
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  Speaker 3: specific processes you want to take a look at to
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  Speaker 3: see if you are prepared to handle the referrals that
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  Speaker 3: come in. And there are several steps, actually half a
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  Speaker 3: dozen or so. One of the key things is being
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  Speaker 3: able to identify how you're going to manage that referred
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  Speaker 3: business better than business opportunities that come from any other source.
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  Speaker 2: Because okay, great, now let's go to step number three.
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  Speaker 2: Please evaluate referral sources.
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  Speaker 3: So no referred business is going to come into your
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  Speaker 3: organization unless you referral sources has three qualities skills, willingness,
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  Speaker 3: and opportunities to refer And so you want to be
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  Speaker 3: able to have a discipline process by which you can
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  Speaker 3: evaluate potential referral source candidates.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, great, and then step four it's arm referral sources.
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  Speaker 3: So arming referral sources is making sure that there are
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  Speaker 3: some processes or activities in place to make sure that
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  Speaker 3: referrals can have what they need. Basic basic premises, having
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  Speaker 3: an ideal client profile. Have you got that in place.
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  Speaker 3: So that's you know, one of the again one of
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  Speaker 3: a handful of things that we want to provide referral sources,
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  Speaker 3: and that is based on number three, making sure that
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  Speaker 3: they've got the skills of willingness and opportunities.
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  Speaker 2: Okay great. And then step five is the secret sauce.
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  Speaker 2: It's activate referral sources. What's that mean?
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  Speaker 3: Okay? In a nutshell, activating them is taking all the
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  Speaker 3: learnings that you've done through the evaluating process and the
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  Speaker 3: arming process and coming up with a very bespoke approach
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  Speaker 3: that works on the strengths and weaknesses of the referral
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  Speaker 3: source and helping them be successful at referral. So that's
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  Speaker 3: going to be personalized for each referral source and it's
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  Speaker 3: going to be wildly different based again on their skills,
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  Speaker 3: their willingness and.
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  Speaker 2: Opportunities to Okay good. And then step six is measure results.
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  Speaker 3: And measure results again, remember those initial goals we set
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  Speaker 3: along to get the programs started. We want to be periodically.
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  Speaker 3: You use a scheduled process for measuring results as well
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  Speaker 3: as ad hoc and you want to measure your referral
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  Speaker 3: sources as well as your activities to make sure that
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  Speaker 3: they are supporting the goals. So that's why it's it's
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  Speaker 3: important since those goals that you set out are those
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  Speaker 3: things that you go to management and say, see where
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  Speaker 3: this process is actually working.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, great, and then let's bring it home with the
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  Speaker 2: final step step seven, which is hone your program.
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  Speaker 3: Right, and honing is exactly what it sounds like. We
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  Speaker 3: take a look at where we're performing well, where we're
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  Speaker 3: not performing. We need to take a look at some
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  Speaker 3: referral sources and say, you know what, we went through
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  Speaker 3: the valuation process and they're going like gangbusters. You know what,
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  Speaker 3: maybe they could be doing more. Maybe the referral sources
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  Speaker 3: that we've chosen need a bit of different type of support.
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  Speaker 3: So it is a learning and ongoing learning process.
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  Speaker 2: Okay, great, Well, so we walk through all seven stages
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  Speaker 2: of the process and ideally, if you successfully nagravigate all
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  Speaker 2: of those, you should start generating some high quality referrals
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  Speaker 2: on a consistent basis. Now, we've had number of podcasts
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  Speaker 2: where we walk through the different sections in detail. Now,
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  Speaker 2: I think in some of the feedback from those podcasts,
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  Speaker 2: you had some questions that were posed to you, and
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  Speaker 2: you have a very large client base and a large community,
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  Speaker 2: and folks frequently ask you questions about your referral management
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  Speaker 2: system and how to implement it. And we have some
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  Speaker 2: of those questions with us today, and let's just go
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  Speaker 2: through a Q and A where we'll talk about some
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  Speaker 2: of these questions and you can give us some answers
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  Speaker 2: and enlighten us a little bit more about how to
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  Speaker 2: address each one of these. So let's start off with
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  Speaker 2: question number one, Who are the best referral sources?
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  Speaker 3: Who are the the best referral sources? So, again, we
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  Speaker 3: did a lot of research in this, in addition to
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  Speaker 3: research with six hundred companies across industries, and they initially
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  Speaker 3: thought that existing clients or customers would be their best
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  Speaker 3: referral sources. However, while existing customers and clients can be
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  Speaker 3: awesome referral sources, types of people provide better and more
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  Speaker 3: frequent referrals. And again the process of going through evaluation.
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  Speaker 3: That's why a referral program is a necessary exercise or
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  Speaker 3: necessary discipline to find the best people. These tend to
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  Speaker 3: be people that are within your orbit, but who aren't clients.
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  Speaker 3: They tend to be professionals within your within your orbit.
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  Speaker 3: They can be previous, previous clients, uh, previous employees, members
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  Speaker 3: of the median suppliers. All of those have a better
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  Speaker 3: track record bringing consistent and profitable referred business. But again,
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  Speaker 3: but again, it's making sure that you give them what
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  Speaker 3: they need in order to succeed. And the flip side
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  Speaker 3: of that is who or the worst or why aren't clients,
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  Speaker 3: existing clients the best referral sources? And that's because they
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  Speaker 3: tend to know you. That's one reason they know your worts.
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  Speaker 3: And the other thing is that they don't want to
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  Speaker 3: refer you because you're so darn awesome.
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  Speaker 2: Well that's a little counter intuitive. Can you elaborate a
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  Speaker 2: little bit?
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  Speaker 3: Sure. I call it the babysitter effect that if you've
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  Speaker 3: ever if you're a parent and you have kids, it's
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  Speaker 3: Saturday nights and you want to go out, you call
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  Speaker 3: a babysitter. You're not going to lend that babysitter outes.
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  Speaker 3: You're not going to tell anyone else you have a
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  Speaker 3: great babysitter, because if you do, then the perception is
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  Speaker 3: that that person will go and serve someone else over you.
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  Speaker 3: So the fact that you're so amazing it is often
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  Speaker 3: a deterrent for people to actually recommend and refer you.
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  Speaker 2: That's a good business case for being exceptionally average. Don't
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  Speaker 2: be too good, folks, Uh, no, of course you want to.
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  Speaker 3: You want to.
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  Speaker 2: You want to hit home runs for your customers every day.
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  Speaker 3: So let's that you know that.
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  Speaker 2: That's a really interesting spin on referrals, and it kind
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  Speaker 2: of leads to the next question of Okay, so you've
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  Speaker 2: identified why people refer or why they don't refer. You've
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  Speaker 2: identified your best referral sources, but that doesn't necessarily mean
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  Speaker 2: that you will get a study stream of referrals. How
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  Speaker 2: do you ensure that you'll get referrals coming in from
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  Speaker 2: those referral sources, ideally on a regular basis?
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  Speaker 3: Right, So, one of the assumptions about referrals is that
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  Speaker 3: getting referrals is about persuasion, Right. It means perfecting that
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  Speaker 3: art to get people to advocate for you. But people
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  Speaker 3: who consistently refer you or you're offering organization need a
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  Speaker 3: different kind of support, and it has to be genuine support.
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  Speaker 3: So rather than look to how can we persuade people, right,
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  Speaker 3: it's imposing we need to get people to need to
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  Speaker 3: convince people, to convince others. What we want to do
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  Speaker 3: is actually look for ways to support people so that
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  Speaker 3: they want to and that they are able to refer you.
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  Speaker 3: And the big part of that is being respectful and
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  Speaker 3: treating referral sources with dignity and transparency. And so it's
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  Speaker 3: not about setting up a this dynamic where there's an
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  Speaker 3: expectation to bring in a certain type of business and
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  Speaker 3: they're on their own. They're not. They're an extension of
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  Speaker 3: you and your brand. They deserve support and they also
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  Speaker 3: deserve that. Again, I we we keep on hearing back
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  Speaker 3: from clients that the dignity and transparency that a good
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  Speaker 3: referral program has means that it is establishing a partnership.
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  Speaker 3: So rather than thinking of it as a persuasion project,
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  Speaker 3: it's oh, how can we support and make these this
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  Speaker 3: extension to our brand, these partners. How do we make
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  Speaker 3: them successful? Yeah?
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  Speaker 2: I like that. I like that. So, you know, obviously
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  Speaker 2: teaching them how to be successful refers. What about programs
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  Speaker 2: that routinely engage with them two request referrals from them?
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  Speaker 2: I suppose you know, you can probably put them in
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  Speaker 2: multiple bins and kind of categorize them and prioritize them.
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  Speaker 2: You have some that you know, you want to actively
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  Speaker 2: engage on a regular basis. These might be partners in
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  Speaker 2: your ecosystem where you probably plan a monthly meeting with them.
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  Speaker 2: You specifically identify possible referrals for both sides. You can
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  Speaker 2: send them referrals, they can send you referrals, and then
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  Speaker 2: you probably have like a second category or a priority
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  Speaker 2: of those that are they're referral sources, but they're they
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  Speaker 2: have neither the time or maybe the ability to provide
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  Speaker 2: consistent referrals and actively engage with you. But you want to,
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  Speaker 2: you want to touch base with them from time to time.
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  Speaker 2: I know this can kind of vary when you're talking
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  Speaker 2: the difference between consumers that are buying typical consumer products
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  Speaker 2: versus those that are buying say, complex enterprise solutions. You know,
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  Speaker 2: how do you kind of figure out how to prioritize them,
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  Speaker 2: How do you figure out what the right periodicity is
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  Speaker 2: so that you you have that respect as you said that,
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  Speaker 2: and that transparency so that you're not wearing them out
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  Speaker 2: or annoying it.
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  Speaker 3: Well, if you call I guess was stage four where
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  Speaker 3: you're arming your referral sources or phase four in that process.
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  Speaker 3: Part of that arming is being transparent and understanding the
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  Speaker 3: kind of check and the kind of timetable that will
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  Speaker 3: work for them. So and you manage expectations. We encourage
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  Speaker 3: actually establishing a contract between you and your referral source,
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  Speaker 3: and the degree to which that is formalized varies. We
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  Speaker 3: have in get and Get for there's actually a structure
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  Speaker 3: for a contract, but it is an exercise of going
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  Speaker 3: to managing expectations. And part of that expectations is the
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  Speaker 3: touch base, the reporting back, the kinds of support that
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  Speaker 3: they need. So it is again on B to B side,
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  Speaker 3: it's very bespoke, it is negotiated, it is contracted. It
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  Speaker 3: is a managing of those expectations to help understand how
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  Speaker 3: to engage with referral sources. Some referral sources really need.
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  Speaker 3: In fact, we found that those referral sources who ask
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  Speaker 3: for for support and ask for checking and to see
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  Speaker 3: how they're doing, those are the ones that are most
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  Speaker 3: invested and they're the most successful. The other thing that
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  Speaker 3: you touch upon, how mind, is that there are degrees
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  Speaker 3: of if you will referral. One that is often thrown
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  Speaker 3: into that category referral is an introduction. Can you introduce
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  Speaker 3: me to someone that is very valuable and not diminishing
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  Speaker 3: that at all. But that's different from a full throated support,
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  Speaker 3: whale timed band qualified referral where people where your referral
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  Speaker 3: source goes in and with a prospect and says, you
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  Speaker 3: know what you need these guys, You need them now,
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  Speaker 3: this is why you need them, this is how you
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  Speaker 3: best work with them, and there's a fit between your
• 19:31
  Speaker 3: two organizations, so don't waste. And then they're coming in
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  Speaker 3: and then that referral source actually being an extension of
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  Speaker 3: that sales process. So that's very different from them being asked, hey,
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  Speaker 3: would you mind introducing me to someone? Very different investment
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  Speaker 3: that someone has, and that idea of an introduction or
• 19:54
  Speaker 3: just being asking someone, hey, would you mind introducing me
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  Speaker 3: to someone in your network, that's a very different value
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  Speaker 3: that you as an organization needs to bring to both
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  Speaker 3: of those. Does that make sense.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great distinction, Andrew, and I think it's
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  Speaker 2: really important for business developers listening that you understand that
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  Speaker 2: when you simply ask for a partner or a client
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  Speaker 2: or prospect even to make an introduction for you, that's
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  Speaker 2: simply a warm intro, that's not a referral a referral is.
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  Speaker 2: As Andrews said, it's basically they're operating like an extension
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  Speaker 2: of your bad team. They are advocating for you. They are,
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  Speaker 2: whether upon request or just automatically on their own volition,
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  Speaker 2: reaching out to prospects good prospects for you. And that's
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: the other thing too. They know how to qualify the
• 20:43
  Speaker 2: really good fits for you, and so they're advocating. They're
• 20:47
  Speaker 2: making the business case that their connection should reach out
• 20:51
  Speaker 2: to you, and they are essentially delivering if you do
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  Speaker 2: it right, they're delivering highly engaged, highly qualified leads to you.
• 21:00
  Speaker 2: To that, friends, that's that's the secret sauce of Andrew's book,
• 21:05
  Speaker 2: his system. You know, I could Andrew and I we
• 21:09
  Speaker 2: were joking before the show. Here we could talk for hours.
• 21:14
  Speaker 2: And he's just so fascinating. And if you want to
• 21:17
  Speaker 2: learn some more fascinating things from Andrew, get a copy
• 21:21
  Speaker 2: of his book. Again, it's Get Referred. It's available on Amazon.
• 21:25
  Speaker 2: Just type in get referred and add Andrew's name Andrew Z.
• 21:30
  Speaker 3: Brown.
• 21:30
  Speaker 2: It'll pop right up. And hey, while you're at it
• 21:33
  Speaker 2: on Amazon, grab a copy of the Business Development Body
• 21:37
  Speaker 2: of Knowledge so you can pop up your business development
• 21:41
  Speaker 2: capabilities today read the book, and then after you're done
• 21:44
  Speaker 2: reading it, you can take the Business Development Professional Certification
• 21:48
  Speaker 2: online at the GBD Association website. Just go to Gbdassociation
• 21:53
  Speaker 2: dot org to grab your copy and get your BDP
• 21:57
  Speaker 2: certification today. And Hey, folks, if you got a lot
• 22:01
  Speaker 2: out of this show and you've been listening to this
• 22:02
  Speaker 2: podcast for a while, subscribe like it, give us some
• 22:06
  Speaker 2: great comments and send some questions to Andrew Z. Brown. Andrew,
• 22:11
  Speaker 2: how can folks get ahold of you and connect with
• 22:14
  Speaker 2: you and follow your work.
• 22:15
  Speaker 3: By all means? Welcome everyone from the network two fast ways,
• 22:22
  Speaker 3: one through LinkedIn or my email Andrew B at get
• 22:29
  Speaker 3: referred dot biz.
• 22:31
  Speaker 2: Well Andrew, thank you so much for joining us on
• 22:34
  Speaker 2: the show yet again. Always fascinating, always a joy to
• 22:39
  Speaker 2: talk to you. Can't wait to have you back on
• 22:41
  Speaker 2: the show again sometime soon. Andrew, Thank you so much,
• 22:45
  Speaker 2: Thanks so much, Tony, Thank you everyone.
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: Thank you for listening to the Business Development Podcast. Join
• 22:54
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• 22:58
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